Radiohead album by album

On 08 May 2016 'A Moon Shaped Pool' was released. On Physical formats, it was released in June 2016. To this day, it remains as the last Radiohead studio album

From Wikipedia

A Moon Shaped Pool is the ninth album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was released digitally on 8 May 2016, with CD and vinyl releases in June 2016 through XL Recordings. It was produced by Radiohead's longtime producer Nigel Godrich, with artwork by singer Thom Yorke and longtime collaborator Stanley Donwood.

Radiohead recorded A Moon Shaped Pool in southern France. It features strings and choral vocals arranged by guitarist Jonny Greenwood and performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra. Several songs, such as "True Love Waits" and "Burn the Witch", were written years earlier. The lyrics address climate change, groupthink, and heartbreak; many critics saw them as a response to singer Thom Yorke's split from his partner Rachel Owen. Donwood created the abstract cover art by exposing his paintings to weather.

Radiohead promoted A Moon Shaped Pool with singles and videos for "Burn the Witch" and "Daydreaming", a viral campaign of postcards and social media posts, and a series of video vignettes. A world tour began in May 2016, with legs in 2017 and 2018 and headline performances at festivals including Glastonbury and Coachella. The tour included a performance in Tel Aviv, which drew criticism from supporters of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, a campaign for an international cultural boycott of Israel.

A Moon Shaped Pool appeared in many publications' lists of the year's best albums. It was the fifth Radiohead album nominated for the Mercury Prize, and was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Rock Song (for "Burn the Witch") at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards. It topped the charts in several countries, becoming Radiohead's sixth number-one album in the UK, and was a bestseller on vinyl. It was certified gold in the UK and US in 2018.


1. "Burn the Witch" 3:40
2. "Daydreaming" 6:24
3. "Decks Dark" 4:41
4. "Desert Island Disk" 3:44
5. "Ful Stop" 6:07
6. "Glass Eyes" 2:52
7. "Identikit" 4:26
8. "The Numbers" 5:45
9. "Present Tense" 5:06
10. "Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief" 5:03
11. "True Love Waits" 4:43

 

From the Radiohead Fandom

A Moon Shaped Pool is Radiohead's ninth studio album. It was released as a download on 8 May 2016, backed by the singles Burn the Witch and Daydreaming. It debuted at #1 on the UK Albums Chart, Radiohead's sixth number-one album in the UK. CD and LP editions were released on 17 June 2016 through XL Recordings, followed by a "special edition" in September containing additional artwork and two additional tracks.


Radiohead worked on A Moon Shaped Pool intermittently after finishing the 2012 tour for their previous album, The King Of Limbs. The album was recorded in southern France with long-time producer Nigel Godrich. It includes several songs written and performed some years earlier; True Love Waits dates to at least 1995, Burn the Witch to 2000, and Present Tense to 2008. Radiohead performed Ful Stop and Identikit during their 2012 King Of Limbs tour. The album features strings and choral vocals arranged by multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood and performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra.

(...)
During the 2012 tour for their eighth album, The King Of Limbs, Radiohead performed several new songs, including the future Moon Shaped Pool tracks Identikit and Ful Stop. While on tour, the band recorded a version of Identikit and another unidentified song at Jack White's Third Man Records studio.

After the tour, Radiohead entered hiatus and the band members worked on side projects. In 2013, singer Thom Yorke and long-time Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich released an album, Amok, with their band Yorke and drummer Philip Selway released their respective second solo albums, Tomorrow's Modern Boxes and Weatherhouse. Guitarist Jonny Greenwood composed film scores, including the Paul Thomas Anderson film Inherent Vice (2014), and worked with classical musicians.

Radiohead and Godrich recorded A Moon Shaped Pool in the La Fabrique studio in France. In February 2015, Selway told Drowned in Sound that Radiohead had worked from September to Christmas 2014, and would resume work that March. In the same month, Greenwood told Pitchfork that Radiohead had changed their methods, "working in limits" and using "very old and very new technology" together. In June 2015, Greenwood said that the band had been slow to regain momentum after their hiatus; Selway stated that the band had worked in "fits and starts", but that a "full schedule" would begin from September.

Jonny Greenwood performing in 2015 with the London Contemporary Orchestra, who appear on A Moon Shaped Pool In November 2015, composer Robert Ziegler, who worked with Radiohead on The King Of Limbs, tweeted photos of the band recording with a string orchestra. The strings were arranged by Greenwood and performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra, who previously worked with him on the score for The Master, and recorded at RAK Studios in London. Drummer Clive Deamer, who performed with Radiohead on the King Of Limbs tour, played additional drums on Ful Stop.

In December, Yorke performed two Moon Shaped Pool songs, The Numbers (then known as "Silent Spring") and Desert Island Disk, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference at Le Trianon in Paris, France. On Christmas Day 2015, Radiohead released a new song, Spectre, on the audio streaming site SoundCloud. It was written for the James Bond film of the same name, but went unused.

Several Moon Shaped Pool tracks were written some time before the album's release. True Love Waits dates to at least 1995; a live version was released on the live album I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings (2001). Godrich said of the song in 2012: "We tried to record it countless times, but it never worked ... To Thom's credit, he needs to feel a song has validation, that it has a reason to exist as a recording. We could do 'True Love Waits' and make it sound like John Mayer. Nobody wants to do that." Radiohead worked on Burn the Witch during the sessions for their albums Kid A (2000), Hail To the Thief (2003), and In Rainbows (2007), and lyrics from the song appeared in previous album artwork and on the Radiohead website. Present Tense dates to 2008, and Yorke first performed it (then known as "The Present Tense") in a solo set at the UK Latitude Festival in 2009.

 

I vividly remember the day this either leaked or came out. Did it leak early? I was on tour in the Midwest and we had splurged to get a motel room the night before for some reason. It was either a particularly well-paying show OR some really dire options of places to stay. Either way, we woke up, took advantage of the continental breakfast, and then saw that the Radiohead album was available. I think Google put it up early? It seemed fake at first because the titles were in alphabetical order and it included True Love Waits. That seemed impossible. But we used the motel wi-fi to download it and added it to someone’s phone to play in the van. I guess it didn’t hit streaming right away? I’m fuzzy on a lot of the details. We listened two or three times in a row and then talked about it a lot. It felt a little slight after such a long wait. I’ve grown to like it more and more over time, and the subtleties really do take a while to shine through. It definitely feels like a “sweeping up loose ends” record, and I won’t be surprised at all if it turns out to be their final LP. I hope it’s not, but I won’t be surprised.

I passed on the deluxe edition initially because the bonus disc only had 1 totally unreleased song. Opted for the indie exclusive white LP but then caved and got the box when I found one marked down in a store. I’m realizing now how many Radiohead albums I have multiple copies of... The Bends on CD & LP, OKC on CD & LP plus OKNOTOK, Kid A on CD with the hidden booklet & 10”, HTTT on LP and special edition CD, IR discbox and standard LP, and AMSP box and standard LP. Damn.

 

Hard to believe this one is gonna turn five this year…

From the moment of its release and up until now, I've always felt it sounds like a remixes album (or an alternate versions album), I.e. there are nice melodies, lyrics and chord progressions in these songs, but I feel I would have liked them better with different instrumentation and/or production. There seems to be an immense effort from the band attempting to sound original and not repeat themselves, and while this has worked perfectly in the past (as in Kid A or Amnesiac), it doesn’t do much for me this time around. Maybe in a live setting they’d produce a different impression on me, I don’t know. Anyway, it doesn’t rank very high in my list of Radiohead preferred albums, my opinion of course, not a fact.

 

I like this very much and have listened way too little to it. I got the vinyl. For some reason I group this album together with Ok Computer and In Rainbows.

 

the tracklisting seemed so lazy to me. i wonder if it could have flowed better.
me being the Ed fanboy, was happy to see the inclusion of Identikit ... and then after hearing the studio recording, felt not as excited.
same went for true love waits. always wanting to hear a proper studio recording was a holy grail for me. i understand the whole "not wanting to do a John Mayer recording". the piano version is lovely. but again, lost the excitement.
Decks Dark is the obvious winner for this Look Back Bore. could have been recorded 20 years ago! love this track!

this may be my least favorite RH album. there's just something missing for me. i don't know what it is...... all i know is i want a new LP.

 

These songs really do shine in a live setting. “Ful Stop” sounds nastier and has a creepy groove to it. The end of “Decks Dark” is pretty heavy live. The lights help too!

 

I’m with Rob and @theotherme on this one. There has always felt like something doesn’t quite click with this record, for me. It’s all personal taste, obviously, but I could do with less orchestra and more grooves, generally.

I know Jonny is a genius and no one can land a glove on his string arrangements, but I couldn’t help but think they are leaning a bit too hard on them here. Like the strings are being employed everywhere because the material isn’t that remarkable. The choir parts are cool but again, they can’t even approximate that sound live so it’s a bit of a cheat.

I know they’ve already stepped well outside the band sound before countless times, so it’s not that, exactly. Combination of things I guess.

My standout tracks were Daydreaming, Decks Dark, Identikit, Present Tense and TLW. The other tracks are too over or under baked maybe. Ful Stop totally feels out of place.

However I like the overall lush, laid back sound. Most of the songs are solid. It’s a very emotional record too, partly why I can’t put it on as often. Heavy stuff. Not normally a problem for me, but there’s some confluences with my life and this record that make it hit pretty close to home.

 

According to this article, Nigel basically had to finish the record for them

19 Things We Learned Hanging Out With Radiohead

 

here's a question ... would they ever do an LP without Nigel?

 

I know they tried in 2006 and it didn’t go very well. He’s got to know them and their working methods better than anyone

 

A think AMSP is great, though it took some time for me to fully embrace it. Hearing the songs live really made me appreciate the record and it's only grown better with time. It's their darkest and yet most beautiful in some ways, one of those weird dichotomies that Radiohead do so well.

 

Can't comment on A Moon Shaped Pool yet, as I don't own it, but I've enjoyed the two tracks we've covered so far.

I'm still enjoying and absorbing Hail To The Thief, In Rainbows and The King Of Limbs, all bought in the last couple of months. Hard to believe I went 19 years without buying a Radiohead album!

I probably will buy AMSP, but I feel it's something I'd like to save for the moment when we're out of lockdown and record shops finally open again. Just walk into HMV and buy it, even though it may be more expensive than online.

 

Track 3: 'Decks Dark'

By David Pollock

In which that feeling of doubt articulated on 'Daydreaming' is exacerbated with a degree of unnerving beauty. Once again, Yorke's singular vocal takes centre stage over an absent-mindedly strummed electric guitar and a tender, wordless chorus, as he contemplates the darkness caused by a metaphorical spaceship filling the sky. There may be further nods to the nature and policing of online communication in 'it was just a laugh / just a laugh / it's whatever you say it is / split infinitive', but seeking stories behind this music only serves to stifle it. You're reminded of the films of Paul Thomas Anderson (not an unlikely touchstone, given he regularly collaborates with Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood and directed the video for 'Daydreaming') – these songs aren't stories, they're morally ambiguous planets of their own, paintings of the world as it presents itself and not how their creator wants it to be.

 

Live at NOS Alive Festival 2016

 

“Decks Dark” feels like a spiritual successor to “Subterranean Homesick Alien” to me, with its spaceship imagery and third track placement. I get the same vibe from both songs.

 

It doesn’t seem to come through much in live videos, but Jonny’s riff at the end of the song sounded so heavy when I saw them play this in 2018.

 

Track 4: 'Desert Island Disk'

By David Pollock

Unlike David Cameron's clearly committee-chosen inclusion of 'Fake Plastic Trees' on Desert Island Discs, it's possible to see someone honestly choosing this song as a life marker in years to come. As subdued as the previous two, it makes a shimmering volte face into the realm of almost entirely acoustic folk, with a sense of Nick Drake or Tim Buckley emerging as Yorke meditates upon being 'totally alive / in my spirit light.' The guitar takes a turn for the more jazz-infused midway through, but a sense of warmth and possibility never leaves the song. If 'Daydreaming' and 'Decks Dark' are the sound of a man solemnly switching off his tablet in resigned disbelief at the world, this is him escaping to the country on a hot summer's day with some non-prescription medication to escape the modern world.

 

Live in Buenos Aires 2018

 

I totally forgot to mention Desert Island Disk as a highlight earlier. I like this one a lot. It’s got that uplifting, pastoral quality that they’ve been able to tap into as of late.

I like Decks Dark too, it’s a beautifully done track, and these two form a really nice pair.

 

I knew this one pretty well before the record came out since Thom had played it live. The arrangement is nice and I love the lyrics.

 

3 unreleased songs might hit the internet once this auction ends...

Early Radiohead demo hits auction block with three unreleased songs

 

Great!

These could be completely new, or early version of released songs

Either way, it's exciting
Thanks for sharing

 

Track 5: 'Ful Stop'

By David Pollock

Back in the real world and standing on shifting ground once more, this is an understated goliath of a song. It builds ominously on a swirling, benighted synth groove and a lacerating sustained keyboard note, escalating the mood to a crunching, fragmented beat which is drone-like in its qualities. Yorke, breaking into an uncharacteristic holler, ponders how 'you really messed up everything' and 'the truth will mess you up'. It sounds more personal than political, a fragmented letter to a wronged lover, but again, context only ties these songs down. So far, it's the one which really makes you want to wring the listening out of it.