(I like the other cuts released so far, they're just not kicking my ass yet.)
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 10 May 2022 00:34 (two years ago) link
the smile album definitely does the material more justice than the livestream performance, it's really reliant on jonny's orchestral arrangements to fill in the gaps
but among radiohead albums this would still be near the bottom, there's some nice stuff like "open the floodgates" and "speech bubbles" but also lot of meandering grooves in weird time signatures
― ufo, Friday, 13 May 2022 01:45 (two years ago) link
general feeling is somewhere between amsp and httt neither of which is a favourite of mine
― ufo, Friday, 13 May 2022 01:55 (two years ago) link
Yeah strong HTTT vibes on some tracks which is my least favorite album of them.
It’s more interesting than Thom’s solo efforts so I think it’s good that they took it out of their system.
“Open the floodgates” and “free in the knowledge” were good enough to be saved for LP10.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 13 May 2022 03:27 (two years ago) link
Most interesting aspect is the drums. I love Phil but love how the drums sound in here.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 13 May 2022 03:28 (two years ago) link
This is the way more interesting and satisfying than the Yorke solo albums, which try as I might I never warmed to.
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 13 May 2022 03:39 (two years ago) link
i like the eraser a lot more than this, this is probably better than some of the others though
― ufo, Friday, 13 May 2022 04:00 (two years ago) link
Ah yes Eraser is amazing and gets better as time goes by.
This is my second favorite radiohead-related, non-radiohead album tho
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 13 May 2022 06:42 (two years ago) link
These are two of my very favorite Radiohead records so I look forward to listening
― change display name (Jordan), Friday, 13 May 2022 17:40 (two years ago) link
I’m on my third listen. “The Same” rules
― Bruce Stingbean (Karl Malone), Friday, 13 May 2022 17:44 (two years ago) link
And yeah, to me it sounds like a Radiohead album with a different drummer (one I prefer, vastly, for their new music, but ymmv)
― Bruce Stingbean (Karl Malone), Friday, 13 May 2022 17:45 (two years ago) link
yesss this album absolutely rules
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 13 May 2022 22:53 (two years ago) link
Loving this
― beard papa, Saturday, 14 May 2022 02:09 (two years ago) link
"free in the knowledge" is so albarn-esque it's uncanny
― ufo, Saturday, 14 May 2022 03:36 (two years ago) link
This album is really lovely
― change display name (Jordan), Saturday, 14 May 2022 04:07 (two years ago) link
i haven't listened to albarn in ages - which track(s) are you thinking of?
― Bruce Stingbean (Karl Malone), Saturday, 14 May 2022 05:07 (two years ago) link
ballads like "sweet song", it's just an extremely albarn-esque melody
― ufo, Saturday, 14 May 2022 06:43 (two years ago) link
don't leave us hanging moka! what's ur favorite?
― corrs unplugged, Saturday, 14 May 2022 07:10 (two years ago) link
"A Hairdryer" is a great jam (with a silly title) and according to Spotify play counts I'm listener number... 2709? That's not a lot of plays for a release like this!https://i.imgur.com/CvEpn5x.png
― corrs unplugged, Saturday, 14 May 2022 07:52 (two years ago) link
Spotify is weird about counting plays in the first few days after release, not sure why but it's not really accurate. On the artist side they don't even show you stats until 3-4 days in.
― change display name (Jordan), Saturday, 14 May 2022 16:20 (two years ago) link
god what a dope album
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Saturday, 14 May 2022 16:31 (two years ago) link
can't stop listening to it
It gets stronger the more I listen.
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Saturday, 14 May 2022 16:33 (two years ago) link
this is the most obvious comment i could make but the drumming is fucking bonkers
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Saturday, 14 May 2022 17:13 (two years ago) link
yeah, he really brings it on Thin Thing. you can almost see him just laying that down and the other two joining in and knowing exactly what energy to bring. his playing is controlled lightning all over it, so good.
my favorite lil moment on the album is on the The Same at 2:16. i can only call it "haunting". credit to nigel because the production on just that single line is almost frightening - it sounds like someone moving through walls.
Somebody's hearing voices(Somebody's going down, down, down)
― Bruce Stingbean (Karl Malone), Saturday, 14 May 2022 18:27 (two years ago) link
I found that strummy track ("Free In The Knowledge" I guess?) quite annoying, but a lot of the rest is really great. I will need to settle into it with a few more spins soon.
― raven, Sunday, 15 May 2022 02:27 (two years ago) link
Now listening for that, KM
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Sunday, 15 May 2022 02:31 (two years ago) link
Agree with the praise, "Open The Floodgates" is my early fave. I hear a ton of cosmic music flourishes throughout. Is this a side project or has Radiohead disbanded?
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Sunday, 15 May 2022 02:32 (two years ago) link
I love “free in the knowledge” but the production is a saturared mess tbh
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Sunday, 15 May 2022 03:06 (two years ago) link
it's a side project that exists because the others weren't available to make music during the height of the pandemic
― ufo, Sunday, 15 May 2022 03:51 (two years ago) link
(Arranger) Hugh Brunt the MVP of this album. Greenwood is amazing but it’s so interesting to hear another approach
Also considering how ambivalent I am about Yorke’s lyrics and singing on Radiohead albums (more a comment on my own fatigue than his craft) I am adoring his voice on this
― a legible shriek (flamboyant goon tie included), Sunday, 15 May 2022 04:05 (two years ago) link
His voice sounds younger somewhat in this. In modern Radiohead albums he uses the falsetto more discreetly and it sounds a bit whiny. In here he almost sounds as good as he sounded in The Bends.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Sunday, 15 May 2022 04:09 (two years ago) link
Maybe not stressing his voice on tour helped.
also lot of meandering grooves in weird time signatures
Okay, I'm sold!
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Sunday, 15 May 2022 04:31 (two years ago) link
Meandering grooves in weird time signatures is how I’d describe most of Radiohead post OKC tbh
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Sunday, 15 May 2022 05:41 (two years ago) link
In Rainbows would like a word
― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 15 May 2022 05:45 (two years ago) link
Yeah In Rainbows is them proving they can still nail “normal rock song structures” if they want to. It’s still the most accesible album they’ve released in 20 years as a band.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Sunday, 15 May 2022 05:52 (two years ago) link
I’d argue there’s still plenty of meandering in weird time signatures even there.
Not a bad thing in my book, it’s what makes them one of the few active rock bands I care about.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Sunday, 15 May 2022 05:56 (two years ago) link
it's only really this & httt that emphasise weird time signatures, there's only the occasional track elsewhere
― ufo, Sunday, 15 May 2022 06:00 (two years ago) link
both otm
― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 15 May 2022 06:16 (two years ago) link
there was that hidden weird time signature in Videotape even...
― corrs unplugged, Sunday, 15 May 2022 07:42 (two years ago) link
syncopation is a different thing
― ufo, Sunday, 15 May 2022 07:48 (two years ago) link
You’re really going to make me check this… let’s go.
HTTT has 4 out of 14 songs with weird (non 4/4) time signatures: 2+2=5, Sail to the Moon and Wolf at the Door, Go to Sleep. 28%
Kid A: 4 out of 10. EIIRP, HTDC, In Limbo, Morning Bell.40%
Amnesiac: 0%
In Rainbows: 3 out of 10. 15 Step, Nude, Faust Arp30%
TKOL: 1 out of 8. Codex12.5%
AMSP: 5 out of 14. Daydreaming, Decks Dark, Desert Island Disk, Ful Stop, Present Tense.35%
Source: https://pastebin.com/Hf04Q6Ym
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Sunday, 15 May 2022 10:43 (two years ago) link
Curiously Amnesiac and TKOL are usually considered their most experimental/inaccesible albums and they’re the ones without weird time signatures.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Sunday, 15 May 2022 10:46 (two years ago) link
HTTT is a record that would be much improved by being 2-4 songs shorter, though I’m not sure which songs.
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Sunday, 15 May 2022 11:19 (two years ago) link
my definition of 'weird' definitely does not include things like 3/4 or 6/8 etc., those are pretty standard. i was thinking more specifically of complex time signatures that arise when you throw a 5 or 7 or some higher prime than 3 into the mix, or anything that's heavily shifting between time signatures
so what i was thinking of was just:the one bit of "paranoid android" that has bars in 7/8"everything in its right place", "morning bell""2+2=5", "sail to the moon", "go to sleep" (which starts off alternating between two bars of 6/8 and one of 4/4 which could be mashed into one bar of 10/4 if you wanted to make it ugly) "15 step", "faust arp"
had forgotten that "desert island disk" was in 7/4, and that "codex" has two bars of 5/4 in its bridge - that one's a little marginal
"present tense" definitely does not count just for having a stray beat at the very start of the song, it's entirely in 4/4 beyond that.
also had not paid enough attention to realise "decks dark" slips in a bar of 2/4 occasionally - unusual but not complex. 6/4 on "ful stop" and the "in limbo" verse i'd also classify the same way
on the smile album i have:"the same" - this feels like it has some weird shifts but i don't feel like counting it out"you will never work in television again" - 5/4"pana-vision" - verse is 7/4, chorus is 7/8"thin thing" - mostly 6/8 or 12/8? but i think there's some shifts?"waving a white flag" - this feels like it's 7/8 or something similarly odd but again i don't feel like counting"skrting on the surface" - 11/8
"the opposite" is just a heavily syncopated 4/4 or maybe 12/8?
pretty heavily their proggiest album in that sense
― ufo, Sunday, 15 May 2022 11:56 (two years ago) link
I know it's technically 4/4 but NOT citing Pyramid Song as having a weird time signature feels bogus somehow.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Sunday, 15 May 2022 12:14 (two years ago) link
it's just heavily syncopated & full of triplets, so you could write it as 12/8 instead
― ufo, Sunday, 15 May 2022 12:22 (two years ago) link
White Flag is 11/8
The whole album is really interesting rhythmically. I guess having an actual jazz drummer opened a new level of complexity for them.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Sunday, 15 May 2022 13:10 (two years ago) link
syncopation is a different thingright you are, was just thinking there was also something funny going on rhythmically on Rainbows
the most intricate drumming (apart from the new one) is prob to be found on TKOL even though per Moka's research only 1 jam is out of 4/4? I guess I'm more interested in fun drumming than weird time signatures
― corrs unplugged, Sunday, 15 May 2022 13:20 (two years ago) link