FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool
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THE reason I am recommending…
people go out and buy Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool on vinyl is that it is a magnificent record, and it is the most-recent release from the band. There have been rumours that Radiohead will release another album, but there is no idea when that might be. I have very good memories of A Moon Shaped Pool. It was released a day before my birthday on 8th May, 2016, and I was very struck by the record. It is a classic case of a few songs hitting you and then, the more you listen, the more you love it. The album was recorded in southern France alongside their long-time producer, Nigel Godrich. Radiohead have always been able to combine their traditional and incredible sound with strings. Through the years, I think strings have become more key and played a bigger role. Performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra (arranged by guitarist Jonny Greenwood), they range from the sumptuous to the frightening. The first single, Burn the Witch, was released on 3rd May, 2016, and I was hooked from the start. Its strings are Hitchcock-esque in places; it is a wonderful score, and I think Thom Yorke’s voice is sublime. In terms of the lyrics, there are nods to groupthink and corruption; the video (directed by Chris Hopewell, it uses stop-motion animation in the style of the Trumptonshire trilogy) is so memorable and wonderful.
I think A Moon Shaped Pool sounds different to 2011’s The King of Limbs. You can hear a more digital and computer-based sound on that album. A Moon Shaped Pool, whilst not lo-fi, does use analog multitrack recorders. If the band made an error or needed to do another take, they’d have to erase the previous take – forcing them into a different way of working. Whilst there are some political and social-economic themes addressed, a lot of the lyrical inspiration revolves around loss and heartache – no doubt inspired by Yorke's recent separation from his partner of almost twenty-five years, Rachel Owen. I genuinely feel A Moon Shaped Pool is one of Radiohead’s best albums, and I love every song on it. Radiohead have moved away from the guitar-based sound of albums like The Bends and OK Computer, and I wasn’t overly-keen on The King of Limbs. I felt that there were relatively few standout moments, and there wasn’t a great deal to hook me in and listen to it again. Conversely, A Moon Shaped Pool has these incredibly beautiful and heartfelt songs that draw you in and stay in the mind. Even when the band are darker and more paranoid, the electronics and strings provide this nuance that nestles in the mind and leaves you wanting more. In terms of the reviews, Radiohead got positive feedback more or less right across the board. It is one of their highest-rated albums ever.
Before bringing in a couple of reviews, it is pretty cool that the album’s tracks are arranged alphabetically – starting out with Burn the Witch, and ending with the fan favourite, True Love Waits. In their review, this is what AllMusic had to say:
“Sly, dissonant strings grace some cuts, acoustic guitars provide a pastoral counterpoint to an electronic pulse, Thom Yorke's voice floats through the music, often functioning as nothing more than an element of a mix; what he's saying matters not as much as how he murmurs. Such subtle, shifting textures emphasize Radiohead's musicianship, a point underscored when this version of "True Love Waits" is compared to its 2001 incarnation. There, Yorke accompanied himself with a simple acoustic guitar and he seemed earnest and yearning, but here, supported by piano and strings, he sounds weary and weathered, a man who has lost his innocence. What he and Radiohead have gained, however, is some measure of maturity, and with this, their music has deepened. Certainly, sections of A Moon Shaped Pool contain an eerie, disconcerting glimmer, usually attained through power kept in reserve -- nothing stabs as hard as the sawing fanfare of "Burn the Witch," while the winding, intersecting guitars that conclude "Identikit" provide the noisiest element -- yet the album as a whole doesn't feel unsettling. Instead, there's a melancholic comfort to its ebb and flow, a gentle rocking motion that feels comforting; it's a tonic to the cloistered, scattered King of Limbs and even the sleek alienation of Kid A.
Radiohead are recognizably the same band that made that pioneering piece of electronica-rock but they're older and wiser on A Moon Shaped Pool, deciding not to push at the borders of their sound but rather settle into the territory they've marked as their own. This may not result in a radical shift in sound but rather a welcome change in tone: for the first time Radiohead feel comfortable in their own skin”.
I am still listening to A Moon Shaped Pool four years after its release, and I am finding that the songs still sound fresh and full of mystery. I am not surprised that it gained such applause in 2016, as it is an album anyone can appreciate and get something from – even if you are not a Radiohead fan. This is what Pitchfork wrote when they reviewed the album:
“A song title like “Glass Eyes” hints at many of the band’s longstanding morbid preoccupations—the semblance of humanity in something cold and dead, or the violation of the biological body by foreign objects—but the song is a bloodflow of strings straight into the heart. “Hey it’s me, I just got off the train,” Yorke sings, and it’s a strikingly ordinary image: the Paranoid Android himself, picking up the phone and calling someone to tell them he’s just arrived. “I feel this love turn cold,” he confesses as the ballad draws to a close, the phrasing an echo, subconscious or not, of his Kid A sign-off “I’ll see you in the next life.” A throbbing cello appears like a lump in the throat; the song fades away.
Throughout the album, Yorke’s everyday enlightenment is backed by music of expanse and abandon. The guitars sound like pianos, the pianos sound like guitars, and the mixes breathe with pastoral calm. “The Numbers,” a song about the impending apocalypse brought on by climate change, meanders along, its groove as wide as an ocean. Even the malevolent synth wave that passes through “Ful Stop” sounds like a visitor, a momentary darkness rather than a caged spirit. As the song builds, the band works up a coursing groove that will feel familiar to longtime fans, with its interlocking guitars and an arterial bustle of rhythms serving to launch Yorke’s wordless moan. It’s a sound that Radiohead has spent the last decade honing, but the payoff here is deeper and more gratifying than it has been in a while”.
I would urge people to go and buy A Moon Shaped Pool on vinyl but, if you cannot, then it is available to stream. As we look forward to possible Radiohead material in the future, familiarise yourself with their ninth studio album. It is an album that becomes more powerful and arresting the…
MORE you listen to it.