Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool

xp 'Present Tense' is the best song. Think Moka also singled it out as a highlight. Made Karl Malone's top 4 (i.e. it was his #4).

― Sufjan Grafton

Yes. Present Tense and Numbers were the two highlights on my first listen but I could see Decks Dark and TLW eventually becoming favorites. Weakest one for me is Tinker Tailor...

In other things: I've been listening to Spectre all over again in the context of this album and I think it's amazing. The vocal melody he makes when singing "My hunger burns a bullet hole a spectre of my mortal soul / The only truth that I can see
Is when you put your lips to these" keeps getting stuck in my head (just realized I kept mishearing the first line as 'My hungry bird" which made no sense). Even the lesser guitar and piano covers I've heard on youtube make you realize how great of a melody it is. Only thing ruining this song from being the best thing they've released in years is the awkward drumming and the reverb overload on the voice (I also blame those as the factor that ultimately won the bond theme to Sam Smith which is a shame... I'd love to have seen people that don't follow them remembering them from a song other than Creep)

Oops string of thoughts and I accidentally hit space in the wrong part.

Agree that Tinker Tailor is a slightly weak point. It's not awful though.

I mean listen to this cover:

https://youtu.be/ZgszBXPNZQA

Not even doing it in the Silverchair voice with an accent ruins that melody.

Agree that Tinker Tailor is a slightly weak point. It's not awful though.

― TARANTINO! (dog latin)

Not at all. It's too early to tell but this feels like the most cohesive album in their career for me. There's always one or two tracks which I keep skipping in every one of their records - even in the 'honeymoon' phase - and this time around I only skip Burn the Witch because I heard it way too obsessively before the album came out.

Burn the Witch is okay but it has a different texture from the rest of the album and feels more like something that would have come out around the In Rainbows era.

It is too early to tell, but right now it could easily contend as top 3, if not their best. Every other album has issues, even OK Computer which I've held up as a masterpiece since I was 16 sounds lyrically sophomoric in today's context (Subterranean Homesick Alien?). Everything that came after had high-points but never quite glued together in a satisfying way and like you, I'd find myself skipping a lot. I don't see myself skipping much on this. It works as a piece and it's the kind of complete artistic work bands like Radiohead should have been striving towards all along.

I still think In Rainbows is probably better, it's tighter and less prone to self-indulgence.

Two little things I love:

-In 'Ful Stop', that 5/4 guitar part that comes in during the last third and cycles over the 6/4 beat

-The synth during the build/bridge in 'Identikit'. It's the kind of sound that's all over TY's last solo album and 'Amok' but nowhere else on the album, unexpected & perfect.

a mole shaped poon

God this is so good. "Glass Eyes" is so dope.

^my review

really like 'Desert Island Disk' but the distortion/sibilance on the 's' of 'standing on the edge of' at 2:40 kinda drives me crazy

I'm giving this yet another listen - at this stage, I'm unsure where I would rank it in terms of Radiohead's discography, but the more I hear it, the more I'm beginning to feel that this will ultimately become one of their more satisfying albums for me.

A cerebral, theoretically informed but affectionate review on academic website The Conversation, of all places -
https://theconversation.com/a-moon-shaped-pool-and-the-unmistakable-alchemy-of-radiohead-59160

So yeah, on my umpteenth listen now and this is one of their best ever albums for me, and one of my favourite albums of the year so far. I wasn't expecting this to be anywhere near this good, so it's a welcome record for me.

-The synth during the build/bridge in 'Identikit'. It's the kind of sound that's all over TY's last solo album and 'Amok' but nowhere else on the album, unexpected & perfect.

― sam jax sax jam (Jordan)

love that bit.. it works great with the odd vocals. it's too brief. the preceding guitar chord/strum is nice, too. some nice filtering going on with the drum/reverb sounds

digging the album, save for Present Tense and Glass Eyes. Thom Yorke's voice does get tiring after a while. and Desert Island Disk feels overly Beck-ified, slight

Yeah, the synth in 'Identikit' is a great moment, although I love that entire section of the song completely. One of those moments which caught my ear on the first listen.

Ful Stop is a real beaut, and Decks Dark. Tinker Tailor sets up a great atmosphere and it's got a nice riff, but it seems to evaporate somehow, 2/3 into its progression.

'Tinker Tailor...' is the weakest track on the record for me, but I still like it plenty.

Played it a few times now, the title suits it.

I'm a bit confused about this album so far. As mentioned upthread it's kinda hard to remember the melodies of the songs, but imo it also feels like melody isn't really what "occupies" or is central or w/e to Radiohead these days (also true for TKOL which i like lot). I mean, AMSP "sounds" great but it also sounds like a Johnny Greenwood album. He shows up everywhere and "interrupts" whatever the rest of the guys are doing. Happily surprised about Identikit and esp True Love Waits which I thought would be awful.

Do you guys think this album will appeal to people who weren't previously Radiohead fans? My friend came back to me saying he was left with a bit of an 'is that it?' feeling.

I'd say so. It depends on what they are fans of, obviously.

I dunno, I find 'Burn The Witch', 'Identikit' and 'Decks Dark' quite catchy, actually!

I have a friend who doesn't rate Radiohead at ALL (he mostly listens to ambient/contemporary classical/celestial jazz stuff) and this is their only album I would want to play for him, I think he may even actually LIKE "Daydreaming" and "The Numbers"

comparisons:
- 'desert island disk' sounds like neu! (the ambient bits) and faust (the off meter acoustic bit)
- jonny likes dubby kind of production stuff still, its cool
- speaking of steve reich kinda moments, in the right channel on 'the present tense" there are some looped vocal bits that sound v similar (for v short bursts) to his tape loops pieces like 'come out' or 'it's gonna rain'
- 'ful stop' almost works a fleetwood mac song
- the piano on 'true love waits' reminds me of the way a lot of ambient piano bros like eluvium do their piano

the weakest track for me is the 'the numbers', it feels too familiar. too 'optimistic' (like you can stone cold sing the verses and it's not a hair out of place)...in addition to the stairway comparison, though it does pivot to something more novel towards the end.

Younger friends who don't care about Radiohead are interested in this record.

I discovered "Zuckerzeit" for myself about 2 months ago, think this sits alongside. I like both, think I prefer the Cluster one at the moment.

"The Numbers" reminds me of the last Julia Holter album (as do several moments on the album actually).

I really got into 'The Numbers' recently. I have a new favourite each time I play this one.

I dunno, I find 'Burn The Witch', 'Identikit' and 'Decks Dark' quite catchy, actually!

"Identikit" is the only song on the album that I think of having a really infectious, indelible vocal melody. "Tinker Tailor" has a striking, interesting melody. I don't think of the other tunes as bad but it is usually something other than the vocal melody that brings me back.

I'd say that Yorke is, to an extent, the weak link on this, but fortunately the arrangements usually bail him out. The first half of Identikit really suffers from that in general - really spindly, sparse Radiohead songs have never really worked for me, they're very unforgiving of Thom's voice, and it's easy to see how they could have fucked that one up in the King of Limbs era. But that song really comes into its own in the second half when the other elements come in. For all the talk about the orchestration, the choral bits are incredible.

Older live clips of "Identikit" do feel like they have a little more energy.

it really picks up with Ful Stop and Identikit.. especially that "broken hearts" bit during Identikit, a highlight of the album. that latter half of the album finally sort of clicked for me yesterday, off of the momentum of that chorus

I had this on again earlier, and the moment on 'The Numbers' when the strings come in is just... fucking hell! What a record.

Is anyone lucky enough to be going to any of the upcoming gigs? I would have made the trip to London if I could have got a ticket.

Whoever said 'The Numbers' reminded 'em of Led Zeppelin is pretty OTM. It's like the chords of in the second part of 'Stairway' mixed with the 'Kashmir' strings.

True Love Waits might make it into my Radiohead top 5. always loved the live version/s but this.. Jesus.

Is anyone lucky enough to be going to any of the upcoming gigs? I would have made the trip to London if I could have got a ticket.

I am gonna see them at Primavera Sound in two weeks

"broken hearts make it rain" is a both great and hilarious lyric imo

Yeah, written down it's such a daft, teenage lyric, but it's context and delivery make it work.

why oh why am i not going to primavera this year??

I didn't appresh the "broken hearts / make it rain" double-entendre until I watched older clips of Yorke dancing while singing it live, now I agree that it is v.poetic & sweet

another very 'poetic' bit of the album for me = the conceit of "Desert Island Disk"/'different kinds of love are possible', which projects an amusing image of Thom Yorke as single & ready-to-mingle

the piano on 'true love waits' reminds me of the way a lot of ambient piano bros like eluvium do their piano

― 6 god none the richer (m bison)

are you talking about the primary part or the sort of unhinged, background tinklings? the background stuff sort of recalls Charlemagne Palestine's "sliding fifths" style of (fluid) playing... sort of like Mick Turner's solo music.

....sort of

Whoever said 'The Numbers' reminded 'em of Led Zeppelin is pretty OTM. It's like the chords of in the second part of 'Stairway' mixed with the 'Kashmir' strings.

― Turrican

Yep, riffing is very Jimmy Page-esque when he uses acoustic guitars, reminds me of the Led Zeppelin III. Strings and laughs at the end seem like a reference to I Am the Walrus as well.

Strings remind me of Curtis Mayfield too.

Strings in Glass Eyes are very Debussy. It's a great piece if you're in the mood for it... would love to hear an instrumental only take.

I didn't appresh the "broken hearts / make it rain" double-entendre until I watched older clips of Yorke dancing while singing it live, now I agree that it is v.poetic & sweet

Which two meanings are you thinking of? Almost seems line there could be 3:

- broken hearts/tears
- divorce settlements
- making money selling albums that appeal to sad people (I don't really think that's true but the popular perception of radiohead's music is that it's for miserable people)