'There's a spacecraft blocking out the sky'
Radiohead release their ninth album, amidst an amalgamated wave of anticipation spawned over the last five years. After The King Of Limbs, an album that sounded more along the lines of Yorke's solo-work, which focuses on the leading electronic sound, they have returned to having these sounds as only an element of their music, rather than the centre-piece. Radiohead emerged from the britpop scene and spent their early days embracing the alternative rock paradigm which they would later go on to challenge. Since their 1997 classic OK Computer, they have focused on compounding electronic, art rock and alternative rock on mostly every album to follow. And although the ingredients have been arguably the same, they have yielded five studio albums each with distinctly singular identities. Now we come to A Moon Shaped Pool, with all the same components but with its own separate balancing, pace, atmosphere and blends of instrumentation to once again gain its unique position in their body of work.
The
album commences with 'Burn The Witch', leading single and the album's
most grandiose offering. The song maps an abrasive environment, with
a harsh col legno string section that feels tightened and pressured
throughout the verse and finally releases in the first part of the
chorus, as the string intensity eases for a brief moment, then
returns in the second part. Meanwhile, the vocals seem to follow the
opposite trend. Yorke delivers a casual vocal line throughout the
verse, and when the first part of the chorus hits, where he sings the
line 'burn the witch', it is all of a sudden soaked in echo,
generating the signature ghostly tone fans are so akin to. In the
second part of the chorus, both elements peak in severity and the
song hits its most glistening mark. As a track that rarely descends
from its heights of horror-esque epic sound, it serves as quite an
intimidating opener for the rest of the track list to follow.
Radiohead, however, succeed in bringing down the intensity levels with the soft,
piano-led 'Daydreaming'. This song resembles similar stripped-back,
piano songs of previous albums, such as In Rainbows'
'Videotape' or Hail To
The Thief's 'We Suck Young Blood
(Your Time Is Up.)'. However, unlike these tracks, 'Daydreaming'
remains completely devoid of any drums, and also unlike the other
tracks, the song is infiltrated midway through with glitchy snippets
of warped vocals. Here we are given our first overt taste of
electronica on the album (save the drum machines of the opening
track). These distorting effects have a strong prevalence
in the track's progression, and what began as a simple imitation of
beauty is tainted by digital menace. Combine this with the
pessimistic lyricism: 'dreamers, they never learn', and the sombre
vocals and what is left is a desolate hole of bleeding negative
emotion. Both opening songs are bleak but terrific, and prove
high-points of the album even by the time we hit its terminal point.
Finally
we pick up musically from these dreary beginnings with the
following track which offers some light in
the instrumentation. We move next in the track list to my favourite
song on the album 'Decks Dark', dominated instrumentally by a much
more optimistic piano riff, with a filled backdrop of rapid piano
playing, leaving no space for empty sound. And although the lyrical
themes remain in their melancholy space, the sonic shift in tone
provides the variation much needed at this point of the album. Our
lyrics position us in perhaps a metaphoric alien or futuristic world,
with the line of a 'spacecraft blocking out the sky'. No doubt this
is symbolic representation of more cold feeling. The song closes with
a fantastically crafted guitar riff and Yorke repeating 'have you had
enough of me?'. Many have speculated into the perhaps personal theme
of the album, as Yorke emerges from a recent break-up, various
allusions are made to these emotional contemplations.
However, they are shrouded in more general, and impersonal imagery
which clouds a direct and simple interpretation of the album.
Next
is the first of four moments in which I believe the album show its weak
spots. Though these songs are not by any means bad or poorly
composed, 'Desert Island Disk' along with 'Glass Eyes', 'The Numbers'
and 'Tinker
Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief'
simply hit me as less captivating and packed with strong identity as
some of their surrounding songs. 'Desert Island Disk' is perhaps the
strongest of these moments, with our first taste of a guitar-driven
song. This is a shining and perhaps the most memorable riff on the
entire disc, and a simple albeit pretty vocal melody. Perhaps the
songs lack of any real progression is the root of my slight
reservation for it, though it is still enjoyable and my gripes are
very much minimal.
'Glass
Eyes' is perhaps my least favourite on the album, the piano being
quite nondescript
and strings perhaps somewhat over-bearing, but, as always on this
album, Yorke's vocals never slouch. I struggle to find a lesser
moment in Yorke's delivery and lyricism on this project, which
perhaps is due to his emotion being the blood of the album. However,
although Yorke does not drop the ball in 'The Numbers' either, it is
a song that is plainly less introspective, and although carries
weight as the protest song it is, perhaps some of the lines ring as a
bit out-of-character and uninspired such as 'your system is a lie'.
If this is the climate change song it is rumored to be (though it is
not horrendously
clear), then Radiohead could have perhaps presented the issue in a
more emotionally gripping way, for this song seems to wash over me
too easily, in music and words. Finally, 'Tinker Tailor' embraces the digital sound with the The King Of Limbs-esque first half, featuring a soft electronic loop which eventually
ascends into a burst of orchestral sounds. However, this song seems
to struggle most with memorability and identity, and perhaps is their
most unimaginative song on the album. It comes off as the closest
thing on this album to filler. And though I like the abstract lyrics,
combine this with the music and it causes it to seep further into the
territory of forgetfulness.
However,
these moments are paced between some of the strongest moments in the
album. Straight after 'Desert Island Disk' we are thrown into 'Ful
Stop', with the pace and feel of an electro-dance track but complicated by the powerful
contradiction with the sour lyrics that drone and repeat: 'you really
messed up this time' , 'the truth will mess you up'. Similarly, after
'Glass Eyes' we have another of the most upbeat tracks and another of
my favourites
on the album 'Identikit', which I believe has appeared in live shows
years back, but has now only surfaced in polished studio format.
Again, Yorke is the high-point, with the extremely catchy 'when I see
you messing me around, I don't want to know'. Also, the elements that
take their turns in invading the song when the 'broken hearts make it
rain' scene begins. First the guitar, then the keyboards and synths,
in doing this it creates an effective 'journey' feel throughout its
duration, as the song finally closes with an unusual guitar solo.
'Present Tense' features a prominent Latin shuffle, with more echoed,
contorted vocals in the background adding to this continuous
streak of depressing lyrics: 'as my world comes crashing down', 'in
you I'm
lost'. And finally the album closer 'True Love Waits', which is
perhaps the softest, slowest and least abrasive song. On first
listen, this may seem an underwhelming closer, but on repeat listens,
the vulnerability here, especially in the constant words 'don't
leave', leaves the heart tender and exposed, encapsulating the emotional state
of the album well.
Perhaps
it is reductive to think of this as some sort of break-up album, and
the upbeat tempos deliberately obscure us from simply feeling one
constant emotion, but there is no doubting this album is powered by a
pained mind. It is this that helps it shine most in the context of
Radiohead's discography. On first listen, this album was only pretty
good, but after a few more it suddenly became great, and perhaps in
the months to come it will get better. The subtlety
and nuances in the album set it up to be a grower. And although I do
not believe it reaches the heights of albums such as Kid A
and Amnesiac
currently, I still consider this one of their stronger releases.
Highlights:
Burn The Witch, Daydreaming, Decks Dark, Ful Stop, Identikit, Present
Tense
Lowlights:
Glass Eyes, The Numbers, Tinker Tailor Soldier
Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief
Rating:
Mid-High 8/10
Rating:
Mid-High 8/10
