Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool

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Happy Radiohead release day, guys. Nothing short of a Shuttlecock release brings this forum together like a new RH record. You never know how many more Radiohead release days there will be, so enjoy the 'new Radiohead' feeling while you can.

I love this record already. I was so underwhelmed on KOL release day, but today I'm over the moon(pun not intended). This thing is a beast. The instrumentation is so lush and warm and full. KOL was mostly instrumentally sparse, and IR, a record I love, was mostly a minimalist affair, but this is full-band right here. The strings, the bass(Colin is doing WORK on this record), the brief but welcome guitars, the percussion, it's all there.

This record is heavy. This will sound like release day hyperbole, but it sounds like OKC and Kid A had a baby. Stylistically, I mean. The lush instrumentation of the former and the symphonic sensibility of the latter.

I may even like this more than IR, and I love IR.
 
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I'm not crazy about How to Disappear Conpletely, without which minor fault Kid A would be about perfect for me. I'd still say it's their most consistency and cohesive album.

How To Disappear Completely is perhaps one of the most heart-tugging tracks in their entire catalog. IMO.
 
Damn, Everything in Its Right Place and Idioteque are both all-timers for me - not just for Radiohead but for any band.


The title track is my favorite, but I like every single song, it's nearly prefect.

It's the way everything works in sequence, the way it transports the listener that makes it a classic.
 
How To Disappear Completely is perhaps one of the most heart-tugging tracks in their entire catalog. IMO.

Yep. Firmly in my top 3.

The Kid A tracklisting is impeccable.
 
Was going to say some things but changed my mind and deleted it. I definitely need to listen to this a few more times to have more concrete opinions.


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Since my favourite radiohead albums and the only ones that i keep listening by them are Ok Computer, In Rainbows and The Bends, it' s pretty obvious that i found A Moon Shaped Pool uninteresting and indifferent. What surprised me most though is the quality of the album's production. Even in 24 bit flac format, the sound is so much compressed that becomes unbearable to listen via headphones at some points. And the value of DR 5 of the album is one of the lowest i have ever seen. I hope the sound to be improved in the physical releases of the album.
 
I'm not crazy about How to Disappear Conpletely, without which minor fault Kid A would be about perfect for me. I'd still say it's their most consistency and cohesive album.

I thought I was the lone detractor on that one. Def their most overrated, and Pyramid Song blows it out of the water.
 
A review from Twitter:

[TWEET]729402643634921472[/TWEET]

Another Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor fan :up:
 
Since my favourite radiohead albums and the only ones that i keep listening by them are [...] In Rainbows it' s pretty obvious that i found A Moon Shaped Pool uninteresting and indifferent.

That's not obvious at all. I'd say this album has a ton in common with in Rainbows.
 
Well, I have to give credit to the band for releasing what is an extremely dense album. It amuses me that anyone here was even able to give any kind of credible "hot takes", as it's simply too much to take in on a single listen. However warm the instrumentation sounds, it's not inviting in the traditional sense.

I have to agree with El Mel that there's nothing I actively disliked, but I struggled to find something that really stood out as being phenomenal. But again, this is material that's going to take a while to fully process.

What I feel safe in saying is that Burn The Witch is probably their weakest opener since Pablo Honey's You, and even the latter works better as a first track. Too early to say what should have taken its place.

To be continued...
 
Pablo Honey's You is one of their best songs. Fantastic riff.

I fail to see what "amuses you" here. Nobody is giving detailed reviews and ranking the album, comparing it with past works as far as quality goes and other silly stuff that usually happens on these kinds of forums. Almost everybody is giving relatively crude first impressions.
 
Yeah, I think You is a really strong track as well.

Burn the Witch is a towering, powerful track, a great start to the album and this era of Radiohead.
 
I've been listening to it all day. It's not always the case, but it so happens that the songs that I liked immediately keep getting better for me. Nothing wrong with people blurting out first impressions. We always do that when we get excited. It's not like this is a group of lazy listeners. We're gonna give it time after blurting out excited first impressions.
 
That's not obvious at all. I'd say this album has a ton in common with in Rainbows.

In Rainbows consisted mainly of guitar driven "proper" pop songs which evoked the generic conventions found on the Bends and on Ok Computer. A Moon Shaped Pool might evoke the mood or the tone of In Rainbows, but for me at least it doesn't evoke the generic choices made within In Rainbows at all.
 
First impression: What an album. Probably the only thing I'll be listening to for the rest of the night.
 
Stupid Dutch autocorrect.



What is the first line of True Love Waits? I've read somewhere that it's ...to have you be in peace. But it sounds an awful lot like ...to have your babies which would be one of the worst lyrics ever.


It's "...babies", not sure why you would consider that a worst lyric ever?

I'm in the camp of 'they butchered this song'; I fucking love the live version and I can barely make my way through this version. I'm a sucker for slow songs, but this is dreadful.

I'm really torn about this album.


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The Numbers really stands out as a track that could be one of my all time favorite Radiohead songs.

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Overall it's too early to say what my true feelings are on the album. It's been a busy day with Mother's Day so I think I'm going to need to really sit down with this album with headphones.

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I guess since I don't follow Radiohead live a good chunk of these songs I'm hearing for the first time.


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I guess since I don't follow Radiohead live a good chunk of these songs I'm hearing for the first time.


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Same here and I'm really glad I haven't followed along. Even True Love Waits...was never overly in love with the song from the live EP. Seems like a good rework.

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This record is gorgeous, lush, haunting, and cinematic. Blew away my expectations. I hate to give in to hyperbole and say it's the best since OK Computer, but it just might be.

It also sounds awesome on a good pair of headphones.
 
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