New Radiohead album coming in the next few days! YAY!

[undergroundling]

Miguel: Go out and buy the album, it's worth the $15!

If I had to rank the Radiohead albums in any order, I guess it would go something like this:

1. OK Computer
2. Hail to the Thief
3. The Bends
4. Amnesiac
5. Kid A
6. Pablo Honey

I dunno...I like Pablo Honey, it's a good album, but in comparison to the rest of their stuff, it lacks a lot of the inventive goodness of their later albums.  It's more standard rock fare, but still much more innovative than any other rock album that came out around the same time.  OK Computer is untouchable in my mind for its all-around terrific songwriting and for containing perhaps the greatest song ever written, Paranoid Android.  Oh yes, it's that good.

- Bryan

[remixor]

Looks like I'll be a lone dissenter on this one.  I got HTTT the first day it came out in the States, listened to it many times, and came to the conclusion that it's certainly good, but not great.  It sounds pretty much like what I'd expect from an album that combines their older sound with the likes of Kid A and Amnesiac.  There's nothing really wrong with that, per se, except that I was hoping for something a bit more surprising.  The thing for me is that, while I appreciate that they're using new instruments and electronic mediums and so forth, I don't see that as particularly innovative.  There are bands that have been doing that for years now.  Radiohead doesn't actually do much in the way of song structure or arrangement that's particularly out of the ordinary (at least, not since OK Computer, which was most definitely exceptionally incredible).  Let's be honest; most of their songs are still verse-chorus or in the case of their new albums quite often simply chorus-chorus-chorus-chorus or verse-verse-verse-verse etc. etc., depending on how you want to look at it.  This is no slight agains the band; Radiohead is still one of my favorite recording acts today, but I honestly do not believe that albums like HTTT really deserve a lot of the praise it gets for being all that "new" and  brilliant.  Just because they use drum machines instead of drums in some parts or sythesized things instead of acoustic instruments in other parts doesn't mean they're geniuses.

I'm not trying to put them down or anything, I just think people sometimes get slightly carried away when talking about Radiohead because of their reputation.  They still make great music; don't get me wrong.  However, I would be EXTREMELEY surprised if HTTT actually becomes Radiohead's greatest legacy over OK Computer.  I just can't see why that would be the case.  There's nothing wrong with anyone individually enjoying HTTT more, but I think it would be very difficult to prove that as an album or as a work of music it actually did more interesting things or paved the way for more avenues of musical expression that OKC.

[undergroundling]

I agree that HTTT isn't the most innovative of Radiohead's albums, and I don't think anyone would have the gall to place it above OK Computer in the pantheon of greatness, but personally, I find it a little more likeable than the cold, electronic soundscapes of Kid A/Amnesiac, and I prefer it only slightly over The Bends.

While compared to their other works, HTTT isn't wildly genius, if you compare it to most any other album being released now that is selling as many copies as this one, HTTT is far more innovative than any of the other stuff the record companies are peddling on the radio.

There certainly are more innovative bands out there than Radiohead, but Radiohead has brought innovation and expermentation to the mainstream rock world and has applied their own quirky twist to the pop-rock genre.  HTTT may not be genius, but it certainly is pushing the envelope as far as pop music may be concerned.

On a side note, I disagree a bit about the structure of these songs.  Since OK Computer, their songs have generally had a more free form structure.  Breaking them down into verse/chorus or anything like that seems a little silly.  The songs are broken down into what can best be described as movements, like in classical music, and break free from many traditional song forums.  "2+2=5" for example builds up with a fairly generic structure but breaks into the explosive (and totally different) climax, which can't be really classified as a verse, chorus, or bridge or what have you.  Their structures more resemble a band like Modest Mouse, playing out one motif until it breaks down or builds up into something else.

- Bryan

[DGMacphee]

Also, I dig a lot of the subtle Bush/Iraq political references in the album -- Like the title 'Hail to the Thief' (Obviously a reference to George W. Bush at the presidential election) or songs like 2+2=5 (Possible reference to election results) and Sit Down Stand up (The line "We can wipe you out anytime') as examples (There are plenty more).

i might be wrong, but i think they named the album in reference to some anonymous guy who stole their early unfinished tapes for their new album a while ago. it seemed to piss them off a lot, which is understandable.

It could be both.

Also, remember that someone in the studio leaked the tracks onto Kazaa a few months before release -- could also be a reference to that.

However, you can't ignore the political references in most of the songs -- a lot of the references also deal with surveillance society developments in the last few years (e.g. the Patriot Act).

And 'Hail To ThE Thief' is a well known reference to Bush election 'win' -- there's even a webiste that goes by the same name that's been operating way before the album came about.

Bryan:
I very much agree with your list - though I'm temped to interchange The Bends and Amnesiac.

remixor:
I agree that HTTT isn't a technically innovative, but the reason why I like Radiohead (and the reason why I like this album so much) is that it continues to represent humanity on another level.

Where OK Computer represented the ideology of 'being human', HTTT provides a human uncertainty in their songs this time.

This is exactly how I feel, and I think how most people feel these days -- uncertain and confused, yet hoping for a better future.

Then again, I'm looking at the album as a whole here, including the album cover.

Try and make sense of the whole thing -- it's really impossbile to understand it all (for example, try and find links between the two different titles for each song).

In the end, it's impossible to understand 100% of anything -- just like humanity as a whole.

I don't understand all of what their albums try to tell me -- but I have a wonderful time trying.  

[DGMacphee]

Check out this:

http://www.worth1000.com/view.asp?entry=49355&display=animation

Captivating, isn't it?