Customer Rating:  
Summary: Hail To The Thief
Comment: Radiohead-Hail To The Thief ****
What strikes me about Hail To The Thief is that it is Radioheads boldest statement, and yet probably the bands all around weakest album. Where as every other album the band released would grow in a new direction, Hail just simply reverted back to Kid A and really only slowed it down. You find basically the same themes through here as you did there as well. So why is this so bold? Well we always expect Radiohead to go somewhere new and they deliberately didn't. But what is this albums greatest merritt is also it's downfall. There is nothing new here which feels like we have already heard this album before. Though at the same time, In Rainbows only took everything the band ever did and put it all on one album, and I personally feel that it is their strongest album to date, even surpassing the highly acclaimed Ok Computer. So what we have is a paradox.
'2 + 2 = 5' with much thought put into this statement, just might be the very best song Radiohead has ever released. It's beautiful melancholy, in a fast angry gun shot to the face delivery with a soft silk screen silohuetted over it. I am aware that statement made no since, that was the point. 'Sail To The Moon' needs no mention as the track speaks for itself. 'We Suck Young Blood' and 'The Gloaming' scare the bright side out of you upon first listen.. 'A Wolf At The Door' might be the weakest track Radiohead has ever released making the end of this album perfect. Don't ask me how that works, I don't know. The fact is that everything this band does should suck, because it goes against everything that we are told to like, and maybe that is why we love them so much. In an alternate universe I believe the world hates Radiohead in the same way that we love them.
So why not give Hail To The Thief a five star rating, I don't have a reason for that. I just feel that five is too many and anything less than four would be treason. Aside from a few hand claps thrown in nothing new is here as I said making this album feel like you have heard it before. So for that I can't give it a higher rating, and I can't give it a lower rating because all the groups other work is brilliant so it would be hypocritical to lower a rating for that lone reason. I highly recommend all Radioheads work!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Words Can't Describe My Liking For This Album
Comment: "Pablo Honey" spawned mega hit "Creep", skip some years down the road (and two albums) "Kid A" is released gone is the alternative rock sound. In return we got a electronic minimalist style. Compare and contrast their sound all you'd like, fact remains they are creative and entertaining. Knowing the bands intentions to change their dynamic highly layered music, one must be filled with anxiety...You really never know what to expect! Scrolling through a few more years after "Kid A" and the decent attempt "Amnesiac", "Hail to the Thief" emerges. "Hail to the Thief" is immersing, brooding (but not nearly as dark as past work, some songs are actually quite uplifting), and clever.
"2+2=5" is as complex a song, as it is to prove 2+2 actually equals five. The intro is simply a input jack from a guitar being tapped. Clouds of sound billow each song some slowly and some stormily fast. "Sit Down, Stand Up" has bridge that breaks the songs mold and speeds the whole process up.
Before my laptop dies (4 minutes left so little of time), my pick off the album is "Sail to the Moon". Such a beautiful song. I just had a surgery and listening to this as an ambiance playing a game or relaxing in a dark room really painted images in my mind.
Overall fantastic artsy album, easily their most assecible album to date. Easily worth a listen, congrats Radiohead.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Despite What's Been Said, This Is A Great Album!!!
Comment: I don't know where this album ranks in terms of the band's entire catalog, but I absolutely love it. I've loved it from day one (yes, I bought it on the day it came out). I didn't feel compelled to write a review on Hail To The Thief until I started reading magazine articles about In Rainbows. I agree that In Rainbows is a masterpiece in its own right, but Thief is a great album as well. It infuriates me that even the band is starting to second guess the genius of this album. In all the interviews I've read the band basically apologizes for this album, which is ridiculous. It's actually an insult to people who were truly moved by the material on HTTT. Until IR was released, this was the best album of the new millenium. Don't listen to the naysayers. This album is a wonderful mixture of the old guitar driven Radiohead (The Bends, Ok Computer) and the more adventurous, experimental Radiohead (Kid A, Amnesiac). No band should apologize for the work they produced in the past. This is the space they inhabited at that time and this how they chose to express themselves. For me, Hail To The Thief actually confirmed, in my mind, that Radiohead is the greatest musical phenomenon since The Beatles. I'll never forget when I saw the band perform live during the HTTT tour. They opened with There There and it totally blew me away. I implore the band to stop soiling my memories with negative vibes. This is a great album and a worthy addition to the Radiohead catalog.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Album that Defined a Decade
Comment: Let me be frank: I hate this decade. Everything about it is dark and depressing, no matter who you are, where you are, or what you believe. It's the decade that has seen the full fruition of American divide between red-state right-wingers who have one type of wisdom but are closed-minded, and blue-state left-wingers who have another type of wisdom but express a fascist attitude. Both sides have principles, both sides lack moral perfection. And both sides are only half correct to this Libertarian. The events of this decade have magnified this divide to an alarming degree: the 2000 elections, 9/11, the Iraq War, and the culture wars. I'm optimistic that decades or even centuries from now a unified Libertarian world will look back on this time and shake their heads at the childish prison too many of us inhabited so willingly. And they'll also probably want to know what it could be like to live back then. Well, if I were to make a suggestion to them, I would tell them go listen to `Hail To the Thief', by Radiohead. For no other record has captured the dark all-pervasive atmosphere that has settled over this era like a shadow, or, The Gloaming, as the band themselves refer to it.
The Sound and the Atmosphere:
This album is a continuation of the sound they began with 'Kid A'. Or, more concisely, think of the songs 'Optimistic', 'You And Whose Army', 'Pyramid Song', 'Idioteque', and 'Like Spinning Plates', and you'll have a very accurate idea of what this album sounds like, only taken to a new level of sonic and melodic intricacy. EVERY song here conveys a dark atmosphere, and it's certainly not an uplifting listen, but it is a very engrossing and haunting one.
The Words and the Message:
Like the melodies, the lyrics here range from VERY depressing and angry, to resilient and hopeful. The main message the words convey here is a feeling of helplessness in the face of an intolerable ignorance that is powerful and has authority. But there is also a message of quiet resolve to stick with ones own convictions and ride out the storm.
The Songs:
'2+2=5' (The bands best opener to date. Guitar driven, it starts out slowly and then explodes halfway through, and then ends abruptly.)
'Sit Down, Stand Up' (A fast piano-driven song. fantastically builds to a piano bridge that collapses into a cacophony of electronic bleeps.)
'Sail To the Moon' (EXTREMELY dark atmosphere. Another piano song, slow-paced this time. Very haunting.)
'Backdrifts' (Electronic, yet very melodic. Fast-paced. Great guitar embellishments and piano solo.)
'Go To Sleep' (A fast-paced acoustic song that really has a great climax.)
'Where I End And You Begin' (One of Radiohead's very best. Very fast-paced with an incredibly haunting atmosphere. A blend of guitar rock and electronica.)
'We Suck Young Blood' (A little over the top, and the creepy atmosphere seems a little forced. Slow-paced for the most part, but it breaks into a excellent piano solo towards the end.)
'The Gloaming' (An electric loop, just a bunch of noise in my opinion. Has a VERY haunting atmosphere and imagery, however.
'There There' (Another one of the best songs the band has done. A very fast-paced, catchy, and guitar-driven song. Features the best climax of any Radiohead song.)
'I Will' (A slow, quiet, and lovely little song. A sort of dark lullaby. Hopeful yet melancholy.)
'Punch Up At a Wedding' (Almost a funk/reggae song. Slow and piano driven.)
'Myxomatosis' (A rather annoying bunch of noise, imo. Sounds like a million zippers being pulled up and down at once.)
'Scatterbrain' (A great reflective kind of song. Slow, with a gentle guitar accompaniment. Te only truly upbeat song on the album.)
'A Wolf at the Door' (A dark closer about a hostage situation, a very fitting summation of the sound and content of the album. Electronic and very fast-paced.)
Overall:
This album is the definitive Radiohead experience in my opinion, just as the 'Joshua Tree' is for U2. There are three weak songs on the album, and even though the album could have done without them, as-is they still lend to the whole dark atmosphere, and thus enrich the listening journey. It will always remind me of my youth, of growing up during an uncertain time.
And most of all, this record gloriously maintains the assertion that music above all transcends whatever legacy may be left of the period it came from.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A little dull
Comment: Frankly I thought this album was dead boring. Then again I don't really like Radiohead in the first place. If you do like them I guess you'd probably like this album, but if you prefer your music a little more lively it might not be for you.
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