RAdiohead

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.

Ridiculously good Smile show last night here in SF. Glad I caught that -- still haven't seen the actual band since 2003 for all kinds of weird timing reasons but both this show and Thom Yorke solo three years back (almost to the day, same venue) were excellent.

I was there, too. I wasn't a huge fan of many of the "new" songs they played, but maybe they just need more time to grow. Skinner was amazing throughout. I don't know a lot about drums, but his internal metronome seems absolutely perfect. At times it was hard to reconcile what I saw the man doing vs what my ears were hearing. Like he had hidden invisible limbs.

Yeah I was nearest to Skinner -- on the floor standing to the side and very close to the stage -- and dude's a beast. The new songs sounded solid enough in context; I remain convinced that while I do enjoy studio work from Thom et al there is a specific next level they can only reach in live performance and that was on offer again.

Here's a bit of my video footage from the Denver show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lkf_79w106E

i was at the SF show and IMO this easily matched the last two RAdiohead shows I saw (which was at Outside Lands and a show in san jose, can't remember when that was) as far as intensity. Fantastic all the way through.

Saw them in Portland last week. Amazing show.

Do they throw in the odd Radiohead B side or whatever?

No, the closest they get is ending the show with Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses which Radiohead played live at least once about 20 years ago as Reckoner (and was eventually recorded by Yorke solo)

I was at that show (gorge in Washington) where they played pulled apart by horses in 01 ;)

https://on4word.bandcamp.com/album/in-rainbow-roads

"In Rainbows by Radiohead recreated using N64 sounds. Mostly sounds from Super Mario 64."

well done