I wanna hear your guys’s picks for this. I think Radiohead is a really difficult band to cover but nonetheless there have been a few great ones—for me it’s Lianne La Havas’s “Weird Fishes”, The Punch Brothers’s “Kid A” or Gillian Welch’s “Black Star”—all of which genre switch in a beautiful way
Sorry this is almost 100% a stretch but I just found this interesting. In Lurgee there are lyrics that go “I got better, I got strong” and HIMMM starts with “I was stronger, I was better”. An even farther stretch but later in Lurgee he says “let it go” and HIMMM he says “let you out”. Idk is this somewhat of a response to Lurgee, years later, or am I onto nothing?
Edit: Another thing I wanted to highlight is the reflective nature of “How I Made My Millions”. It seems like Thom, through an expressionist and abstract poem, is addressing some regrets he had throughout his life. He is looking back from a perspective of being wealthy, as said in the title, but still feeling unfulfilled despite this, due to these regrets. He looks back at a better time when he was “stronger, better”, before he “made his millions”. I think the parallels to Lurgee might’ve been used since that’s a song he wrote in his earlier days, during this time he was referring to.
I bet a lot of people agree with me but I noticed a lot of people name this as one of their least favorite Radiohead songs, and yes, I used to feel that way too but this song has grown on me a lot. Now is even rank it above two others on the album. Like yeah it’s weird but it’s fun and it just gives me the vibe of a song the band had a lot of fun making. The part where “Judge” is repeated always gives me so much energy I love it and the bassline is amazing and very dark-feeling.
Before you get mad and downvote, this is totally subjective and I’m not trying to ruin your enjoyment of this album. I love it myself as The Beatles are one of my favorite bands, I’m just making a comparison to the other albums. I know people regard this often as their Magnum Opus but to me most of the songs fit much better inside the album than something I can listen to by itself—which is not a bad thing by any means but there are fewer highs than the other albums. After a while, the songs start blending into each other and feel a bit repetitive and there are only two songs which I would consider that I love, which is quite a bit less than other albums (I want you she’s so heavy, and She came in through the bathroom window) Though the highlights are definitely the vocals, which could be their best on any album.
The only ones I can think of are Faust Arp, Lozenge of Love, and Gagging Order, all of which I love. The first two give these amazing Nick Drake-y 60s British folk vibes which I think suits Thom’s voice so well. There’s something about these three tracks that feel so intimate and the guitar plucking style feels so natural, which although I’m obviously a huge fan of their rock and electronic stuff, feels so refreshing to hear by them every once in a while
Never hear this song talked about and I’ve heard several people say it’s the worst on the album even though I’ve always considered it top 3 since it came out
Some of these songs I’ve known for a while and some have just been on repeat since my first listen.
Very good album but not quite the level of Skinty Fia in my opinion but very creative on songs like Death Kink and Starburster. Am I right to think a lot of these lyrics are about him apologizing for infidelity?
A few of these songs (Chelsea Hotel, Who by fire, and Is this what you wanted) I’ve known for a while but I decided to give the full album a listen front to back
You can for sure tell he’s getting more experimental than his previous work which sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t. I’m all for pushing creative boundaries but for him I’ve tended to like the more stripped down and less busy songs. “Take this longing” was one of the best first listens I’ve had of a song in a while and Chelsea Hotel remains one of my favorite songs in the entire folk genre. LMK your thoughts on this album and rating
A few days ago I finished listening to their series on Boswell and Johnson and to think I never would’ve known who this was if I didn’t listen. What a fascinating guy I would’ve loved to know him. I highly recommend that string of episodes it was one of my favorites