New Radiohead album announced The King of Limbs

[PhilsFan]

That being said, I've never considered Thom a great lyricist. I think Matt Berninger writes in a similar style to Thom, but does it much better.

Thom's major strength as a lyricist, I think, lies in the ambiguity of his existential angst. Berninger, since Dalton mentioned him, tends to have a fairly recognizable vantage point in mind for his expressions of malaise, but Thom's is usually wide open to interpretation. Nude and Karma Police are notable examples; they both could be broad political statements or conversations with oneself. Then you have songs like Videotape and Pyramid Song, which are almost like conversations with another incarnation of oneself.

I don't see the Berninger-Yorke comparison either. Berninger's songs usually sound like they're written at 1:00 in the morning after he's been drinking for a while and at a bar or a party or even just sitting at home thinking. It gives it a sort of broken narrative feel: he remembers specific moments from random points that give him an emotive reaction.

Yorke, to me, is tougher to describe. A lot of his lyrics seem broader, without that kind of narrative. They're much more random. They're usually trying to describe a state of mind or a feeling, without that specific reality to latch on to. He would never say he was up all night reading the Dictionary or that he remembers someone pissing in a sink.

Berninger is probably my favorite lyricist. Yorke's pretty good, though I don't think about his lyrics too much when I think of him. His "thing," for lack of a better term, is his singing and melodies, to me anyway.

 

[PhilsFan]

Funny you bring Bono up with regard to those particular lyrics, surely because of the "turtle line" and such. Though of course when Bono pulls a line like that he usually is just rambling or talking about an animal or god knows what, and not imagery of cosmic scale. Oh well, the reason Bono is frequently slaughtered for his writing is usually because even when he's on a good run he'll fall back onto frequent asinine bullshit about his hear and soul or knees or some such.

Bono sings in a completely different way and writes in a completely different way. Bono could get away with those lines if he sang them like he does Fez-Being Born, where there's very few lines and they're more about emotion than the words themselves. That's the only song in recent memory I can think of that compares to Yorke's writing style. Think Reckoner or Weird Fishes. There aren't that many lyrics, because the songs don't try to express so much in them. Bono almost uniformly writes a lot in his lyrics.

 

[Dalton]

I don't see the Berninger-Yorke comparison either. Berninger's songs usually sound like they're written at 1:00 in the morning after he's been drinking for a while and at a bar or a party or even just sitting at home thinking. It gives it a sort of broken narrative feel: he remembers specific moments from random points that give him an emotive reaction.

Yorke, to me, is tougher to describe. A lot of his lyrics seem broader, without that kind of narrative. They're much more random. They're usually trying to describe a state of mind or a feeling, without that specific reality to latch on to. He would never say he was up all night reading the Dictionary or that he remembers someone pissing in a sink.

Berninger is probably my favorite lyricist. Yorke's pretty good, though I don't think about his lyrics too much when I think of him. His "thing," for lack of a better term, is his singing and melodies, to me anyway.

The similarity is that they are both impressionist in their narratives. I've seen Berninger's lyrics referred to as vignettes, but I think that's inaccurate. The Bruce writes vignettes. The Boner has been trying to write vignettes this decade. Matt writes more stream of conscious impressions of moments. Songs like Terrible Love and England are great examples from the latest album. Yorke does the same thing, though I agree with yuppie that Thom's vantage point is much more cosmic than Berninger, but they're using a similar style of writing.

 

[cobl04]

just on the lyrics... i've always found Thom's lyrics really interesting, for a thinker like me, maybe even more so than Bono's at times. the existential questioning in many of my favourite Radiohead songs (Subterranean Homesick Alien, Pyramid Song, Weird Fishes) just takes me to places that other lyricists can't match. it's like when you're reading a novel, and as you read you get a picture in your head of what the characters look like, how they speak, what the setting looks like. Thom Yorke is maybe the only lyricist that i've come across who has been able to give me an image in my head.

it speaks largely of my bias that i'm willing to listen to this as much as i have, because if any other band had put this same piece of music out, i wouldn't give it nearly as much of a go.

this. though i haven't listened to the album since Saturday, i will again, just because it's Radiohead. if it were some indie band who i'd never really heard of i'd have probably forgotten about it already.

Once you know how the sausage is made, it losses some of it's appeal.

 

[Dalton]

i've always found Thom's lyrics really interesting, for a thinker like me,

Am I the only one who laughed out loud (or LOL as the kids say) when I read this line?

"For a guy as big as me, I've found that KY's lube to be the best."

Well done, Ace, well done.

 

[lazarus]

I did, and was about to quote that exact snippet.


Friggin' Thinker.

 

[cobl04]

glad to be helping you all reach your required 15 minutes worth of laughter per day.

 

[Dalton]

 

[BoMac]

Friggin' Cobbler.

 

[cobl04]

 

[lazarus]

 

[lazarus]

Will Pitchfork have their review up tonight? I'm guessing they didn't want it coming out on a slow traffic day because of the holiday, and held it for their Tuesday review slate.

35 minutes 'til midnight EST...any last minute predictions?

I'm going with 8.9

 

[Lancemc]

I'll up my guess just a bit to say... 8.6

 

[lazarus]

I probably should have checked IR and HTTT first to refresh my memory.

 

[lazarus]

They both got 9.3

This probably isn't going under 9, but I'll stick with what I posted.

 

[cobl04]

9.1

With four paragraphs about how it was released.

 

[Lancemc]

Why was I remembering HttT scoring something around the mid 8's? I wonder what I'm thinking of instead.

 

[bono_212]

With four paragraphs about how it was released.

I'll take the under on that one.

 

[Dalton]

7.9

 

[Imperor]

who.givesashit

 

[Lancemc]

who.givesashit

Well... goes without saying.

 

[lazarus]

Actually, maybe they go live at midnight Chicago time. So that would be an hour and 30.

Imperor, we're just going to use their score, whatever it is, to make fun of them in some way.

 

[Dalton]

I'm going to use their score to determine whether or not I like the album. ITHO

 

[lazarus]

Does the H stand for "haughty" or "hipster"?

 

[mobvok]

8.5

What the heck.

 

[Lancemc]

Almost want to put my money on something above the 9.0 line now, just to shake things up.

Because this is important.

I'll move a quarter of my chips to 9.2

 

[PhilsFan]

They release their reviews at 1AM in the correct time zone, so over an hour still before you'd see anything.

 

[mobvok]

This is like a sober New Year's Eve party.

 

[PhilsFan]

Wait, you guys aren't drunk?

 

[lazarus]

They release their reviews at 1AM in the correct time zone, so over an hour still before you'd see anything.

I already clarified to say that. Midnight Chicago time, 1AM your time.

The suspense is boring me.