Radiohead in its right place
When the music industry last saw Radiohead, the band had unleashed 2001’s sister album to 2000’s Kid A, the jumbled Amnesiac. Amnesiac and Kid A both fared very well critically and commercially (Kid A took the number one spot on the U.S. charts) and both albums spawned a new legion of fans. However, there was one drawback: Many of the band’s older fans felt turned off by the new synthesized sound. Perhaps after the fantastic presence exhibited by OK Computer some felt that Radiohead had simply reached their peak. Meanwhile others discarded the electronic movement as artistic inspiration, similar to the fate that assaulted U2 at one time. Whatever the reason, Kid A and Amnesiac made an impact (for the record, I love both albums) and Radiohead continued to foster themselves as one of the next great rock bands. In the period after Amnesiac though a new climate entered the music scene, a reemergence of electric guitars in favor of electric keyboards. Bands like the White Stripes and the Strokes popularized the sketchy, rock sound of heavy guitar-work, something that had been absent from Kid A and Amnesiac. Other bands were outright bastardizations of Radiohead (Coldplay gets the gold here).
Just as the music industry was vastly changing, so too was the political climate of the world. Terrorism, rising oil prices, controversial elections and congruent wars littered the landscape and fueled CNN. Finally, after two years, Radiohead returns, shaped and molded by these subsequent events, to release their sixth studio album, Hail to the Thief.
Hail to the Thief, despite popular belief, isn’t OK Computer 2. For that matter, it isn’t Kid C, or Amnesiac version 2.0. One listen to Hail to the Thief reveals the workings of a band that has learned their lesions from OK Computer and the duet of Kid Amnesiac. Likewise, Thief calls to mind the earlier examples of Pablo Honey and The Bends. All of these influences and unique sounds blend together and interlace to create the ultimate result of Radiohead’s years of recording: The mastery of their sound.
This mastery is present in nearly all of the songs, jutting out from the record like jagged icicles raging between one another. On one hand Radiohead has their electronic experimentation, and on the other their precision guitar-work. Weaving the two together, Radiohead makes Thief an enjoyable, almost catchy album. 2+2=5 starts off with Johnny Greenwood plugging his guitar into an amplifier, quite obviously a sheer tease directed to the band’s guitar fans. Frothing forth with a mellow pace, 2+2=5 seems to surge with underlying energy and anger. The subtle guitar-work mocks the listener, reminding them of what Radiohead was capable of during the Bends, what they can do. And then they do it. 2+2=5 explodes in a furry of Yorke’s anger and the band’s edgy resonance. Immediately after the song implodes upon itself, the album shifts to the electronic tinged beats of Sit Down, Stand Up, a piano laden venture that calls to mind some of Radiohead’s earlier experimentation. Clashes like this are prominent on Hail to the Thief; Sail to the Moon is followed by Backdrifts while the Gloaming leads into the tribal There, There. It’s a real battlefield on Radiohead’s sixth album, a place where the mastery of Radiohead’s soaring guitars brushes up against the bitter self-loathing of inspired electronics. In this battlefield the only thing that keeps all of Radiohead’s subsequent styles in check is Yorke’s beautifully haunting voice. Thankfully, unlike Radiohead’s last two ventures, Yorke’s voice is for the most part unhindered by electronic abstracting (although, that isn’t to say that I disproved of it for Kid A and Amnesiac). Amidst the war between electronica and rock one thing becomes abundantly clear through Yorke’s howling din: Hail to the Thief is a product of its timeline, a commentary on the world we live in. But you knew that already, didn’t you? Still, there are some moments on the album that are entirely unique while at the same time remaining connected to Yorke’s feelings of doom and gloom. One such song is the amazingly ethereal track “Sail to the Moon”. Here, Yorke isn’t berating his listeners for choosing undemocratic world leaders, nor is he pondering the impending fate that rests upon the world’s shoulders. Rather, he looks forth into the future of his son’s life with an air of wonderment. “Maybe you’ll be president, but know right from wrong” he asks. “Or in the flood, you’ll build an ark, and sail us to the moon” his darker connotations shine through.
Here, in the doom, the gloom and Yorke’s hopeful wishes, one other thing becomes abundantly clear: Out of every other Radiohead album, this one is the most fun to listen to. Hail to the Thief is truly a mastery of Radiohead’s style, the band sitting back and doing what they do best. It radiates the boundless energy of Pablo Honey without all of the grunge album’s naivety. It deplores the dehumanization of society and the greater evil lurking in the world, like OK Computer. It demonstrates the feelings of alienation given in the Bends, and it extends the introverted glance at one’s self that Kid A and Amnesiac provided. It’s experimentation under restriction. It’s alternative rock without the convulsions. It’s Radiohead having fun. Good thing, because it’s fun to listen to.
It’s better to spend a night with Thom Yorke in a bunker than with Chris Martin and Gwyneth after all!
Favorite tracks:
I Will: Fans will remember this song as a previously unreleased track that emerged around the period of OK Computer. In the inspired vein of Nude and Big Boots, I Will seems to be a sheer Yorke track. It’s kind of short though…
Myxamatosis: It’s like a kick in the jimmies!
Sail to the Moon: Move over Pyramid Song, Sail to the Moon is another one of Radiohead’s epic piano masterpieces. With Yorke’s crooning voice at the helm, the song features an electric guitar that seems to mold itself around the prominent piano.
A Wolf at the Door: Quite possibly the best track on Hail to the Thief, and easily one of the best tracks Radiohead has written in years. A Wolf at the Door seems to picture Thom Yorke pushing up against the door to his house in distress as the elements of a troubled world close in on him. One interesting tidbit to keep in mind is the fact that this track is completely written by Johnny Greenwood, Radiohead’s guitarist. He also wrote several other tracks on Thief.
