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[Will the Thrill]

This version of Ful Stop from 5 years ago is so much better than the new version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXQGmdJeH_8

I noticed they play it very slower live in comparison to that version ^.

Still a great song nonetheless

I feel like this with the early version of Identikit, seriously compare 1:40 to that similar part on the studio version, night and day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sRWQ5BhYcE&ab_channel=omahahnful

With Ful Stop though, I think the album version is enough of its own thing compared to the old live version that it's just as great.

 

[Sai-kun]

Old Identikit > new Identikit

Still kills tho

 

[31GhostsIV]

Don't get me wrong, I think Daydreaming is a great track, however it's placement as track two on the record sucks the air out of it a bit for me. It's very much a (great) mood piece, but it hangs like a cloud over the tracks that follow it.

Oh, and Ful Stop is an anthem for the current state of the world "truth will mess you up"

 

[Servbot24]

OKC, Kid A and Amnesiac seems like they will be forever untouchable. AMSP settles into the next tier for me of "merely great". Fantastic album with some noticeable flaws. I'm not a guy who focuses on lyrics a lot, but some songs such as The Numbers are almost entirely ruined by the lyrics. That, plus there's not a song on here that would register as competing for their top tier. It's just really solid the whole way through.

 

[Creaking]

I don't get the love for Amnesiac. Very middling album. Felt like Kid A's B-Sides.

 

[Servbot24]

I don't get the love for Amnesiac. Very middling album. Felt like Kid A's B-Sides.

I felt this at first too, but now it competes for the #1 spot for me. In fact if they had done a better job with the track selection it would have been their definitive best work.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

I don't get the love for Amnesiac. Very middling album. Felt like Kid A's B-Sides.

It's their best album for the following reasons:

01. Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box
02. Pyramid Song
03. Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors
04. You And Whose Army?
05. I Might Be Wrong
06. Knives Out
07. Amnesiac/Morning Bell
08. Dollars & Cents
09. Hunting Bears
10. Like Spinning Plates
11. Life In A Glass House

 

[Creaking]

It's their best album for the following reasons:

01. Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box
02. Pyramid Song
03. Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors
04. You And Whose Army?
05. I Might Be Wrong
06. Knives Out
07. Amnesiac/Morning Bell
08. Dollars & Cents
09. Hunting Bears
10. Like Spinning Plates
11. Life In A Glass House

I like some of those
I don't like some of those
I'm not sure if I love any of those. Or at least, none quite reach the same highs as my favorite tracks on their other albums. Pyramid Song comes the closest, I think.

I've listened to it many times, and it just never struck me as a particularly stand-out record. What can I say?

 

[Servbot24]

^ 7 and 9 suck, shoulda had Orgy and Kinetic in there

 

[NAPK1NS]

It's their best album for the following reasons:

01. Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box
02. Pyramid Song
03. Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors
04. You And Whose Army?
05. I Might Be Wrong
06. Knives Out
07. Amnesiac/Morning Bell
08. Dollars & Cents
09. Hunting Bears
10. Like Spinning Plates
11. Life In A Glass House

Dollars & Cents is a hidden favorite of mine. Love the full, jazzy sound. Never met someone else who likes it lol

 

[Will the Thrill]

It's their best album for the following reasons:

01. Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box
02. Pyramid Song
03. Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors
04. You And Whose Army?
05. I Might Be Wrong
06. Knives Out
07. Amnesiac/Morning Bell
08. Dollars & Cents
09. Hunting Bears
10. Like Spinning Plates
11. Life In A Glass House

Put Fog and Cuttooth in there somehow and it's flawless

Also Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors may be my least favorite post PH Radiohead song

 

[Servbot24]

Speaking of b-sides, Ill Wind is awesome, for sure better than some AMSP album tracks

Dollars & Cents is a hidden favorite of mine. Love the full, jazzy sound. Never met someone else who likes it lol

I love it!

 

[barik]

I really wanted to like this album, but it never clicked with me sadly. The only songs that stuck out to me were Decks Dark and True Love Waits. And it's not a style thing either, I love everything else they've done. I really wouldn't be able to put into words what my criticism might be. I'm going to give it another try right now.

 

[Kieli]

It's definitely a step up from The King of Limbs, but I don't think it's anywhere near as great as their best album, Kid A.

TKoL is actually one of my favourite albums from them. I guess I'm cheating by putting The Butcher and Supercollider in it.

Morning Mr. Magpie, Separate, and Lotus are all good.

 

[Will the Thrill]

TKoL is actually one of my favourite albums from them. I guess I'm cheating by putting The Butcher and Supercollider in it.

Morning Mr. Magpie, Separate, and Lotus are all good.

Real talk, TKoL From The Basement IMO could be argued as their best album to me. That version of Bloom is my favorite song of all time

 

[CrocoDuck]

Radiohead is my favorite band. To add on what the OP says about Decks Dark, the final moments of the song when Thom wisperly says "have you enough of me?" Then quickly again "have you had enough of me? Sweet Darling" is one is the best moments of the entire album.

All the songs are terrific (Ful Stop, Identikit, Present Tense, Tinker Tailor and True Love, and my personal favs).

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

Dollars & Cents is a hidden favorite of mine. Love the full, jazzy sound. Never met someone else who likes it lol

One of my favorites!

 

[NealMcCauley]

The album holds a special place in my heart. I went to the beach a week or two after release and two listens are seared into my brain forever. First was driving through the western NC mountains while the sun was rising and the morning fog was at its peak. The album seemed perfectly in sync with the geography. Next was that night at 2am on a deserted beach with a perfectly clear sky and hundreds of stars while I was sipping some tea and having a toke. It was magical.

 

[Stencil]

I've thought about this album a lot in how it relates to Thom and his lifelong partner, Dr. Rachel Owen, who passed away shortly after making the record.

As I interpret it, it's very much a break-up album. Much of the content in the lyrics and overall melancholic sound of the album as a whole lends credence to this, in my opinion. The news came out that the had separated around the time of the albums release. As I had mentioned, she passed away from cancer not long after the album was created and released. This isn't some hidden mystery, either, I mean I read about it all as it happened.

What I can't help but wonder is, why did they breakup? Did he know she was going to pass away? Did that have an effect on their decision to breakup? Of course none of it is my business. I admire Thom Yorke for being a relatively quiet person when it comes to his personal life, but given how much I listen to this mans work, I can't help but wonder what the impetus was for that chain of events.

 

[toddhunter]

I think if they had just omitted one or two tracks it would've been right there with in rainbows .

That bad?

Seriously though I never even bothered to listen to this. Is it a continuation of their amazing experimental electronic style or is it actually good like their old stuff?

 

[chaislip3]

Album is absolutely gorgeous. Top 3 Radiohead album as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Servbot24]

That bad?

Seriously though I never even bothered to listen to this. Is it a continuation of their amazing experimental electronic style or is it actually good like their old stuff?

Doesn't sound like either.

 

[godhandiscen]

Such a powerful album. I fucking love it.

 

[Will the Thrill]

That bad?

Seriously though I never even bothered to listen to this. Is it a continuation of their amazing experimental electronic style or is it actually good like their old stuff?

It's like In Rainbows but now we have a lot from Jonny's Orchestral stuff mixed in, it's also more "depressing" in a way. Though the best way to describe it for me is that it's a very anxious album.

 

[SoundsOfScience]

For some reason it takes me a couple of years to fully get into a new Radiohead album. Happened with In Rainbows and TKOL too. Ful Stop has been getting a lot of play lately though. Pretty excited to see them at Coachella.

 

[Xun]

Beautiful record.

It's most definitely up there with their best.

The only problem is I already feel like I need new Radiohead to listen to again...

This version of Ful Stop from 5 years ago is so much better than the new version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXQGmdJeH_8

I noticed they play it very slower live in comparison to that version ^.

Still a great song nonetheless

I feel like this with the early version of Identikit, seriously compare 1:40 to that similar part on the studio version, night and day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sRWQ5BhYcE&ab_channel=omahahnful

With Ful Stop though, I think the album version is enough of its own thing compared to the old live version that it's just as great.

I love the studio/new live performances of both tracks, but some of the elements from the 2012 renditions are fantastic.

 

[uncelestial]

It's in the top three for them. Amazing that they still continued to grow their palette of musical ideas -- Jonny now being an accomplished orchestral composer and arranger brought new types of beauty to their sound that fit in so perfectly. The choir in Decks Dark and the creepy horror music string quartet in Burn the Witch are just awesome. And I loved the Four Tet-esque looping of naturalist sounds, like the piano tinkling that starts The Numbers.

Having now explored pretty much the heights of what they can do with electronic music and rock, it was really amazing they found yet another new path. I'm not sure where they go from here and I wouldn't be surprised if they call it a day after this, but obviously I hope they don't.

My ranking, which shows them making an amazing album every 9 years or so in their top 3, something I've never heard of any band doing:

1. In Rainbows
2. OK Computer
3. A Moon Shaped Pool
4. Kid A
5. Hail to the Theif
6. Amnesiac
7. The King of Limbs
8. The Bends
9. Pablo Honey

Artists with a body of work like the above are why pop music is worth losing.

 

[Servbot24]

1. OK Computer (also the best album ever made)
2. Amnesiac
3. Kid A
4. Hail to the Thief
5. The Bends
6. In Rainbows
7. A Moon Shaped Pool
8. The King of Limbs
9. Pablo Honey


If TKOL lived up to the promise of the first 4 tracks it would be top tier. But it's like they just gave us a teaser of something really cool and then got tired and reverted to standardized Radiohead for the second half.

 

[I Big JG I]

Love this album so much, so may great songs I change all the time on my favorites. Now it glass eyes and the numbers.

 

[Poimandres]

Everyone always over rates Kid A honestly. It's good, and I used to think it was amazing, but when I break it down into individual songs it doesn't hold up for me. You have crap like Treefingers lingering around, and I dont really care for much of the tail end of the album (except Idiotech). Great mood throughout the album, but when it comes to the actual tracks Amnesiac is better!

AMSP is great indeed, but I actually usually find myself finished after Present Tense. Last couple don't really do it for me.

 

[uncelestial]

Everyone always over rates Kid A honestly. It's good, and I used to think it was amazing, but when I break it down into individual songs it doesn't hold up for me. You have crap like Treefingers lingering around, and I dont really care for much of the tail end of the album (except Idiotech). Great mood throughout the album, but when it comes to the actual tracks Amnesiac is better!

So agreed. Personally I blame that absolutely bonkers Pitchfork review, which gave it a 10.0, opens -- OPENS -- with the sentence "...I had never seen a shooting star before...", and features the most hilarious quote ever written in a music article:

The experience and emotions tied to listening to Kid A are like witnessing the stillborn birth of a child while simultaneously having the opportunity to see her play in the afterlife on Imax.

Anyway, I mean it's really good work but to me Kid A shows a band in transition, taking their first feeble few steps into electronic music, and maybe relying more on sizzle than steak, as my grandpa might say. It's saved by the fact that they don't take many false steps due to having pretty awesome taste and a great collaborator in Nigel Godrich.

 

[Servbot24]

Everyone always over rates Kid A honestly. It's good, and I used to think it was amazing, but when I break it down into individual songs it doesn't hold up for me. You have crap like Treefingers lingering around, and I dont really care for much of the tail end of the album (except Idiotech). Great mood throughout the album, but when it comes to the actual tracks Amnesiac is better!

AMSP is great indeed, but I actually usually find myself finished after Present Tense. Last couple don't really do it for me.

Kid A shouldn't be broken into individual songs. I know that's super cliche, but Kid A is one of the extremely rare instances where it's actually true

But yeah Amnesiac is better

 

[Griss]

I love it, but I still maintain that it should be Daydreaming to Tinker Tailor with Burn the Witch and True Love Waits left as singles. They just don't flow with the rest of the album at all. 90% of the time I listen to it I start at 2 and stop at 10.

Not saying those are bad tracks, but they don't fit the mood of the rest of it imo. Which is strange considering nailing the opening and closing tracks was a Radiohead staple for the longest time.

The Numbers has grown on me a bit since release - I thought it was a bit preachy, a bit of a dull Neil Young tribute at first. That means that I now like all the songs. Decks Dark, Identikit and Present Tense are still the stand-outs. I really wish they hadn't put so much weird reverb on the studio version of present tense though. Always bugs me.

Still, 10/10 album, they're as good or as better as they've ever been. This, Bowie and A Tribe Called Quest were my fav albums last year.

 

[Blader]

Treefingers is fucking great!

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

So it's list time eh?

1. Amnesiac
2. Kid A
3. A Moon Shaped Pool
4. In Rainbows
5. The Bends
6. OK Computer
7. Hail To The Thief
8. The King of Limbs
9. Pablo Honey

 

[Banjotanooki]

Amazing album and definitely a step up from TKOL, which wasn't a bad album by any means but AMSP went all out!

Can't believe I'm the only one who likes Tinker Tailor, lol.

 

[Amirnol]

Really amazing album. I'd kill for another From the Basement featuring A Moon Shaped Pool.

 

[Servbot24]

Amazing album and definitely a step up from TKOL, which wasn't a bad album by any means but AMSP went all out!

Can't believe I'm the only one who likes Tinker Tailor, lol.

Tinker Tailer is a clear highlight to me.

 

[CoffeeJanitor]

Yeah I think it is their second or third best album

Damn

 

[blame space]

So it's list time eh?

1. Amnesiac
2. Kid A
3. A Moon Shaped Pool
4. In Rainbows
5. The Bends
6. OK Computer
7. Hail To The Thief
8. The King of Limbs
9. Pablo Honey

🤔

 

[Xe4]

Aside from OK Computer, it's my favorite album of theirs. I think I'm going to listen to it again, actually.

 

[blame space]

radiohead owns

 

[Will the Thrill]

If we've got any newbies coming into the thread interested here's a handy guide for anyone who has yet to ever really try listening to radiohead:

http://i.imgur.com/syMTjsm.png

 

[HotHamBoy]

Yesterday it occured to me that "A Moon Shaped Pool" is probably a reference to the Earth post-ice caps melting from global warming.

Like, a moon is a sphere, not a circle. So a moon-shaped pool would be a watery globe.

Maybe I'm just slow. Even the cover is evocative of ice and what that globe might look like (the negative space being the water).

So it's list time eh?

1. Amnesiac
2. Kid A
3. A Moon Shaped Pool
4. In Rainbows
5. The Bends
6. OK Computer
7. Hail To The Thief
8. The King of Limbs
9. Pablo Honey

Wtf is this garbage?

1) Kid A
2) In Rainbows
3) OK Computer
4) A Moon Shaped Pool
5) King of Limbs
6) Amnesiac
7) Hail to thr Thief
8) The Bends
9) Pablo Honey

And they're all great. 5 and 6 could easily switch for me and the entire list shuffles every few years. But the top 3 will probably never change if they don't make any more albums.

 

[NAPK1NS]

Yesterday it occured to me that "A Moon Shaped Pool" is probably a reference to the Earth post-ice caps melting from global warming.

Like, a moon is a sphere, not a circle. So a moon-shaped pool would be a watery globe.

Maybe I'm just slow. Even the cover is evocative of ice and what that globe might look like (the negative space being the water).



Wtf is this garbage?

1) Kid A
2) In Rainbows
3) OK Computer
4) A Moon Shaped Pool
5) King of Limbs
6) Amnesiac
7) Hail to thr Thief
8) The Bends
9) Pablo Honey

And they're all great. 5 and 6 could easily switch for me and the entire list shuffles every few years. But the top 3 will probably never change if they don't make any more albums.

So, I've thought about the album title a lot. I don't have a definitive idea. Yours was my initial thought. Thing is, I don't find that this album has that cultural charge found in OKC, Kid A and Thief. Considering this content, this is more private and personal stuff. My two thoughts on the album title:

1. The image of a planet of water, like you said, without the eco-commentary. Rather, the idea that one's entire world has been submerged and darkened.

2. The album title suggests a description using a symbol that's constantly in flux. In what phase is the moon, exactly? Full... half? It suggests a deterioration of communication, perhaps a feeling that's difficult to transcribe.

Interested to hear others thoughts on the albums title. It's one of the more enigmatic names.

 

[RDreamer]

I really love the album. It fits well into their discography. I think the string-oriented approach is really nice to have, so that sets it apart from most of their other stuff.

I think my rankings of Radiohead stuff would be:
1. The Bends
2. In Rainbows
3. OK Computer
4. Hail to the Thief
5. A Moon Shaped Pool
6. Amnesiac
7. Kid A
8. Pablo Honey
9. The King of Limbs

 

[Dies Iræ]

My favorite AMSP track, by far, is Glass Eyes. It has bags of atmosphere. It sounds like a Grizzly Bear record. Glass Eyes evokes the rainy day melancholy beautifully. The orchestra is used effectively.

Other tracks on the album feel comparatively hollow. Identikit is the worst offender. It feels like it should be this ripper track but... it just isn't. The synth is weak, the drums are weak, the transition at 1:55 lacks punch. I don't get it. Similar criticisms for other tracks, too, and generally I feel the orchestra is underutilized. The album needed a more cohesive and heavy sound similar to Glass Eyes.

AMSP is my least favorite Radiohead album (not counting Pablo). The main reason I prefer TKOL (second least favorite) is that its drumming is much more inventive and satisfying and the album has a more cohesive and interesting "sound." AMSP doesn't really evoke a vibe or distinctive sound like other Radiohead albums do.

 

[mariachi507]

TKoL is actually one of my favourite albums from them. I guess I'm cheating by putting The Butcher and Supercollider in it.

Morning Mr. Magpie, Separate, and Lotus are all good.

I've got this weird relationship with TKOL where if I think about the melodies or start humming a song then I love it. When I actually listen to it though, I get bored.

Like right now, I'm bopping my head thinking about Mr Magpie and Little by Little. If I went and listened to them it would be a different story.

 

[EVOL 100%]

My list:

Kid A
Amnesiac
A Moon Shaped Pool
Hail to the Thief
OK Computer
In Rainbows
The Bends
The King of Limbs
Pablo Honey

Hail to the Thief is a pretty messy album, but somehow it works. It's my favourite Radiohead album in terms of general tone. Also, the standout tracks (There There, 2+2=5, A Wolf at the Door) are incredible.

OK Computer is pretty low on the list but I still adore it. I think I listened to it too much. The Bends resonates with me less the older I get. It's still an awesome work of 90s rock though.

I warmed up considerably to In Rainbows, I was incredibly disappointed when it first came out. I loved The King of Limbs when it first came out, but the only track I bother to listen to now these days is Bloom (which is easily a top 10 Radiohead track imo).

Pablo Honey, is, well, Pablo Honey.

 

[TheExhaustedWalrus]

I guess if we're doing rankings...

(from favorite to least favorite)
Kid A
In Rainbows
Amnesiac
OKC
AMSP
The Bends
The King of Limbs
HTTT
Pablo Honey