Radiohead has always surprised with every new album, following the shoegazer-grunge Pablo Honey<\/i> with the radio-friendly pop-rock The Bends<\/i>, the boldly experimental OK Computer <\/i>and the indefinably eccentric follow-ups Kid A <\/i>and Amnesiac<\/i>. It has become impossible to predict what artistic direction the band will take, but after Amnesiac <\/i>one wondered how much more inaccessible the band’s sound could get.<\/p>\n
Hail To The Thief<\/i> is surprising like its predecessors, but it is a pleasant surprise, as this time the band takes a step back from its weirdness and creates a comparatively straightforward rock album. Thief<\/i> almost seems like a transition album from OK Computer<\/i> to Kid A<\/i>, borrowing equally from both, but unlike those discs Thief<\/i> is an album of multiple parts instead of one uniform sound.<\/p>\n
Though Radiohead hasn\u2019t taken one fixed musical direction on Thief<\/i>, it is an absolutely solid effort. It still is cheekily antagonistic and anti-political. The album begins with Thom singing \u201cAre you such a dreamer to put the world to rights \/ I’ll stay home forever where two and two always makes a five,\u201d and this track (\u201c2+2=5\u201d) instantly draws a connection to \u201cElectioneering\u201d or \u201cKarma Police.\u201d<\/p>\n
The concluding track, \u201cA Wolf at the Door,\u201d features a rustic medieval rhythm behind the story, which is like a violent fairy tale with the wolf as the all-encompassing villain: the system, the taxman, or the government that peeves the band ever so often.<\/p>\n
Styles and ideas explored on Thief<\/i> range from the outright absurd to the absolutely beautiful. \u201cWe Suck Young Blood\u201d is Radiohead\u2019s way of scratching a chalkboard with long nails. The slow and sagging sound of the music in the form of rhythmic funeral clapping on this cut is made worse by Thom Yorke\u2019s trembling wail, as if he was in some kind of an abnormal pain, which goes well with the lyrics of \u201cAre you fracturing? Are you torn at the seams? Would you do anything? Fleabitten, motheaten?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSail To The Moon,\u201d on the other hand, is a beautifully dreamy piano ballad with a strange sense of optimism lurking in its melancholic grandeur. So is \u201cScatterbrain;\u201d a nice little ditty, a very simple guitar hook, and Yorke\u2019s helpless croons is all it takes to make it a brilliant piece. Similarly, \u201cThe Gloaming\u201d is musically minimal, but lets Yorke\u2019s vulnerability come out straight to the forefront, without any music or production effects tying to disfigure his vocals as they usually do.<\/p>\n
The singles were \u201cThere There,\u201d with its lush, eruptive climax and \u201cGo To Sleep,\u201d with an unforgettable riff, both simply fantastic rock songs that fans disappointed with Kid A\u2019s <\/i>overindulgent techno eccentricities might greet with open arms.<\/p>\n
However, Radiohead does revisit Kid A<\/i> on \u201cBackdrifts\u201d and \u201cA Punchup At A Wedding,\u201d with great electronic beats forming the backbone for both the cuts. But they are still much more straightforward and accessible than Kid A\u2019s<\/i> most accessible songs, if there are any.<\/p>\n
As a record, Thief<\/i> borrows the best from OK Computer<\/i> and Kid A<\/i>, but doesn\u2019t match the intensity or uniqueness of either. However, it offers a lot more musical variety without sounding disjointed, and while Radiohead might have given up some of its insanity on Thief<\/i>, it hasn\u2019t lost even a slightest bit of musical genius and virtuosity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":26395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5849],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-40040","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-radiohead","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40040"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}