Radiothread - All I Want Is The Moon Upon a Stick

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No Music Discussion > Radiothread - All I Want Is The Moon Upon a Stick

kalensc: Sep 10, 2003; Only Trust Your Respirator, kupo!
Art/Quote by: Rubby

First listen was interesting, every song was enjoyable but I kept hoping for at least one more urgent/panicked/whatever track like Burn the Witch. At the time I definitely felt like a lot of the middle bled together, so while each song had some great moments I had trouble remembering them after the fact. Hadn't even looked at the tracklist when I started it up, so was super pleased when True Love Waits came on.

It looped back to the second listen, and that was legit fantastic. I wasn't distracted by expectations or "hoping for more X" anymore, I just took each song at face value and dug into the layering and background and flourishes. Really surprised how much my opinion improved by the end of that second hour. Excited to see how they evolve the songs when performing live.

Don't think that any of these songs are cracking my top three of Let Down, Reckoner, and the live True Love Waits though.

Also The National is amazing so :hfive:

to the poster who mentioned them earlier.

# ¿ May 9, 2016 04:24

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 17:21

kalensc: Sep 10, 2003; Only Trust Your Respirator, kupo!
Art/Quote by: Rubby

turnip kid posted:

"Too many strings" is such a strange criticism. I love bombastic string arrangements. I wish there were more strings, to be honest. Give me strings.

I've been extremely indifferent to Radiohead since 2003, when Hail to the Thief landed with a resounding thud with me, so this is an extremely pleasant surprise. I love the album and am now trying to make amends with the band and give HTTT-King of Limbs another shot.

I feel the length of HTTT so there's a track or two I just skip out of habit, but it's a very good album. Coming off of OK Computer, Kid A, and Amnesiac, and I Might be Wrong (Live) it fell flat for me initially as well, but after In Rainbows I went back to it and it clicked to a far higher degree.

These quotes are rather illuminating as to why the album felt "off" in some regards, they tried a new style for creating music and ramped up the pace a lot after Kid A and Amnesiac were so thorough and deliberate. I'd read these sentiments elsewhere before but had never seen these original quotes.

quote:

Yorke said: "We were like, 'Do we want to fly halfway around the world to do this?' But it was terrific, because we worked really hard. We did a track a day. It was sort of like holiday camp."

Greenwood said: "We didn't really have time to be stressed about what we did. We got to the end of the second week before we even heard what we did on the first two days, and didn't even remember recording it or who was playing things. Which is a magical way of doing things."

O'Brien told Rolling Stone that Hail to the Thief was the first Radiohead album "where, at the end of making it, we haven't wanted to kill each other."

A few years later

Yorke said: "I'd maybe change the playlist. I think we had a meltdown when we put it together ... as Nigel says, I wish I had another go at it. We wanted to do things quickly, and I think the songs suffered."

O'Brien told Mojo: "We should have pruned it down to 10 songs, then it would have been a really good record. I think we lost people on a couple of tracks and it broke the spell of the record."

Colin Greenwood said: "I didn't want three or four songs on there, because I thought some of the ideas we were trying out weren't completely finished ... For me, Hail to the Thief was more of a holding process, really."

Godrich told the NME: "I think there's some great moments on there - but too many songs. I think that's kind of agreed amongst the camp these days but at the time it was just what happened ... As a whole I think it's charming because of the lack of editing. But personally it's probably my least favourite of all the albums ... It didn't really have its own direction. It was almost like a homogeny of previous work. Maybe that's its strength."

The REAL Goobusters posted:

Let's be real Radiohead is not a summer jam or gym type of band.

Summer jam maybe not, although there's a bunch of good summer driving or lounging songs in their discography IMO, especially early on.

A few tracks from Pablo Honey, The Bends, and the first two discs from Towering Above the Rest are still in the cycling/jogging playlist that I shuffle through, would work in a gym too for me at least.

kalensc fucked around with this message at 19:27 on May 9, 2016

# ¿ May 9, 2016 19:12

kalensc: Sep 10, 2003; Only Trust Your Respirator, kupo!
Art/Quote by: Rubby

In Rainbows contends for best Radiohead album for me, but I've never ever understood the love for House of Cards. There needed to be a "breather" between Reckoner and Jigsaw for sure so it's a fine track within the album, but I do not get the praise people give it as a stand-alone song.

Can someone who really likes the song share why they dig it so much? I'd be curious to listen to it again with a different perspective on it.

# ¿ May 11, 2016 18:10

kalensc: Sep 10, 2003; Only Trust Your Respirator, kupo!
Art/Quote by: Rubby

SgtScruffy posted:

On Reviewchat, that Kid A review is one of my favorite reviews of all time because jesus it's just so Pitchfork (at least, how Pitchfork was seen by people who didn't like pitchfork).

Brent DiCreszenzo's reviews were all as terrible as it - he did a pretty great (in that it's terrible) review of Lateralus by Tool, and wrote a review of Ben Folds Five's Reinhold Messner that was 3/4 him name dropping celebrities he saw at a movie premiere and then finishing with "oh yeah and the album sucks 3.3/10

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/645-the-unauthorized-biography-of-reinhold-messner/

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/8104-lateralus/

The F Plus has an old episode where they read some of the worst music reviews, and DiCreszenzo comes up a looooot. Hearing it read out loud takes some of those sentences to a level beyond ludicrous.

# ¿ May 13, 2016 18:15

kalensc: Sep 10, 2003; Only Trust Your Respirator, kupo!
Art/Quote by: Rubby

All fingers and toes and limbs crossed in the hopes that tonight's setlist includes:

Let Down
Reckoner
:ohdear:

# ¿ Jul 18, 2018 01:15

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 17:21

kalensc: Sep 10, 2003; Only Trust Your Respirator, kupo!
Art/Quote by: Rubby

Leroy Dennui posted:

I laid down some song predictions with the friends I went with only a little over an hour before the July 13th show started; Let Down, Kid A and The Gloaming were the ones that came true, and I couldn't be happier to have Let Down and Kid A show up on there

Lucky was a good indication of the setlist that was to come; Thom was right when he said it was going to be a glorious day.

Twas an awesome show!

Reckoner was wonderful. Alas there was no Let Down, but it was great to hear The Bends, Fake Plastic Trees, Climbing Up the Walls, Kid A, and Morning Mr. Magpie (iirc, def a first-half track off TKOL). Also Spectre!

# ¿ Jul 18, 2018 04:21

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No Music Discussion > Radiothread - All I Want Is The Moon Upon a Stick