RAdiohead

Here we go again.

I like Radiohead -- Amnesiac was my favorite release of last year, and Kid A was high up on my 2000 list -- but I'm not really the kind of person who hunts down mp3s of unreleased tracks. I'd rather wait for the record and hear the songs in their finished versions. (Yeah, I know... "Aren't you special?")

To listen to a new song live, to experience it, to watch it unfold, to hear it change as it is reworked is a magical, wonderful thing. It's one of the joys of following unsigned bands is that they lack the fear and/or resources so they are more likely to do it in public.

But to record a live song, distribute it and critique it before the artist has had the chance to stand back from the painting and go "There, OK, that's done" seems kind of unfair. Both to the artist, who is being interrupted, and to the song, which may or may not take a completely different shape eventually.

Listening to works in progress is wonderful, but trying to pin them down and dissect them seems, well ... I'm not going to say disrespectful, but it does seem kind of ... pointless? Self defeating? What's the word I'm looking for?

That said, no I've not seen Radiohead on this tour, nor heard any of the tunes.

I would hope so I really do.

you couldn't resist it could you melissa.

''Scatterbrain: Sounds like the physical act of crying. A dischordant ballad with no way out. The aftermath of a storm.''

this is such a cliched description I don't even know where to begin. Get your head checked melissa.

''Up On The Ladder: Starts poorly, Radiohead try the whole "rocking out" thing again. Fail. But the ending is beautiful, desperate, his voice over mournful synth chords. A song about immense disappointment.''

Pushing the 'sad chords' triggers again. Mournful, desperation, dissapointment. sob, sob, sob...all the way to the bank we go.

''Where I End and You Begin: The day the earth stood still. The Ondes-Martenot keens its unearthly cry. The song is a sentinel, a prison.''

''Wolf at the Door: Each word is a knife. An impossibly hurt, fearful song.''

er...more crying then. I'm beginning to think Thom Yorke wasn't breast fed when he was a baby.

''A Punch Up At A Wedding: The most seethingly angry song I've ever heard. On the surface, it's all insistent beat, slightly rollicking piano, and bass. But it's coming apart at the seams. It's ready to rip your throat out.''

yes but angry at what. Is it like an adolescent who is just angry for no reason or is it actually anger at something specific. This is all bullshit.

''Go to Sleep: Eastern-inflected roots rock song. Dull, really.''

b-but why is it dull? don't just leave it at that.

and on it fucking goes...I avoided the golden jubilee but there's too many institutions and you can't avoid it all.

There, There - bit of a homage to Adam and the Ants circa Kings of the Wild Frontier featuring Ed and Jonny on JAMC Bobby Gillespie style stand up drums with a top acending climax - a fitting opener

Scatterbrain - needs a lot of work and doesn't really go anywhere.

Up on the ladder - pretty rocky with thom doing his 'you and whose army' unfocused anti blair schtick

We suck young blood - slow and swinging with harmonies from phil and ed (phil was wearing an amusing madonna style headset during his backing vox)

I will - an old song, briefly featured in the 'Meeting people is easy' doc with lovely harmonies from Thom and Ed

Myxamotosis - fairly fast rocky number with Ed playing a les paul (surely a first).

going for some lunch now, will post my thoughts on the rest later

melissa, thank you putting up your descriptions.

Melissa couldn't resisit it and nor could I.

''(This is why I don't post on ILM.)''

ILM isn't a radiohead list. Or a keiji haino list. Or improv or free jazz, etc. fans and non-fans of everything to do with [x] are here and when a thread is opened by soemone and I feel the need to comment I will do so.

I'm not 'pissing', I'm just adding my thoughts on your descriptions. Sorry about the 'checking your head' line though.

when you describe a song as ''The most seethingly angry song I've ever heard'' then I want to know at what as well.

irony = julio's stance as radiohead hata being JUST as cliched and as ho hum as he wants (hopes?) the new songs to be. he HASN'T EVEN HEARD THEM and yet he took time out to bash the fecking DESCRIPTIONS. and why?

its one thing to be convinced that radiohead are inauthentic or overrated; its another entirely to pounce like a wolf on anybody else who sees something in them, especially when the crux of that fan-music connection is one borne out of vulnerability.

he (or anyone else) can take the sadness, confusion, anger, fear and deride it, mock it, HATE it all he wants. me, i'll take it (as well as the songs) and celebrate it all. not because i'm a sad moany bastard (really, i'm not) but because the alternative, to deny all of that, is too ugly and dark and boring to bear.

Jules: "Get your head checked melissa" constitutes personal attack with intent. But what's this claptrap about banning the guy??? Tell me that's a fucking joke. I thought what he said was valid ranting.

And right-on Mark P - you are on the money.

yeah. I've heard everything they've done up to this and when I saw the descriptions it just reminded of the past. Irony indeed.

''its one thing to be convinced that radiohead are inauthentic or overrated; its another entirely to pounce like a wolf on anybody else who sees something in them, especially when the crux of that fan-music connection is one borne out of vulnerability.''

i did not intend to 'pounce'. I didn't know it was borne out of some 'vulnerability'.

''he (or anyone else) can take the sadness, confusion, anger, fear and deride it, mock it, HATE it all he wants.''

I love or hate a lot of music with nothing in between, which is unfortunate sometimes.

melissa- hope you accept my apologies.

''"Get your head checked melissa" constitutes personal attack with intent.''

yeah, and I apologised for that.

okay i'm going into this with a megapint of haterade and even i can't front on "thin thing."

whoo that is some psychotic hypnotic post-kraut ephemera. megajam.

listening again.

like if you told me this was a kid a outtake, i would believe it completely. easy highlight.

second half of the album is way better, but it still feels like maybe a solid 3 mic side project to me. makes sense that they're playing thom's solo material live - that's what it reminds me of most. not bad, though it's not hitting me like anima did at first. that one's lustre wore off with repeat listens for me, so maybe i'll revisit and compare with this again. it's alright though - pretty good, i guess. sorry again for my outburst re:jg upthread. he might be a jerk, but whatever fine, he's in the band whether or not it bugs me so i might as well listen.

thin thing is fuckin incredible

This album is great!

they're not playing any other thom solo stuff live (would have thought "cymbal rush" would be a reasonable chance though) & "feeling pulled apart by horses" is one of thom's solo tracks that started off as a radiohead song & jonny has a writing credit on it & played on the studio version

I'd put Atoms for Peace and this ahead of King of Limbs, easily.

i wouldn't, at all.

they're not playing any other thom solo stuff live (would have thought "cymbal rush" would be a reasonable chance though) & "feeling pulled apart by horses" is one of thom's solo tracks that started off as a radiohead song & jonny has a writing credit on it & played on the studio version

― ufo, Tuesday, May 17, 2022 7:36 PM

yeah, i always liked thom's recording of that song, but i hardly ever put it on. something about his "thom" material just doesn't keep my attention for very long.

That song “feeling pulled apart by horses” is the original Reckoner and the one where the IR “Reckoner” came from.

The intro to “feeling pulled apart by horses” is the section where Reckoner came from. You can sort of hear it on the outro to the latter, however who knows what those initial demos of the song sounded like, I guess they used to be in the same key before being different songs.

I think Jonny also has a writing credit on The Eraser’s title track.

Would be amazing to see them try that one on this new setting but I don’t think they’ll do it.

HTTT is probably the most similar one to OKC, but where OKC is oddly digestible and fun to listen to all the way through, HTTT makes for an exhausting listen and is way too morose in comparison.
moka always otm wrt radiohead

Thin Thing is very good, a highlight for sure, but when it comes to 'psychotic hypnotic post-kraut ephemera megajams' it has maybe a tenth of the intensity of, say, Oranssi Pazuzu. and maybe that's okay - not everyone is required to like metal vocals ;)

I think Jonny also has a writing credit on The Eraser’s title track.

iirc it was just thom sampled the piano chords from jonny noodling around on the piano

"the opposite" and "thin thing" are both onto something but end up a little, well, thin. "a hairdryer" just sounds like a king of limbs outtake (though with less percussion)

(except more tippytapping)

A friend asked me about the time signatures on this record (or rather asked if someone on reddit was right), so I took a listen:

The Same: 4/4
The Opposite: 4/4
YWNWITA: 5/4
Pana-Vision: 7/8
The Smoke: 4/4
Speech Bubbles: 4/4
Thin Thing: 6/8 or 12/8, but I consider those pretty much synonymous with 4/4 and with each other, it's just a matter of how you prefer to think about it.
Open The Floodgates: 4/4
Free In The Knowledge: 4/4
A Hairdryer: 4/4
Waving A White Flag: 11/4, or a phrase consisting of a bar of 6/4 + a bar of 5/4. But that's all the same thing really.
WDKWTB: 4/4
Skrting On The Surface: 11/8

hard record to tippytap my foot to, sheesh

And when you add them all together, you get a sum time signature of 68/64

Making the average time signature for this album a cool 17/16

lol

Struck hard by “Open the Floodgates” this morning

Best song in here

Fantano gave his review already and it’s not so surprising that I don’t agree with 90% of his takes. The songs he doesn’t highlight are my favorite ones in here.

He has plenty of wrong Radiohead related takes.

Also OTF has the distinction of stealing its first couplet from Roxette

just gonna say singing "look at all the pretty lies" in a creepy "insane" voice earns an instant skip from me, I don't care what the rest of the track is doing.

The smoke kind of sounds like Sault

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C06Rr2nFXk0

you will never work in television live on fallon

How great it would be if they honored the song’s title and the performance ended with them kicking Fallon out of the studio.

The Smile is showing up all over these end of the year critics lists. I haven't played it yet but reading a bit up thread it sounds like I need to rectify that.

Anyone seen The Smile live? Thanks to work discounts, my SRO ticket was only $5 for tomorrow in Chicago but I'm waffling on attending; the venue is 50 minutes away by bus, it's 30°F degrees out, and I work the next day. I've listened to the album two or three times--I enjoy listening to it but little of it sticks in my head afterward. Mostly bought the ticket since I rekindled my high school Radiohead fandom last year and figure this was the nearest I'd get to seeing Radiohead again.

Could be the closest anyone gets again, who knows. Would go.

Seems a bit overrated in year end roundups (critic demographics?) but I like the record a lot.

Yeah, the strong appearances on the year-end lists so far is pretty surprising. I'll have to revisit it myself - I liked it but haven't felt compelled to put it on again.

I think it's a pretty good record, but I do think part of the EOY hype is partly more Radiohead wish fulfillment.

I have to be honest - something’s missing from the record for me. It’s not a bad record at all, just hard to get excited about this music somehow. Returned to it while finalizing lists and it may not appear in albums or tracks.

But: maybe seeing them live would change that? I don’t know.

Well Radiohead always consistently killed it during the stretch when I saw them live and when I saw Yorke in the solo (well, trio) setup a few years back pre COVID it was a very compelling show; on that level I'm looking forward to this, and have my tickets for the show on the 18th here.

A friend of mine saw them in Boston. Said Thom seemed super happy not to have to play any Radiohead stuff.

I'm seeing the Smile next weekend at one of the Denver shows. Will do my best to report back.

RAdiohead seemed to be having a great time on their last tour in 2018. I caught the Peru show.

Agree with this article about it being ok if there's no more Radiohead,for,er,now. Though since I can't catch a show I'm not listening to the brand new stuff at all.

https://www.stereogum.com/2207252/the-smile-concert-review/reviews/concert-review/

blatherskite, did you go? worth the $5?

Wasn't there a good essay from several months ago positing that Radiohead had *already* broken up and just not announced it yet? Yes:

https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/radiohead-never-coming-back-17274731.php

I thought it was agreed upon on ilm a while back?

Maybe you're thinking of the ILM consensus that "Surfin' Bird" is better than the entire Radiohead catalog.

who knows who cares god bless em is how it's broken down to an extent

I got the impression Radiohead was never going to "break up" in the conventional sense. Like instead of trying to stay together as a unit continuously, they just lead their own lives/careers and come together whenever they feel like doing an album and accompanying tour?

i'd still expect they'll make a new album in a few years once thom & jonny are ready to take a break from the smile

I wouldn't be surprised if they never came out with another album of new material, although I could see them touring behind something else (maybe some sort of anniversary collection or recording different versions of old material).

But then again, I also wouldn't be surprised if they did. They know better than to "retire" and act like the door is closed.

it just seems like the main reason we haven't gotten a new album yet is that they weren't all able to meet up to write & record during the pandemic so thom & jonny formed the smile which has taken up their time & energy since then. they were planning to tour in 2021 before the pandemic happened, they haven't all lost interest in the band or anything, just the usual schedule was disrupted by the pandemic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2M3oaGJb48

It’s a weird take to say that the last track (true love waits) sounds like a closer to their career because pretty much every Radiohead closing track from The Bends onwards could serve this purpose.

Well, there is also the symbolic weight of it being an old song that long struggled for a place on an album and then finally got it, (literally) at last.