Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool

i too would like to get to narnia

In Rainbows has some of my favourite production on a pop record ever!

I forgot all about the weird song choices and sequencing for 'In Rainbows'. I ended up making my own, with songs from 'Disc 2,' and forgot that wasn't the normal sequence!

01. 15 Step
02. Bangers & Mash
03. Up On the Ladder
04. Nude
05. Arpeggi
06. Mk. 1
07. Videotape
08. Faust Arp
09. Reckoner
10. Go Slowly
11. House of Cards
12. 4 Minute Warning

I don't remember dryness being an issue per se, just. . . boring production? But on the whole the songs are so much stronger than 'Hail to the Thief' that I felt reasonably content with the record at the time. But it's far more settled-in and comfortable, a "rock record," more than 'A Moon Shaped Pool'. .

the thing was just never immersive for me like every other Radiohead record. i agree that the production is boring, also a record can sound dry even w/ reverb - the production on In Rainbows sounds like preset ProTools plugins. Calling it a radio session is a pox on radio sessions - In Rainbows isn't even super saturated like a good Peel Session. Dog Latin's point about the sequencing is spot on, it just drops off, and imo a lot of the best stuff (Last Flowers til the Hospital, Down is the New Up, Bangers & Mash, Up on the Ladder) was relegated to the bonus disc. But I like every song on Hail to the Thief more than anything on In Rainbows proper, though Last Flowers til the Hospital is one of my favorite Radiohead songs ever.

I've never listened to Bryan Adams. 😜

do you not have the same issues with boring production with the bonus disc?

Yeah. But I find the songs more compelling.

And I think the production serves Last Flowers til the Hospital really well.

That's cool.

So. . . uhm. . . the whole Narnia thing, then?

I've got your back on In Rainbows flappy, there are some really character-free, home recording-ish drum sounds on that record. Not all of it - 'Reckoner' sounds amazing, with a cool crushed kit sound smashed to one one side and one of the best tambourine sounds ever on the other. But Weird Fishes and some of the others have that super dry drum sound that I'm not into. I'm sure a lot went into it but it sounds like throwing up some 57s and calling it a day.

Flappy bird, Jordan, might it be the relatively flat dynamics of In Rainbows pressing your buttons? Everything sounds a bit boxed and breathless overall, it's the one thing I would change about the album, which I think if push came to shove is my favourite. However I'm one of those people who found them bombastic up until Kid A, which changed my opinion drastically, and thus my feelings about HTTT and IR are almost the perfect inverse of FB's, excepting that I agree "Last Flowers" is wonderful. Would not change a molecule of "Weird Fishes" which is a lock for my all-time top ten.

I'm sure a lot went into it but it sounds like throwing up some 57s and calling it a day.

otm. i really liked all the IR songs when I heard the summer 2006 shows, and I probably listened to the March 2005 orchestral performance of Arpeggi hundreds of times before I heard that wack ass version on the record. So my hostility towards IR has a lot to do with living with the songs for a year or two and having preconceived notions about how they would sound. And it's not like I married to any one arrangement or sound - I was just expecting something a little less brittle and amateur sounding. I don't know how anyone could prefer the album version of Arpeggi to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsYTXqVySy0

Otm, orchestral radiohead needs to happen on a future basis

Ha Ha Ha, Oh Wow

Sorry shd say full time basis but whatever

The production on 'Weird Fishes/Arpeggi' could not be more on the money, IMO. I really wouldn't want it to sound any other way - besides, I generally trust Radiohead's judgement with regards to the final versions of their tracks.

I certainly trust it more than the judgement of someone that can't comprehend that wet =/= dry, anyway.

I listened to In Rainbows yesterday. The production isn't the problem at all - it's lush - but it's the fact the songs qua songs are a bit boring. Yorke's lyrics are at their most obfuscated and most of the tunes are based on a repetitious riff that goes on for an interminable amount of time. The production saves it, but they'd sound awfully dull on acoustic. I don't think that would be the case with AMSP songs which seem more considered and structured-out

yesterday's show opened with Daydreaming, but instead of going into Desert Island Disk afterwards they did Lucky! Twas then I knew we were in for a treat... check out this encore:

Encore:
You and Whose Army?
There There
Paranoid Android
Lotus Flower
Karma Police

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/radiohead/2017/adalen-aarhus-denmark-13e751a5.html

ooof! Three of my favourite songs in there. I've still not seen them live yet, despite being a fan for at least 22 years..

Yorke's lyrics are at their most obfuscated

You say that like it's a bad thing. In Rainbows is their best. I'm not an audiophile like some here, but the production sounds great to me.

what is the difference between an 'arrangement' and a 'song' xxxxxxxp

The song is the chords, melody and lyrics. The arrangement is the cellos and wooshing noises etc.

wooshing noises probably better ascribed to "production" as opposed to "arrangement" if we're going to be pedants

I'm working through the Radio head albums this week. my god King of Limbs is a terrible album. what the heck is Feral all about? Why those drums on In Bloom? How was Codex even considered to be anything other than a b-side? I'll keep Give Up the Ghost and Little by Little. The rest is just bad

this makes in bloom make a lot more sense. this album is sort of radiohead trying to be 'remain in light' era talking heads i think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2084nQbmvk

in fact this video is about 10x better than the album track

That version of Bloom is phenomenal. It sounds like the universe being born. The studio cut is a damp fart in comparison.

what the heck is Feral all about?

At last me a DL agree on something Radiohead related. It's maybe the most nothingy thing they've ever done. I think it's maybe supposed to be their take on dubstep?

Lotus Flower is great though. Such a seductive little melody on the verses.

Problem with Radiohead is that when they try and 'be' people (like Talking Heads or Aphex Twin) they usually end up sounding like they missed the point. In Bloom sounds like something off Byrne's Catherine Wheel album but with all the funky low end stripped out. Similarly, Radiohead's IDM and dubstep moments felt like copycatting, with none of the charm left in.

I certainly trust it more than the judgement of someone that can't comprehend that wet =/= dry, anyway.

― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Monday, June 12, 2017 2:26 AM (ten hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i understand that there is reverb on All I Need. it still sounds airless and artificial and like a ProTools preset. i.e. amateurish, home recording, radio session, whatever. it's not the reverb on Exit Music, for example.

Similarly, Radiohead's IDM and dubstep moments felt like copycatting

I think this is unfair on the IDM front. You don't like Everything in its Right Place or Idioteque?

yeah I was gonna say I feel like "Idioteque" was a huge gamble that paid off. But reading criticism from the time and even posts from here, people that were already super familiar with Warp and BoC and RDJ were rolling their eyes at Kid A. makes sense to me, but as a kid, those records where they go off in all these different directions (even the jazzy song at the end of Amnesiac) were a great gateway.

the criticism of kid a for supposedly trying and failing to rip off can, autechre, alice coltrane remains the dumbest fucking thing i've ever heard in my life. it was a common critical trope back then and it still bubbles up today like a piece of shit squeezing up out of the back of toddler underwear

the only common early 2000s pop criticism that is at the same level of wrongness is the thing where everyone said interpol was a joy division ripoff band, and i don't even like interpol

"turn down the protools preset knob on the reverb. yes. now max out the 'air' dial. precisely. now please do flip the toggle switch from amateurish to professional."

I was one of the eye-rollers but I always liked EIIRP and Idioteque. When I say IDM/post-dubstep, I mean songs like Pull-Pulk Revolving Doors, Kid A, the Eraser album, lots of TKOL and whatnot. It's not terrible, just not very convincing or satisfying or better than the music it's being influenced by.
Radiohead are definitely 'record-collection rock' and sometimes it works great (AMSP has lots of little tribute moments filtering throughout) but I do think they're at their best when they're trying to 'be Radiohead'

the only common early 2000s pop criticism that is at the same level of wrongness is the thing where everyone said interpol was a joy division ripoff band, and i don't even like interpol

― Karl Malone, Monday, June 12, 2017 1:27 PM (twenty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm i never understood this

"turn down the protools preset knob on the reverb. yes. now max out the 'air' dial. precisely. now please do flip the toggle switch from amateurish to professional."

― Gaspard de la Nuit: III. ScarJost (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, June 12, 2017 1:44 PM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"Can you make the snare sound more yellow?" - Julian Casablancas

I am a King of Limbs defender and even I will concede that the Basement version of 'Bloom' makes a sick joke of the album version.

tbf the drums on KoL sound much, much worse than on In Rainbows

I was one of the eye-rollers but I always liked EIIRP and Idioteque. When I say IDM/post-dubstep, I mean songs like Pull-Pulk Revolving Doors, Kid A, the Eraser album, lots of TKOL and whatnot.

So basically, you don't like Radiohead doing IDM except when you do.

The textures and sounds they were using may have been borrowed fairly closely from various Warp artists, but they were the first artists that I'm aware of that convincingly combined those things with traditional pop/rock song structures, which is not to be sniffed at.

the "new" songs sound amazing on this current tour

Surprisingly few MSP songs performed when I saw them in Manchester last year - I think only Daydreamer and Ful Stop.

Was a pretty OKC heavy set, actually. Let Down and Lucky as first two songs.

I guess I’m never going to see Radiohead. What do you think the chances are that they make another record or tour again?

...why wouldn't they?

very high

Vaguely recall talk of scaling back touring when AMSP came out, they didn’t do many shows in America in 2016 iirc but they have hit the road since then more than they let on. Also you just never know - they’re all 50 or approaching, and the gaps between albums get longer and longer.

I think that every time they say it might be their last album, but that's just what they need to tell themselves in order to do it.

flappy you will see them