via//chicago

np: "the size of our love" - sleater-kinney
everytime i pull out some S-K for listening, i always wonder why i don't do it more often. i didn't discover them until All Hands on the Bad One, but since then i've gone back and discovered the back catalog. someone needs to tell the Hot Topic teens that this is real punk made by real women, but i don't think all those Avril clones would understand. their loss.

so i decided to try my hand at writing another review, this time for the new Radiohead. i still don't feel as strong about my reviewing skills as i would like to, but i figure the only way to improve is to by continue writing them. and i feel that the writing is wasted without feeling that it's out there for others to read. so here you go, have a read if you'd like.

Radiohead
Hail to the Thief
2003
(Capitol)

Synthesis is the name of the game this go-round for Thom Yorke and the rest of Radiohead with the new album Hail to the Thief. There was little left for the band to prove to it’s audience, other than proving another great album was in the works following the unheralded streak of the last four. A lot of speculation surrounded this album, would it be a return to the rock based sound of The Bends as Thom had been saying (threatening?) in interviews, or would it throw the band’s sound even further into left field? The answer to both questions was a resounding… sort of. This album somewhat combines the soaring, epic qualities of the earlier work, while still retaining the sonic tweaking the band explored so well during the Kid Amnesiac period. But most of all, this album manages to prove that Radiohead is still one of the most exciting acts producing albums on a major label today.
Things kick off with “2 + 2 = 5”, a soaring track that builds slowly upon a computerized beat only to rage into full on rocker mode complete with real-life drummer Phil Selway. Thom warns us that “it is too late now / because you have not been paying attention” as the track almost veers out of control. The world is spinning out of control, but there’s nothing we can do short of sandbagging into a hole and hiding. While this isn’t exactly a overtly political album by the band, there are numerous subtle references to world events of the past 3 years right from the get-go. The lead track ends abruptly and takes us into the next two tracks, which serve as an excellent example of Radiohead’s skill at sequencing tracks. “Sit down, Stand up” ends with Yorke’s plaintive wailing about the raindrops falling, and “Sail to the Moon” rides on the waters in a giant ark to the moon.
Salvation isn’t to be found that easily, as Yorke makes it perfectly clear that we aren’t to escape the earth that easily. Evidence is erased and liars are being eaten alive as the innocent abandon hope to bunker down and protect their children. “Go to Sleep” and “Where I End and You Begin” speak to the paranoia of both the world at large and the narrator himself. It’s not made clear to whether it’s the evil government or personal demons coming to get us, but either way there is nothing we can do but try and survive. The middle tracks speak of good times ruined at weddings by drunken fools and sirens waiting to devour the innocent foolish enough to get too close. There is no salvation to be found anywhere, as Thom tells us in the lead single “There, There”. “We are accidents waiting to happen”, he warns, despite the title’s misleading clues of soothing. The remainder of the album only adds to this sense of fear and paranoia, “A Wolf at the Door” closes things off with the demons of the world at the door, but they haven’t gotten in just yet.
Lyrically, this album is one of Yorke’s strongest efforts since 1997’s OK Computer, with this album sharing that one’s sense of epic scale and excellence at setting a mood. Except this time, the enemy is not just technology but the world at large. Overall, this album relies more on a sense of strong song-writing, and less on the sonic trickery of the last two releases. While the Pro Tools beats and fidgeting are still present, they are more often repressed throughout Hail to the Thief, allowing the band to prove what can still be done five men still banging away on old-fashioned instruments. You’ll hear the previous mentioned drumming as well as Colin Greenwood performing actual (gasp!) guitar solos. What the album accomplishes best though, is the establishment of a mood, one that the listener can twist in nearly any way to relate to real life. While Thom’s abstract lyrics aren’t forcing an obvious political view down your throat, he is still waking you up to feel the paranoia.
The only disappointment that may be found in this album is the fact that the band really doesn’t try anything that new or original with their sound this time. While they are able to combine all of the strengths of the previous albums, it still lacks a certain feeling of precedent setting that usually comes with hearing a new Radiohead album. While there may not be single outstanding tracks such as “High and Dry” or “How to Disappear Completely”, this one manages to successfully create and establish a feeling from beginning to end. Hail to the Thief is better experience in one sitting, as a complete whole, rather than in bits and pieces. It falls short of the instant-classic status of OK Computer and doesn’t push far enough to sonically amaze like Kid A, but it certainly proves that Radiohead can still create a satisfying album that echoes the unnerving state of the world. And really, what else can we ask for in these days of disposable teen idols and forgotten next month party anthems?