Rightly (or wrongly) described by critics as the most depressing band in the world, I guess that’s up to the listener to decide instead of some dozen journo trying to make a name for themselves.
Their albums vary a lot and they are a bit hit and miss for me, but this one I really like as they do play around with ambient sounds for moods – I do like that. Burn The Witch is quite a joyful uplifting piece, whereas Daydreaming is quite a fragile piece with lots of nice ambient touches. Decks Dark has an underlying orchestral vibe to it, but I would say it’s a typical Radiohead tune with lots of experimenting with sounds. Desert Island Disks is a beautiful acoustic piece. Full Stop has a very trip hop feel to it, with Portishead’s Clive Deamer on drums. Glass Eyes sounds very melancholic, as are a lot of their tunes, and again, very orchestral sounding. Identikit has a really cool drum pattern and beat – it sounds so great. The production is fantastic on the whole album. The Numbers is a cool song based around a basic acoustic chord pattern. Present Tense is my favourite track, I just love the simplicity of it and it sounds amazing. Tinker Tailor is the weirdest sounding track on the album with lots of experimental sounds. The album closes out with True Love Waits, and it’s all about Thom Yorke’s superb vocal.
This band have recording down to an art form as it’s just an incredible sounding record. I would say this is my favourite Radiohead record, and this is a Prog album in the true sense of the word.
9/10 from The Grooveman.
