Track by Track





Today, I'll be reviewing experimental rock quintet Radiohead's 2003 album,. Radiohead is a extremely talented band, hailing all the across the Atlantic and consisting of members Thom Yorke (the vocalist), Jonny Greenwood (guitarist/multi-instrumentalist), his brother Colin Greenwood (bassist), Ed O'Brien (guitarist/soundscapes/"the glue"), and last but not least the drummer Phil Selway. They have been at it for about 32 years, starting the band at the Abingdon School in Oxfordshire, England. Since their second albumwas released in 1995, they've continued to make genre defining and groundbreaking music. A great example of this is their 4th album,, released at the dawn of the 21st century. With their 3rd album,being released to widespread critical acclaim, they embarked on a year-long world tour and became extremely burned out by the end, overwhelmed by all of the success and stress that came along with it. They struggled to choose a musical path, unsure of where to go, and just experimenting with new sounds trying to make since of what they would become. In October 2000, they released, an album that confused everybody with its unconscious choice to put obscure sounds into mainstream music. Nevertheless, it became a critically acclaimed album and eventually ended up as being ranked one of the best albums of all time. Now I could go on and on about the success that resulted from Radiohead's extremely thoughtful artistic output, but I'm going to switch over the topic of focus for today's review, which isOn, Radiohead attempts to fuse the experimentation ofand(its successor) with traditional rock sounds. They definitely achieve that goal on the album, evident in songs like Where I End and You Begin and There There. Radiohead does a great job at also diversifying their sound within these rock and electronic bounds. On the song Sit Down Stand Up, for example, the song starts of with a repetitive drum machine rhythm, then suddenly this piano riff enters, and then it repeats and repeats, seeming to pull from electronic music artists like Aphex Twin and Squarepusher. But then, instead of becoming monotonous (not saying Apex and co. are), the music becomes more intense as synths enter the mix and start to layer on top of each other, and now the music begins to feel like dark and fast-paced rock song created by Flying Lotus and Metallica. Though the two genres aren't executed to such an extent as like on Sit Down Stand Up, they mesh well and emerge in the mix when it best suits each song, which I applaud Radiohead for doing. While I do think Radiohead did things well on this album, I think they also made some bad decisions, which caused the album to suffer. The words "No" and the phrase "The raindrops" didn't need to be repeated for minutes on their respective songs (A Punch Up at A Wedding and Sit Down Stand Up); many of the lyrics on the album are boring and seem uninspired as they give me no answer or sense as to what Yorke was feeling or trying to say in the songs (except for in songs There There and 2 + 2 = 5). Backdrifts and Scatterbrain are in fact very monotonous, unchanging, and ultimately uninteresting throughout in regards to dynamics and harmonies/melodies (which is why The Gloaming gets a pass for me) and their length does nothing to help it (Backdrifts being over 5 minutes and Scatterbrain around 3 and a half minutes). Despite its ups and downs, Hail to the Thief is a solid album from Radiohead that should please both traditional rock and electronic fans willing to give into some experimentation.A quickreview:Great opening track, full of pure energy;Menacing and fast paced, but a grower track;A truly outstanding and completely mesmerizing piano ballad, the minimalism and attention to sound really makes the track;nothing special, happier sounding than the other songs;A "Western" sounding track, driven by great acoustic guitar work from Thom Yorke (though actually written by Ed O'Brien), nice song overall;Solid bass line that carries the whole track with a very spacious atmosphere behind it; We Suck Young Blood- Revolves around one tiresome chord progression with a break in the middle (which is truly just a waste and seems as if it was inserted on random), my least favorite track on the album;Excellent track, definitely single material and entertains the ear throughout the song with the unusual structure and the complimentary guitar riffs;short and sweet;I admittedly like the music but I feel like the lyrics are just lazy;The 5ths guitar line featured throughout the track is very catchy and the song just calls for head banging;Though a bit boring, I have to say that the guitar work is very beautiful and the interplay between Ed and Jonny is masterful on this track;Perhaps my favorite song on the album, features wave of loud and energetic, and quiet and relaxed, plus the chorus is so sublime and I liken the verse to being the dark of night where all is unknown and you are fearful and then the chorus is the sunlight where you can see you path and you become comforted, masterpiece closer from Radiohead.