Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool

The "contempt for older people" thing in particular is absolutely priceless.

If you mean contempt for older people that make music then Blackstar wouldn't be my album of the year - a record which has, in places, an intensity (see: 'Sue') that this new Radiohead album is sorely lacking.

If you mean contempt for older people in general, then you wouldn't really know about that either way.

I recall a review of the Manic Street Preachers' Lifeblood where it said it "(sounded) like it (needed) a blood transfusion" ... OH NOES! CONTEMPT FOR PPLS THAT NEED BLOOD TRANSFSNS!!1!

It's a description of a record. Nothing more, nothing less.

Just kind of curious if anyone had a reaction to my take.

― Evan, Tuesday, August 16, 2016 3:13 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I can't help but feel that many conveniently overlooked it. I agreed with it, fwiw.

Thanks, no worries. Just tried to jump in late but there was too much yelling already.

evan, my take on it was that i'm far enough away from being a "radiohead fan" that i don't listen to radiohead so much anymore and compare it to "typical radiohead", so that wasn't my experience with the record. but i liked your take.

Actually it wasn't my experience at first either, but once I got used to the aspects that felt refreshing early on I start to feel like they're still very much in their comfort zone on this record.

Fuck me this is still happening.

So, I'm listening to The King of Limbs again right now and even though I don't think the songwriting is all that great, at least it's somewhat exciting on a sonic level in comparison to A Moon Shaped Pool. I guess the last couple of Radiohead records have basically confirmed to me that Thom's songwriting skills are on the slide and he needs to dress his songs up in "interesting" arrangements to mask this fact.

Yes, because I'm sure Thom is the only one in the band that does any writing.

**smacks forehead**

I think it's very well known at this stage that the core of the songs come from Thom and the rest of the band provide the window dressing.

https://vimeo.com/178823364
A video essay exploring the many hidden secrets in Paul Thomas Anderson's new Radiohead music video: "Daydreaming."

Where are you pulling that from, Turrican?

How is it possible that this discussion is actually getting worse?

board description

this record is having an unplanned renaissance in my house/car, like a lot of ppl seemed to i'm really drawn to the identikit/numbers back to back and have found the other songs through that sequence. i was listening to bits of in rainbows and tkol today and this feels so much more organic by comparison.

It's definitely a more organic album! From the heavy use of acoustic piano to the acoustic guitar strums, I would reckon that was a conscious decision by the band to move that direction.

in 2016 we have 'renaissances' for albums that are less than four months old

Online until Sept 22nd: full festival show in Berlin, Sept 11
http://concert.arte.tv/fr/radiohead-lollapalooza-berlin-2016

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/radiohead/2016/treptower-park-berlin-germany-73fc461d.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hgVihWjK2c

Rachel Owen, former partner of Thom Yorke, has died. http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/12/rachel-owen-longtime-partner-of-thom-yorke-passes-away-from-cancer/

Which somehow makes this album feel even sadder.

WTF!?

Whoa

Which somehow makes this album feel even sadder.

otm

I haven't listened to the record much since May, but I imagine there'll be a lot of Blackstar-esque lyric parsing going on now, beyond the obvious True Love Waits ending.

So awful, only 48 with two young kids

As if we needed more reasones to say fuck 2016

oh no
i hadn't seen the above update, how sad

was just listening to this and came to post how this album has really had staying power for me and i like it more now than when it came out, one of their best up there with ok computer, kid a/amnesiac (which i sorta count as one), and in rainbows

Oh, it's better than In Rainbows. Probably their most consistent album, which is saying something.

The news about Yorke's former partner is just horrid.

Yeah, sad news indeed... I don't care who it is, 48 is really no age to go, children have lost their mother shortly before Christmas and it's an awful situation for all concerned. Fuck cancer.

Yorke (and Owen) were private people who went to great lengths to ensure that their personal lives were kept private, therefore I'm not comfortable with speculating any further on what are incredibly personal events. Whether this is the timeline of events or poring over the lyrics on the most recent album looking for "clues" ... it really isn't any of my business.

As for the LP, I think its sonic consistency is one of the flaws of the record - I find my interest starting to wane at some point after 'Identikit' ...

It's definitely not as engaging as In Rainbows, IMO.

the albums i listed are my favorites (moon shaped now being one) and, to me, i don't really compare any of them that much as they all have very different vibes to me

for ex. is ok computer "better" or "worse" than moon shaped pool? i don't know they are such drastically different bands at those points in their career

"A Poo Shaped Moon"

*gong*

the ilxor display name 'a poon shaped mule' has haunted me ever since (and i can't see the name of this album without the spoonerism popping into my head)

or ex. is ok computer "better" or "worse" than moon shaped pool? i don't know they are such drastically different bands at those points in their career
― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, December 23, 2016 4:16 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

For me, I would undoubtedly say "yes" as, regardless of how both albums sound or the approaches they take, OK Computer sustains my interest from beginning to end whereas A Moon Shaped Pool doesn't. By the time 'True Love Waits' comes on, I've already tuned out, whereas OK Computer has me gripped until the last "ding!" on 'The Tourist'

Burn the Witch, Daydreaming, and True Love Waits tower over the rest of the record for me. Can't remember what most of the other songs sound like despite listening to it a lot yesterday.

Daydreaming almost feels like a Boards of Canada cover or something. The Numbers is also a standout, imho.

just saw those PTA-directed videos of Jonny and Thom playing in the woods though, those were sweet.

20th anniversary edition of OK Computer coming in July

http://www.oknotok.co.uk/

"Rescued from defunct formats, prised from dark cupboards and brought to light after two decades in cold storage… OK COMPUTER: the original twelve track album, three unreleased tracks and eight B-sides, all newly remastered from the original analogue tapes*.

Inside a black box emblazoned with a dark image of a burned copy of OK COMPUTER are three heavyweight 180 gram black 12" vinyl records and a hardcover book containing more than 30 artworks, many of which have never been seen before except by us, and full lyrics to all the tracks except the ones that haven't really got any lyrics.

Under this weighty tome are yet more surprises: a notebook containing 104 pages from Thom Yorke's library of scrawled notes of the time, a sketchbook containing 48 pages of Donwood and Tchock's 'preparatory work' and a C90 cassette mix tape compiled by us, taken from OK COMPUTER session archives and demo tapes.

To avoid accusations of wilful obscurity, a 320k MP3, 16- or 24-bit WAV download of 23 tracks will be available to you on 23rd June and a download of the cassette will be inside the box."

the unreleased tracks are Lift, I Promise and Man of War (aka Big Boots), wow

if they're digging in the vaults it would have been nice to hear things like the versions of Nude and True Love Waits from then as well but what we're getting is great anyway

Y'know, for a supposed "classic" album, it's incredible how utterly bored as fuck I am of it 20 years later.

I think I'm far more bored with "The Bends" but, yeah, if I want to listen to Thom Yelp it's gonna be Kid A / Amnesiac or something more recent.

I can't really say why, I mean I loved all their records on release but the staying power just isn't there for me. Or at least the desire to go back and revisit their material.

xpost: if I'm reading it correctly the cassette is not the album but demos which means True Love Waits and Nude could be in some form in there... maybe incomplete tho.

in rainbows is the one with staying power in my experience

though i still love the last 2 tracks on ok computer

i revisited ok computer when all that pfork coverage was happening. at some point i lost the ability to *hear* it bc i was so obsessed with radiohead in high school, but it's still really great

its the middle section from karma police thru no surprises that i don't really dig as much anymore

that includes "climbing up the walls" which is prob my favorite moment on the album

i still love ok computer

the guitar sound on 'the tourist' is still some sort of unattainable ideal

completely forgot that "moon shaped pool" existed

I think I listened to OKC almost daily for a year when I was 13 so I have no more use for it but whenever they play an OKC song live I still get goosebumps.

For an album I loved so much back then it's weird that I don't have it on my vinyl collection. Might buy it this time around even when I know I wont be playing it much.

The price is fair too. $30 for 3 vinyls seems like a good price in these times of insanely priced reissues. Even the deluxe version sounds fair if you're crazy about Radiohead.

and a C90 cassette mix tape compiled by us, taken from OK COMPUTER session archives and demo tapes

mmm tasty