Tag: radiohead

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.

As of now, this album is coming up to its 25th anniversary. This version is the all singing, all dancing version from 2017. This was the band’s third full length album, and is now considered one of the best albums in popular music. Even though the guitar is obvious throughout this record, this was a departure from the previous album (The Bends), which was totally guitar centric. The main theme that flows through the record is dealing with alienation brought on by consumerism.

There were four singles released from the album: the brilliant Paranoid Android, Karma Police, Lucky and No Surprises. I have this on CD also and I find it a hard listen, but the record is a lot better – I find 20 minute chunks a lot easier to absorb. This album has more in common with Prog than Pop, as the arrangements lean more in that direction, and old Pink Floyd comes to mind on a lot of the tracks. Tom Yorke’s vocals and delivery are the driving force of the band, and again, the music is quite basic – it’s how it’s layered together that makes it unique. The production and mix on this version is incredible, and if I were to recommend any version – it would be this. As I have already mentioned, it’s a tough album to get through in one sitting, but if you manage it it’s very rewarding.

9/10 from The Grooveman.