Radiohead - A Punch-Up at a Wedding

Punch Up at the Wedding is quite good and the final mastered version does, ahem, pack more of a punch than the initial mp3s did.

Agreed. Great song. "Dance you fuckers."

As a stand-along song, I do like it. However, it's the only one with predominant use of acoustic guitar and it really sticks out to me in a bad way -- as if it's just thrown in there. It sure as hell doesn't sound right coming after "Backdrifts," and it doesn't lead into "Where I End and You Begin" all that well.

and what happened to 2+2=5, andy? you are leaving out the hail to the thief song there. any political or musical reasons?

Again, as a stand-alone song, there's nothing wrong with it. I prefer "Sit Down. Stand Up" as the album's beginning. While I was fiddling around with various sequences, "2 + 2 = 5" only seemed right as the first song. So out it went. As I said on one of the other R'head threads, I thought the album was re-starting with a new first song the first time I heard "Sit Down" come after "2 + 2 = 5." Both songs build up and build up and build up and explode near the end, which has to be the second strangest aspect of the actual sequence (after the fact that it all adds up to a 56-minute album).

"Go to Sleep" and "2 + 2 = 5," with minor adjustments, would've made for great non-album singles. I blame a lot of these overlong albums on the death of the non-album single. If a band comes up with an album's worth of material that fits perfectly together, they're pretty much fucked if a couple of the best songs from the sessions don't fit into a good sequence. What are they going to do? Leave them as B-sides for the A-sides off the album? Not likely. Instead, they'll put out a cluttered album like Hail to the Thief. Square pegs, etc.

and no wolf at the door? wtf? that seems to me to be the best song on the album and maybe my favorite radiohead song yet.

The sound of the chorus -- not the words that make it up -- annoys me. Plus, as I went on, I found myself moving "Punchup" closer and closer to the end of the album. By the time I was done, it sounded really good as a closer, much better than "Wolf". Another sequence I found to be almost as fitting had "Punchup" second to last, with "I Will" after it.

Will no one fight for "Scatterbrain"? That's the only song that left me completely indifferent.

The sequence I came up with puts most of the electronics-dominated songs up front on the first 'side'. I do think "I Will" doesn't feel completely at home coming after "Myxomatosis," but as such a spare, quiet song, it works really well going into "Where I End and You Begin."

Admittedly a lot of this re-shuffling and "Where oh where is the 40-minute album?" nonsense makes me sound like a cranky old man. Who listens to albums anymore? Most Radiohead fans will probably just skip around the disc to the songs they want to hear when they want to hear them -- and since there really isn't much in the way of filler, they'll be perfectly content doing just that. We're obviously in a different time and it's less about albums and more about songs and quick fixes, etc. The "album" is such a tired idea, so why not fill out a disc to capacity and have the listener sort through the mess to find her or his favorite songs?

I find it a little strange how the fall of the carefully-sequenced 40-minute album (I suppose it's been happening for well over a decade now), along with the popularity of MP3s, has coincided with the rise of dance music. DJs get criticized for a poor sequence or for not building a good continuous flow ("It wasn't a good EXPERIENCE!"), but many of the same people who expect certain things from a night out would rather have a 70-minute album with a bunch of filler than a 40-minute album with a fitting running order and all the fat trimmed off.

Hail To The Thief itself is, as I am discovering, Radiohead's second-best album behind Airbag/How Am I Driving, JUST about beating OKC into third, with Kid A really not far behind either. (Respectively, 9.7, 9.3, 9.2, and 8.9, to be Pitchfork about it).

But yeah, back to APAAW. After a perfect intro it slinks into the most laconic of piano/bass grooves, but our expectations are instantly confounded by a chorus of Thom Yorke 'No's. During the verse, the initially laid-back groove is offset by ominous minor-key chords played at the start of each line. This tension is further heightened by the delicate guitar during the chorus, and, of course, the darkly furious lyrics (sung, I have to say, amazingly well). This song's methods are incredibly subtle, but the incremental building of tension is incredibly-managed until an equally-subtle letting-off during the outro (when the mesmeric beat is upholstered with skittish keyboards, accompanied by some quiet feedback squeals and descending Yorke chants, which mirror the NOES of the start). Alongside Sit Down. Stand Up, There There and the last two tracks, we're talking musical brilliance.