Nobody tell Radiohead that they accidentally made the greatest album to smoke weed to in the history of music.
I love A Moon Shaped Pool. I actually think it’s one of their best albums. Right up there with Kid A, Amnesiac, In Rainbows and OK Computer. I like the more subdued, lyrical atmosphere of the album. Some people don’t like the strings and that’s fine, but being a huge classical fan, I have no problems with strings whatsoever. There are some interesting twists in this album and I’m perfectly fine that someone doesn’t like the album. I think it just hasn’t ‘hit’ a lot of listeners yet. Give it time is all I can say.
Accidental? "Well, all that tea-drinking stuff is complete bollocks, obviously. We were trying to keep it as a joke, but the joke wore thin because it didn't have any basis in reality at all. The reality is that we were probably doing as many drugs as everybody else. I wouldn't go on a chat show and talk about it, because it's purely recreational. I love getting stoned, it's the best thing in the ****ing world. We put together a lot of this album when we were stoned...****, I've said it now." ~ Thom Yorke
I was surprised to look back at how many posts I have in this thread ...! A little bit of doubt at first ... but a ton of interest. It's now, two years on(!), a 'desert island disc' for me; really reaches into my heart. With Crowded House sidelined(?), perhaps my favourite band extant.
I like the album a lot, but will admit to enjoying the live versions of "Burn The Witch", "Ful Stop" and "Deck's Dark" more than the studio ones. They rocked significantly harder in live arrangements.
No, that quote is 10 years old already. In Rainbows, I presume. The point being, the way most of their work sounds, these guys are no strangers. I recall in Meeting People is Easy, Ed is shown rolling one. At any rate, I like AMSP, but I don't love it like their rest. Each song is good, out of context from the rest of them, but as an album it gets a bit tedious. That in no way lessens Radiohead, in my eyes. I don't think they've lost "it." They obviously set out to make a record with a certain tone. Mission accomplished. I don't, however, like the tonality of the record as a whole. It's a lot of lows and mids, and it's never more evident than when the strings come in, because they cut through the mix hard. It would be interesting to ask fans what 3 songs they would choose the album to form a suite, that best exemplifies the album in one quick listen.
I remember someone rolling up some weed at the end of MPIE—wasn’t that when they were like “time to turn the camera off!” (I would love to get a reformatted version of MPIE, by the way. Tried watching my old DVD last year, and the 4:3 cropping is quite a drag). I agree about Moon Shaped Pool, it’s a very sleepy, sedate record. Possibly their sleepiest. I do like it but it is as far from their most rocking work nearly as can be. If I had to pick a suite of 3 songs that I thought were representative of the album, I’d pick: Daydreaming The Numbers Present Tense
I love it. I think their last 3 albums (In Rainbows, King of Limbs and A Moon Shaped Pool) have been sensational. Very unusual that a band of their age gets better and better. Very unusual also for a band to have understand that the secret of keeping the unit together is not being afraid to let members do solo stuff. This way everyone has new ideas and perspectives to bring to the table each time. Very smart and very unusual.
Was it that long ago? Wow, how time flies! At any rate I've never got the impression that Radiohead were into the hard stuff. Just recreational fun. I'm pretty sure I read something that Thom disavows alcohol now, probably over 20 years ago when he had his car wreck. Anyway, I don't think Radiohead live the rock 'n' roll lifestyle. They seem like pretty private cats...well, as much as they can be as one of the most popular bands in the world.
In case anyone is still looking for info on vinyl quality for this album.... I read through loads of bad press earlier in this thread, but I have the black vinyl pressings from Rainbo and all four sides are very quiet. The surface noise is on par with typical RTI presssed MFSL releases. When new there were quite a few pops and ticks and crackles throughout. I ran both discs through my el cheapo Spin Clean and those issue cleared right up. No problem.
I am not really playing this album after liking it lots at first. Tried it the other day and was bored by it. Strange. Maybe I was just in the wrong sort of mood but I don't think so. Hmmmmm.
Love it. I’d go as far as to say that I prefer it to OK Computer. I have it on white vinyl which I to say isn’t perfect. I don’t know how compressed it is but it does hurt the ears a little when turned up. I’ve burned a copy for the car and play it on journeys that take place at night.
I’ve felt the same way. King of Limbs grew on me a lot a couple years after it’s release (especially after absorbing it’s “From The Basement” session). Same with Amok and Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes. But AMSP is still the least interesting RH record to me (after Pablo Honey which I never got into). I hope that changes, but at this point I’m not holding my breath. A “From the Basement” for AMSP would be welcome though.
I've had an on/off relationship with Radiohead for years. Love a lot of it, but it has to hit me right. I loved AMSP and rank it in top 3 Radiohead personally. I saw Neil Finn play w/ Fleetwood Mac this fall and he was fantastic. I've never listened to Crowded House, but may need to give it a chance now(?)
I too haven't listened to this album much at all in more than a year, and I'm a huge Radiohead fan. I like it, it's just not the first thing I reach for when I'm in the mood for the band.
Listening to their output as a whole, Pablo Honey sounds like it was done by an entirely different band. Even by The Bends, they had grown tremendously.
Yeah, The Pixies were a major influence on Radiohead for 'Pablo Honey' and even to an extent on 'The Bends'(IIRC), despite the quantum leap in Songs Quality(although love 'Anyone Can Play Guitar' and the B-Side(Killer Cars) from that era.
I know exactly what you mean. I couldn't stop listening to it when it first came out. Listened the other day and I just couldn't....get into it. I think it's one of those albums you have to be in the right mood to listen.
