Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool

[Razor Bikini]

AMSP is def one of their most immediate but I think its sound is still very lush and dense so it still grew considerably for me over time. It's def my second fav of all their albums, after In Rainbows which I doubt will ever be topped if this one didn't do it.

[Anon]

I associate a ton of really powerful emotions and experiences in my life to AMSP so i'm very ambivalent about listening to it sometimes because its almost overwhelmingly emotional. because of this I have the deepest respect for this album, but I can't say it's an easy listen for me . 

[Mathieu]

I associate a ton of really powerful emotions and experiences in my life to AMSP so i'm very ambivalent about listening to it sometimes because its almost overwhelmingly emotional. because of this I have the deepest respect for this album, but I can't say it's an easy listen for me .

 

That’s pretty much my feeling about OKC. OKC got me through many tough moments at the time which is what pretty much cements it as my favourite album of all time and I can’t see anything else replacing it.

[funnyHAHA]

A major part of why I don't find AMSP to be a grower is that they've recycled so much of their old material and the production is really crisp, clean and transparent, like a blank slate, similar to OK Computer's; however instrumentation is vastly different obviously. 

 

King of Limbs and HTTT are probably the two albums that have grown on me the most. 

 

 

KID A's production is crisp, clean. Cold even.

It's  surgical, and there are no flaws production-wise, it's super polished.

 

AMSP is the opposite:  it's warm, it has intentional peaking in parts of the production, it sounds weathered and old. 

Which I think is obviously intentional, it adds context and fits thematically of the album.

They recorded it using very old technology also.

These choices really add to the themes of the album.

 

So i'm very surprised that anyone would say they recycled anything and that the production is clear and crisp when it clearly is not.

 

Anyway- i like the album a lot but it also reminds me of a very tough time in my life but also.......it's just heavy.  Other than Burn the Witch, it doesn't have any light moments.  

By "light" i mean......despite it's dark lyrics, BTW is playful, edgy, creepy but again, has this lightness to it.

Everything else on the album has this heaviness, this sadness.  Which obviously makes sense given it's themes and what's happened in Thom's life.

 

I don't know, it's hard to describe for me, i mean obviously all RH albums are dark and heavy but there's no sexiness or playfulness or grooves to me.

In Rainbows is a heavy album too but it's so sexy melodically and musically that it balances it out.

TKOL is super fun and dancey and funky and, again, has swagger.

HTTT has some nice raunchy grooves too and rocks out at times.

And so on.

 

AMSP though is just a mournful, sad album in a way that they've never done before.

It's not a fun listen unlike all their other albums.

[Anon]

KID A's production is crisp, clean. Cold even.

It's  surgical, and there are no flaws production-wise, it's super polished.

 

AMSP is the opposite:  it's warm, it has intentional peaking in parts of the production, it sounds weathered and old. 

Which I think is obviously intentional, it adds context and fits thematically of the album.

They recorded it using very old technology also.

These choices really add to the themes of the album.

 

So i'm very surprised that anyone would say they recycled anything and that the production is clear and crisp when it clearly is not.

 

Anyway- i like the album a lot but it also reminds me of a very tough time in my life but also.......it's just heavy.  Other than Burn the Witch, it doesn't have any light moments.  

By "light" i mean......despite it's dark lyrics, BTW is playful, edgy, creepy but again, has this lightness to it.

Everything else on the album has this heaviness, this sadness.  Which obviously makes sense given it's themes and what's happened in Thom's life.

 

I don't know, it's hard to describe for me, i mean obviously all RH albums are dark and heavy but there's no sexiness or playfulness or grooves to me.

In Rainbows is a heavy album too but it's so sexy melodically and musically that it balances it out.

TKOL is super fun and dancey and funky and, again, has swagger.

HTTT has some nice raunchy grooves too and rocks out at times.

And so on.

 

AMSP though is just a mournful, sad album in a way that they've never done before.

It's not a fun listen unlike all their other albums.

 

What i mean by "recycled" is that the album uses old material, (BTW and TLW) and arguably Ful stop and identikit. 

[Razor Bikini]

So does every other Radiohead album tho.

[Razor Bikini]

Nobody had even heard burn the witch before the AMSP version anyway.

[Anon]

I still think the album sounds crisp and clean though. I'd say AMSP sounds the most similar to In Rainbows in terms of songwriting and instrumentation, but AMSP is definitely not as lush and rich as In Rainbow's. 

[Naomi Whats]

Ful Stop and Identikit were debuted after the release of TKOL weren't they? I thought most of the songs were tbh

[Anon]

Ful Stop and Identikit were debuted after the release of TKOL weren't they? I thought most of the songs were tbh

 

yes

[Anon]

I unfortunately got used to the live version of identikit and like it more than the album version. 

[Naomi Whats]

Were any songs on AMSP other than TLW performed live before TKOL? I can't remember when people first heard Present Tense and The Numbers but I'm pretty sure I'd never heard them til after TKOL

[Anon]

Were any songs on AMSP other than TLW performed live before TKOL? I can't remember when people first heard Present Tense and The Numbers but I'm pretty sure I'd never heard them til after TKOL

 

Present Tense was performed by Thom during a solo concert at Latitude fest as well as the pathway to paris concert in which eh also debuted The Numbers, (titled Silent Spring at the time) and desert Island disk

[Whiskey Clone]

Interview with Skyfall/Spectre director Sam Mendes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09clppp

 

Few interesting tidbits:

• Radiohead were commissioned first and originally put forward Man of War for Spectre. Everyone loved it, but the studio decided they needed a newly written song for various reasons, including academy award eligibility.
• They then asked Sam Smith, and a bit later Thom asked to give it another go. Smith delivered Writing's On the Wall first, and the producers thought it fit better as Radiohead's Spectre was a bit too melancholy for the opening credits.
• Thom was happy to have their song used elsewhere in the film, but ultimately they couldn't make it work

[Whiskey Clone]

Were any songs on AMSP other than TLW performed live before TKOL? I can't remember when people first heard Present Tense and The Numbers but I'm pretty sure I'd never heard them til after TKOL

 

The Numbers and Desert Island Disk were debuted during Thom's Pathway to Paris performance, and The Present Tense debuted at Thom's latitude show and I think he also performed it once or twice during a few of the live shows he did after The Eraser. Other than that, I don't think there's any others.

[Razor Bikini]

Well thank god they decided to write a new song cuz Spectre is one of their best ever tbh.

[Razor Bikini]

Also yeah present tense was pre-tkol but only as a solo guitar song. Everything else on AMSP besides tlw was heard for the first time after tkol, which is why the constant bemoaning of AMSP being a lazy album full of recycled material annoys me to no end and makes no god damn sense.

[Anon]

Also yeah present tense was pre-tkol but only as a solo guitar song. Everything else on AMSP besides tlw was heard for the first time after tkol, which is why the constant bemoaning of AMSP being a lazy album full of recycled material annoys me to no end and makes no god damn sense.

 

Hahaha, no one's calling it lazy. This album is without question the greatest representation of Radiohead's ability to call back to older material in order to recreate songs to fit the mood of the current album. It's something they've always done, but it's most apparent on this album. 

[Razor Bikini]

Yeah I wasn't talking specifically about your post. It's a sentiment I've seen expressed often ever since the album came out. Many people actually have called it lazy.

[Anon]

Well that aggravates me too. It's still so fresh and every song feels new

[Tim77]

Just noticed a cool detail in 'Present Tense'. At 4:31, in the right channel, Big Nige fades in this really trippy tape loop. It's lush.

[Scrumch]

Big Nige 

[Skuj]

I refer to him as "The God".

[biggie p]

<p>

 

Interview with Skyfall/Spectre director Sam Mendes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09clppp

 

Few interesting tidbits:

• Radiohead were commissioned first and originally put forward Man of War for Spectre. Everyone loved it, but the studio decided they needed a newly written song for various reasons, including academy award eligibility.
• They then asked Sam Smith, and a bit later Thom asked to give it another go. Smith delivered Writing's On the Wall first, and the producers thought it fit better as Radiohead's Spectre was a bit too melancholy for the opening credits.
• Thom was happy to have their song used elsewhere in the film, but ultimately they couldn't make it work

So, basically, they submitted two of the all-time best Bond songs and neither of them got used

 

*suicides*

[skylark]

this album makes me respect other albums alot more 

 

because of the work and concepts they put into them that in some cases(httt) were overlooked by many i think

 

i mean if u think about it they really didnt need to work that hard on every single one of them