Radiohead released their ninth studio LP, A Moon Shaped Pool yesterday, May 8.
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Thom Yorke, Jonny and Colin Greenwood, Phil Selway and Ed O’Brien have kept fans and admirers waiting for years, but the new album is sure to be a huge success. The result is a version that honors the song’s simplicity while simultaneously having touches of the elaborate soundscapes that have defined the band since Kid A. After 2011’s King of Limbs, which received a lukewarm response, the music group has resurfaced together with a new album that is easily one of their finest. On the contrary; this is a slow burner, less immediate than superb opener and portentous lead single ‘Burn the Witch’, with its clipped violin riff and eerie vocals would suggest.
Radiohead’s PR team had no comment on Radiohead’s choice of subscription services, although the band’s singer, Thom Yorke, has spoken out against Spotify in colorful terms in the past. On Tuesday, we had ‘Burn The Witch, ‘ which was followed by ‘Daydreaming, ‘ on Friday. The video was shot by Paul Thomas Anderson, the director of Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Inherent Vice, The Master and There Will Be Blood, the latter three films featuring scores by Greenwood. “Decks Dark” has Yorke noting the girl’s “face in the glass, and it’s dark now / it was just a laugh, it was just a laugh”.
This lovely track starts with a folky, Bert Jansch-like guitar figure and ends with Yorke’s repeated assertion that “Different types of love are possible”.
This track showed up for the first time live at the Palace of Auburn Hills in MI in June 2012.
Additionally, fans can purchase a special edition of the new record, which will be available to ship in November. For one thing, it’s the closest thing Radiohead has to a love song, although with sadly abject lyrics like “I’ll drown my beliefs to have your babies/I’ll dress like your niece, I’ll wash your swollen feet/just don’t leave”, it’s a very Radiohead-style love song. And anyway, by the time September rolls around and the package gets shipped to you, you probably won’t even remember having spent almost $100 way back in May. Just me? Cool. Cool cool cool. “And I’m wondering, should I turn around?”
Radiohead introduced “Ful Stop” at a June 2012 show in IL, and, along with “Identikit”, went on to play it multiple times throughout that tour. To top it off, you’ll also receive a 32 page digital booklet and a digital download. By utilising songs that have floated around for years (Identikit and Present Tense among them), the band are taking in a full-scale view of their past, present and future.
Check out the tracklist and album art below.
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The gentle guitar driven melody showed up in 2009 but was only played acoustically by Yorke during his solo shows and with his other band, Atoms for Peace. It’s hard to tell what this album is going to bring to the table, and what the members of Radiohead have planned for their fans in general.
