Review Summary: DEF._RE/ERROR, ADD MORE IMPLICATIONS../.
PROGRESSION
Progressing from something can be extremely hard sometimes. For musicians, it is even tougher. When a defining sound is discovered one must ponder how to elevate that sound to new heights without "going through the motions", Radiohead asked this very question in 2003. It was the age old question of "What do we do now？" The result was
Hail to the Thief.
2003 was a tumultuous period for the United States especially. After the controversy revolving around Bush's election, 9/11, and the Iraq War at its most destructive; Americans were divided between a frustrated youth who sought peace in a world of death and violence and a traditionalist gathering of adults fearful for the safety of their children and the crumbling of society around them. Despite being an English band, Radiohead inexplicably found themselves as icons in America during this period.
Hail to the Thief's lyrics were mostly written as result of the powerful rise of Conservatism in the West and the War on Terror. With this, and the album's success, one could call it the smoking gun of the 2000's.
Like the two albums preceding it,
Hail to the Thief is primarily an Electronic Rock record with other experimental pieces thrown in. Unlike the previous two albums, however,
Hail to the Thief does return to the guitar driven days of
The Bends. Some of the best songs on the album include
Backdrifts, a static marriage of Thom Yorke's unfocused yodeling and electronic drum machines, and
2 + 2 = 5 a brilliant Rock ballad utilizing a creepy atmosphere boosted by soft guitar pinching and some subtle digital manipulation over the percussion sequences.
Go To Sleep is a complete "back to basics" tune; bringing back the regular guitar playing and regular vocal consistency that was in albums like
Pablo Honey and
OK Computer.
The Gloaming is the perfect example of Radiohead jumping straight into experimentation of their sound. Throughout the tune we can hear an unnerving tape loop as a percussion sequence fills the cracks. Thom's vocals are given a ghostly echo, making the track all the more creepy as Hell.
By far the standout track of the entire album is
Myxomatosis; a nutty track featuring a rough synthesizer sound with a brutal percussion sequence as Thom's vocals are distorted to present a poorer sound than most usual high end microphone equipment. The composition of the synthesizers along with the amplified percussion make this track the best of the crop in terms of quality, nuance, and generally appealing sound.
To a lot of Americans, Radiohead was a symbol of the anguish and anger they were feeling at the controversial height of Bush's presidency. Thom Yorke has always maintained he never designed
Hail to the Thief as being geared specifically towards United States politics, and yet
Hail to the Thief found itself becoming the angry youth's manifesto. For years Radiohead had unintentionally defined a generation of music, now they were unintentionally defining a movement.
