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
Thin Thing is definitely weird. Drums are 6/4 for the most part but go into 6/8 at the final section, but gets disorienting because Jonny is playing mostly in 3/4 and 5/8 in the bridge.
At least that how I’m hearing it.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Sunday, 15 May 2022 13:21 (two years ago) link
Xpost: was surprised about that too! TKOL feels like a very groovy and rhythmic album for the most part, but it’s not complex it’s mostly them doing syncopation (like the handclaps on Lotus Flower) that fool you into thinking the songs are not actually in 4/4.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Sunday, 15 May 2022 13:25 (two years ago) link
On "The Opposite" Tom does a very tasty Tony Allen type thing, that's the standout for me so far.
― mig (guess that dreams always end), Sunday, 15 May 2022 17:47 (two years ago) link
yeah I keep thinking of Tony Allen listening to this
― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 15 May 2022 22:21 (two years ago) link
heh, listening to “The Hairdryer” I was thinking “well I guess this is one of the complex time sigs” but nope, it’s in four
― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 15 May 2022 22:46 (two years ago) link
"Hairdryer" is interesting, it's like Skinner is emulating exactly the sort of skittery beat Thom likes to program on drum machines. I think "Open the Floodgates" is my favorite thing here so far but there's lots to like.
― feed me with your chips (zchyrs), Monday, 16 May 2022 00:57 (two years ago) link
I'll give this new one a listen but I'm not holding out much hope because I'm one of those boring rockists who is of the opinion that Radiohead never bettered OKC and is patiently waiting for them to make another album in that vein even though I know it's never going to happen. The way I see it, it was OKC, not Kid A, that was Radiohead's big creative leap forward. Every album since OKC has betokened a fatal shrivelling of Radiohead's worldview. Can someone please make a playlist of the most OKC-like tracks from Kid A thru AMSP so that I don't have to wade through the dross.
― joni mitchell jarre (anagram), Monday, 16 May 2022 16:58 (two years ago) link
in rainbows was their another album in that vein though
― ciderpress, Monday, 16 May 2022 17:44 (two years ago) link
it even has some songs they wrote back in the okc era like nude and reckoner
― ciderpress, Monday, 16 May 2022 17:45 (two years ago) link
thanks, I wasn't too aware of that, I'll listen to that one again.
― joni mitchell jarre (anagram), Monday, 16 May 2022 18:03 (two years ago) link
In Rainbows is most definitely their "back 2 roots" sort of album.
xpost: this isn't the same "Reckoner" that was around the OKC era. They used the same title but this was a new song. The other Reckoner from OKC ended up with the title "feeling pulled apart by horses" and was released as a solo track by Thom.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Monday, 16 May 2022 18:23 (two years ago) link
Time signatures are not the sole or even most telling measure of how proggy an album is imo. That would be modularity - progressions themselves. How much verse-chorus and how much...not. HTTT is averse to simple verse-chorus - will be interesting to see if this is too
― imago, Monday, 16 May 2022 18:26 (two years ago) link
Myself I kinda associate "progginess" (Genesis, Henry Cow, King Crimson, Rush, Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", Dirty Projectors) with a particular thing when bands make decisions to complicate things to confuse the ears of the listeners. It's a different thing entirely when complicating decisions are made to challenge the band as performers and composers but the results are not-especially-confusing to a listener (This Heat, Radiohead, Talk Talk, things like Led Zeppelin's "The Ocean" I guess). I don't really associate "a weird time signature made to sound natural" (or its cousin, "a standard time signature made to sound weird") with "progginess", for some reason
― a legible shriek (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 16 May 2022 19:16 (two years ago) link
How are listeners more confused by Queen and Rush than by This Heat? Not sure I follow.
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Monday, 16 May 2022 23:34 (two years ago) link
yeah i dont see how e.g. "Limelight" isnt the same situation as "The Ocean" its just a normal rock song that happens to change meter between verse and chorus. most of Rush's 'progginess' stops there
― ciderpress, Monday, 16 May 2022 23:51 (two years ago) link
or mid-verse rather but it still sounds natural
Is there a term that would refer to a tendency (whether in progressive rock, jazz, electronic music, or elsewhere) where you can practically hear the players counting off the unusual signature in their heads, oriented around "chops" and feeling thus totally choppy?
As opposed to the innumerable performances also in "unusual" time signatures where it flows and lives, and the players (and yourself as the listener) don't seem hung up on it, and the signature just adds a certain feeling (emotional or musical) you wouldn't get as readily without it?
Radiohead feels about 50/50 on those, when engaging weird time signatures.
― Soundslike, Tuesday, 17 May 2022 00:18 (two years ago) link
That said, I haven't been able to get through more than a few tracks of this at a go, so far. Feels like it's mostly good, if a bit grab-bag, but just doesn't sustain interest so far.
I say that as someone who was an obsessive Radiohead listener circa 1995-2001 (as a teenager/early 20s), then hated 'Hail To the Thief' and felt like I'd rather listen to what Radiohead were listening to than their interpretations of it for the next few albums. But who then really loved 'A Moon Shaped Pool,' probably my favorite album of theirs.
At least a couple tracks on this make me think Yorke et al have been listening to Sault, and some Total Refreshnent Centre groups. Not a bad thing...
― Soundslike, Tuesday, 17 May 2022 00:25 (two years ago) link
Yeah Soundslike that's exactly what I mean!
@ Sund4r when I said Rush I meant like... 2112 more than Moving Pictures I guess. As for This Heat, I guess I was thinking about the bizarre chord choices and time signatures that function more like Can grooves than like Yes cartwheels... second part of "Paper Hats" for example is in 11/8 and sounds exactly like Radiohead at their chilliest. It's not that This Heat aren't confusing, it's just not chops chops chops like their Canterburian older brothers
― a legible shriek (flamboyant goon tie included), Tuesday, 17 May 2022 00:31 (two years ago) link
I see, maybe it's something to do with choppiness vs groove? Math rock exemplifies the former, perhaps?
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Tuesday, 17 May 2022 01:32 (two years ago) link
I would say HTTT is the post OKC album most similar to OKC
― corrs unplugged, Tuesday, 17 May 2022 06:45 (two years ago) link
yep
― imago, Tuesday, 17 May 2022 06:51 (two years ago) link
In Rainbows is absolutely nothing like OKC, its colours are so muted in comparison
― imago, Tuesday, 17 May 2022 06:52 (two years ago) link
Yeah, it's wild to compare OKC to IR. OKC is the career-defining guitar epic. IR is the "we're gonna start to mellow with age" album and marks the start of the arc that continued with TKOL and AMSP.
― feed me with your chips (zchyrs), Tuesday, 17 May 2022 14:28 (two years ago) link
Zach's Taxonomy of Radiohead Eras:
Pablo Honey - OK Computer: "We're a rock band. Scratch that--we're the MOST IMPORTANT ROCK BAND OF OUR TIME."
Kid A - HTTT: "We have reinvented ourselves! But we're still kind of a rock band."
In Rainbows - AMSP: "Starting to feel old. What if we just kinda...chilled out and jammed?"
― feed me with your chips (zchyrs), Tuesday, 17 May 2022 14:32 (two years ago) link
this album, which i have now heard, is a continuation of chilling out and jamming, except with a more boring drummer
― imago, Tuesday, 17 May 2022 14:33 (two years ago) link
calling it as one of the two best RH-related projects ever feels absolutely unhinged to me
― imago, Tuesday, 17 May 2022 14:35 (two years ago) link
i’m sorry, a more boring drummer
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Tuesday, 17 May 2022 14:35 (two years ago) link
what must it be like to post when you have no idea what you’re talking about. am i the one imprisoned and is lj the really free one, able to hear awesome drumming and call it boring
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Tuesday, 17 May 2022 14:37 (two years ago) link
yep, a more boring drummer. the same one who also turns sons of kemet into a stodgy one-paced jam outfit i believe. 'a hairdryer' would be a great song if he wasn't hellbent on tippy tapping that hi-hat in the same way for its entire duration
― imago, Tuesday, 17 May 2022 14:38 (two years ago) link
The problem with this is that OKC feels like a giant leap forward from The Bends. The Bends was basically a meat-and-potatoes indie rock record. OKC is a vast, troubling avant-prog masterpiece.
― joni mitchell jarre (anagram), Tuesday, 17 May 2022 14:52 (two years ago) link
IDK. Each album builds vastly on the one before it, but there's a clear through line of progression to my ears. This may be the bias of hindsight. I was not listening to these records as they came out; I came on the bandwagon during the Kid A/Amnesiac era. Also, if you think The Bends is a "meat-and-potatoes" indie rock record, I wanna know where you're getting your indie meat and potatoes from!
― feed me with your chips (zchyrs), Tuesday, 17 May 2022 15:00 (two years ago) link
its a meat and potatoes britpop record
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 17 May 2022 15:02 (two years ago) link
I don't really listen to any britpop so I will take your word for it. Makes more sense to me than comparing it to like, The Breeders or something. My Americanness re: what constitutes "indie" is likely showing here.
― feed me with your chips (zchyrs), Tuesday, 17 May 2022 15:07 (two years ago) link
i mean it's a very good britpop record but it's firmly within the style and sound palette of other stuff in that subgenre, unlike okc
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 17 May 2022 15:11 (two years ago) link
I wasn’t comparing OKC to IR in terms of tone or vibe or whatever. I was saying it’s sort of a return of a more traditional rock album in song structures and instrumentation that a certain kind of fan (namely those who only like The Bends and OKC) would probably enjoy.
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), Tuesday, 17 May 2022 15:27 (two years ago) link
What I’m saying is The Bends, OKC and In Rainbows are the three albums I’d recommend to a certain listener who is not too keen on “weird” Radiohead. Those 3 are by a margin their most accesible material.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, 17 May 2022 15:31 (two years ago) link
HTTT...morose?!
― imago, Tuesday, 17 May 2022 15:35 (two years ago) link
it is filled with energy, electricity and invention
― imago, Tuesday, 17 May 2022 15:36 (two years ago) link
would love to try to get someone who is not already a radiohead fan to sit through "we suck young blood"
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Tuesday, 17 May 2022 15:37 (two years ago) link
yeah and then it gets to the fast bit and they're like 'ohhhhh'
― imago, Tuesday, 17 May 2022 15:38 (two years ago) link
Yeah there’s energy but idk
I get a melancholic / space post-rock vibe from OKC, HTTT gives me more art rock / horror movie vibes.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, 17 May 2022 15:43 (two years ago) link
hence why it owns!!!!
― imago, Tuesday, 17 May 2022 15:45 (two years ago) link
That said both albums are really good at defining the sound of their times. Late 90s were alienating, early to mid 00’s it felt hopeless.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, 17 May 2022 15:46 (two years ago) link