GIGSLUTZ – FOR THE RECORD
Have you had enough of the endless re-appraisals of ‘Sgt. Pepper’s…’ or ‘The Velvet Underground & Nico’? Well, we have so you can forget all that! In this brand spanking new feature Gigslutz will be looking back on some of the best albums you love that have been previously given short shrift. We focus our critical eye on the difficult second albums, efforts from long-forgotten bands, overlooked classics and more underappreciated gems from the past. Read on, this time it could be your favourite!
Radiohead – ‘Hail to The Thief’ (2003)
Radiohead have never been your conventional rockers. They host book parties at the end of tours, stay loyally bound to their hometown of Oxford and keep their private lives just that – private. Fittingly, their music leans towards the unconventional too with each of their eight albums drawing on separate social/political ideas, emotional states and artistic influences (from R.E.M to Tom Waits, from Pixies to The Beatles) The quintet maintain a vast fan base despite constantly evolving their sound faster than – dare I say it – any band. They’re plasticine musicians who mould themselves continuously, finding a winning formula then daring to scrap it completely for something new. There are certain events on Radiohead’s timeline that the band will always be recognised for. One of which is their debut single from 1992 ‘Creep’ (or ‘Crap’ as the band have been known to call it after becoming sick to death of playing it). ‘OK Computer’, their third studio album, marks another stand-out achievement after receiving astounding critical reception all-round with a rare 10/10 from NME. What seems to slip under the radar however, unjustly and confusingly, is their marvel of a sixth album ‘Hail to the Thief’.
The fourteen tracks were left without a collective title for a time with suggestions being dismissed for being “too proggy” or “too doomy” (a critique all too familiar for Radiohead). There’s some ambiguity about where the album’s title is derived from. Thom and Jonny have been quick to downplay its link to a phrase used by anti-George Bush protesters circa the 2000 elections, claiming that “the record’s bigger than that”. Either way, the songs hit on the darkness of the times.
The album’s opener is ‘2+2=5’, a track whose first half employs a softer and more placid sound than can be found in previous albums. The choice to strip everything back in favour of a “more chilled out album” was actually a creative suggestion from Thom’s girlfriend and it set a precedent for the whole album. Long gone were the relentless perfectionists that Radiohead were known to be in the studio as the track opens with the audible plugging in of a guitar and Thom remarking “That’s a nice way to start, Jonny”. Harmonies are layered on top of an off-centre drum pattern as Thom’s lyrics open the doors to a backwards world where “two and two always makes a five” and “January has April showers” in his wondrous trademark falsetto. Mid-way it erupts into a furore of three guitars – a rare set up – displaying their incredible ability to start a song in one place it before taking it to somewhere entirely different.
The next track ‘Sit Down. Stand Up’ follows a similar formula, building progressively before exploding almost unexpectedly. What’s different is the genre that it borrows from here: techno. Synth parts, drum machine loops and a whole host of instruments join the soundscape at its climax for a deliriously up tempo finish that hears Thom repeat the words “the raindrops” no less than 46 times. Why? Because they’re Radiohead and they can (one of the greatest get-out cards in rock). What we need after that is a mellow piano break and that’s exactly what we’re supplied with in the form of ‘Sail to The Moon’ Piano-focused tracks like this and ‘Pyramid Song’ belong to Thom who is a complete master and known to be in the studio hours before the rest of Radiohead hunched over a piano. A perfect blend of heavy, light, loud and quiet chords meet vocals that echo out into the void. The time signatures here are so complex yet perfectly orchestrated, it’s a wonder anyone can dismiss it so passingly as “depressing”.
Don’t be fooled by the name of later track ‘Go To Sleep’ Brazen acoustic guitar will soon set it apart from any kind of lullaby you might expect. Of the lyrics, Thom said “I was thinking ‘Well, this is obviously all nonsense. I’ll have to rewrite it”. When the day of recording arrived, no efforts to amend the lyrics had been made but now, he claims “they’re the lyrics [I’m] most proud of”. This certainly translates vocally as he delivers “We don’t really want the monster taking over/Tip toe and tie him down” with mettle and absolute conviction. The band could well be channelling thoughts about the war on terror but the obscurity makes it difficult to know. One track Thom has opened up about however is ‘The Gloaming’ which was inspired by “listening to this politics-and-news station during the Afghan war and it was like someone beamed something from above”. Thom was driving around the countryside at dusk (hence ‘gloaming’) when this came to him and the lyrics, set over unnervingly heavy analogue synth and reverb, are evidence of this; “Murderers, you’re murderers/We are not the same as you/Your alarm bells/They should be ringing”.
‘There, There’ is the masterpiece of the album whose build up, climax and refrain never tire. Unusually, the track is made up of three sets of drums played by Phil, Ed and Jonny that sit with pleasingly strained vocals. The trademark ‘Hail to The Thief’ build up is made more euphoric than any other track with a change from B-minor to D-minor. Words almost fail me here, it is spectacular. Following this is in stark contrast is ‘I Will’, a track that uses a three part lullaby-esque harmony to thinly veil the angry, Gulf war-inspired content.
There’s almost too much to say about Radiohead’s longest album and knowing it was released 10 years ago only adds to the marvel. From the glorious racket of ‘Myxomatosis’ to the rare monotone vocals that open ‘A Wolf At The Door’, ‘Hail To The Thief’ is the pinnacle of what they can do experimentally, moving them light years away from being “just a rock band”.
@AmyeBryant
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