Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool

Timecop 2: Present Tense

Presenting Punch

presentensity

Punch head

Some classics from the back catalogue did hint at this new direction -

Every kick in its Right Place
Roundhouse of Cards
Subterranean Spinkick Alien

It goes back even further. Who doesn't remember Creep Up On Your Adversary And Sweep The Leg

Yeah their second album also hinted at the influence

(Nice Kick)
My Iron Fist
Bullet Proof... I know I Am
Black Belt
Street Spirit (Punch Out)

When Thom Yorke’s first solo album was announced critics and fans where nervous about the title “The Eraser” hinting he was going for a Schwarzenegger influence to separate his own brand, but relaxed when the tracklist rolled out and Black Eagle, Punches for Peace, And it Kicked All Night meant the Van Damme influence was still firm in his heart.

A Punchup at a Wedding

Street Spirit (Punch Out)

― ✖✖✖ (Moka)

Sorry, stupid autocorrect. This is actually called “Street Fighter (Punch Out)”

Kyxomatosis

Pop (Your Shoulder Out Of Joint Then Snap Your Neck By Twisting Your Head Between My Palms) Is Dead

The Kick Of Limbs

Kick A

Don't get my kicks hangin out the 15th floor

I missed this back in May but it's a great little reflective (!) piece: https://www.gq.com/story/radiohead-a-moon-shaped-pool-secret-goodbye-five-year-anniversary

Very nicely put. Whether 'A Moon Shaped Pool' was Radiohead's last or not--I agree it feels final. For me, it rekindled my love for the band, so critical to my import-only-single-chasing youth, after the previous several (actually, large chunks of everything since 'Hail To the Thief') had left me somewhat cold. It felt like mature work, less busy chasing something its constituents wished to be (i.e. avant-garde electronic act, "funky," non-melody-based, rock-out anthemers) and just felt like they are. And yet it felt no less complex than they'd been post-'Bends,' just more coherent. It felt freed--of expectations, of expectations to defy expectations. Somehow the successful fruition of 'True Love Waits'--far more poignant, as sung by an older man in the midst of loss of love, than in the youthful earnestness of its earliest incarnation--does indeed feel like a "completion" of the band.

(My feelings about the album are colored by how I listen. I've ultimately decided to remove 'Burn The Witch' and think of it as an excellent b-side, as it's a false start to the mood, tone and sound of the album; and I add 'Ill Wind' inserted in alphabetical order, which fits perfectly.)

Agreed, I suspect most people skip BtW (as good as it is in isolation).

i skip BtW as well

lol, i was watching this video linked to in that piece above, about the secrets of the video for "Daydreaming", and after having to turn it off part-way through (try to guess if you end up watching it, and I'd like to know what's after it!), I realized that I had the exact same experience with this video a few years ago, turning it off at the same point

https://vimeo.com/178823364

um... "inspired by the subreddit"?

let's just say it focuses on the number 6 - a number which can be made from other numbers

i... think if you finish it its power over you will diminish

thanks cuz it's interesting and i hadnt heard of it

i'm always into it until it suddenly goes onto that tangent, i just can't with numerology when it gets to the "hotel door 123 is 1*2*3 = 6", because then i have to think "yeah and 1+2+3=6 too" and feel very sad

i can remember loads of speculation around the album release that it was the end. Then they toured. And toured again? And Thom made another album. And they toured again? And also The Smile. and.... god bless em

i do wonder if it is true, as the rumors say, that phil, colin, and ed have all been sacked

xp They go into the half my life bit but that's obvious... but what i didn't clie into before was that Radiohead was also half of Thom's years at that point, and then they go into was that literal, professional half of his life what undid his relationship and bla bla bla don't think it was any more numbers

5 minutes three plus Nigel well that's Jesus isn't it

5 minus. I'm putting down my phone goodnight

they go into was that literal, professional half of his life what undid his relationship

has thom yorke ever talked about what undid their relationship, though? i haven't been reading all their press like i used to back in the day, but it doesn't seem like something he'd be that open about. but maybe, who knows

5 - Nigel = 6
Nigel = -1

the video is saying that nigel is the "negative force" in thom's life. it is nigel that undid the relationship

not by anything that nigel did, but how his negative force corrupted their relationship

Burn the Witch is one of the best songs on this one!!!

Putting it as the opening song is the right choice I think. It doesn’t really fit with the rest of the album but it’s too good to be a b-side

Excellent post by Soundslike upthread, my thoughts exactly

Radiohead have been consistently terrible about putting songs that don't fit properly and stick out like sore thumbs on their albums

KM I don't follow what you're saying about Nigel but perhaps you're not being serious

"i do wonder if it is true, as the rumors say, that phil, colin, and ed have all been sacked"

is this a rumor? I hadn't heard it.

I'm not holding my breath for a new RH album myself.

OKC, Kid A, The King of Limbs and In Rainbows all sound to me like every song fits - or at least don’t have songs that stick out too much for me. The Bends, Amnesiac, Hail to the Thief and AMSP do have songs that don’t fit. I agree that AMSP is very consistent though if you remove BTW and place Ill Wind instead.

oh, i was joking about all that akm, sorry! i don't know why i do these things. the "sacked" rumor is one that i'm trying to start myself. it originated when the Smile had a different (much better, imo) drummer and stripped down the band to just the genius members (imo), jonny and thom

that Smile performance was very promising, i thought, particularly as the first performance of a new configuration of members with completely new songs. it sounded "raw" in a way that most modern radiohead recordings/concerts do not

Justice for CR78

i wouldn't expect a new rh album until maybe 2024 at earliest, since they haven't even starting recording yet

i imagine it would have happened sooner if it weren't for the pandemic - that seems the most likely reason the smile is even happening

it would be so appropriate with the general overtone of the band if "radiohead" as we know it is another casualty, in a roundabout way, of covid.

don't say such things pls

Also, man how has it been FIVE YEARS since this came out? I cant cope

Radiohead have been consistently terrible about putting songs that don't fit properly and stick out like sore thumbs on their albums

OKC, Kid A, The King of Limbs and In Rainbows all sound to me like every song fits

My theory about Radiohead's seeming unimpeachability is rooted in the fact that they always include a bum track, or two, or three. It makes their records appear stronger overall when they have a "Fitter Happier"/"Treefingers"/"Hunting Bears"/"Faust Arp" etc. etc. on there.

And going even further than "a duff track", to take songs-that-are-basic-as-shit-in-their-original-incarnation like Pulk/Pull and Like Spinning Plates and Kid A and essentially destroy them by turning them backwards or mixing them badly or having a Macintosh sing them... the resultant fartsongs make everything else sound better

the resultant fartsongs

― flamboyant goon tie included, Sunday, November 7, 2021 3:35 PM

disregard my previous post; i have it on good authority that this will be the title of the band's next album.

like, basically confirmed. inform twitter.

I actually love fitter happier and treefingers in the context of their respective albums.

Agree on hunting bears and faust arp being duds, but they’re short enough that I don’t mind them. There’s more songs in amnesiac which I find to be extremely skippable - but I tend to think very unkindly in general of that album tbh and it’s probably my least favorite next to HTTT.

I absolutely love the song “kid a” and wont hear this nonsense of it being a fartsong. You can throw the other two you mention to the dogs though, I don’t really care about them.