Radiohead, Hail to the Thief Reviews

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Good Points: Has it's moments
Features some good lyrics and performances
Attention to detail

Bad Points: Has a very pessimistic feel (although this is to be expected and isn't really a bad thing)
Seems overly diverse in both style and quality

General comments: I don't think that there's that much to say about Radiohead, Hail to the Thief.

Ok, so it does feel very down and pessimistic, but this is to be expected from a group such as Radiohead. I've heard about 90% of their stuff and this seems to be the dominant theme - to view the world from a different angle.

I have a little problem with the mixture of good and bad tracks on this album. I'd like to start off by saying that there are some truely great songs on this album, but then there are some that seem out of place. I really like about half of the album, but the other half has never really grown on me, even after hearing the album countless times.

Hail to the Thief has a very different feel compared with earlier workings such as OK Computer and Amnesiac. It feels almost like after Kid A, Radiohead have decided to take a step backwards and write music like they used to back in the 90's. This said, there are still some electronic based tracks.

The eccentricity has been toned down and isn't as far fetched as Kid A. Hail to the Thief takes on a different style, mixing Amnesiac with OK Computer and then blending it all together into something new.

I've found that Hail to the Thief feels like two albums murged into one. The first half sticks to the bands roots, and the other tries to break away and write new rules.

Despite the bad points just mentioned, some of the songs have been brilliantly written and performed by the band. I think that the best tracks are :

Where I End And You Begin (The Sky Is Falling In)
There There (The Boney King Of Nowhere)
A Punch Up At A Wedding (No No No No No No No No)
A Wolf At The Door (It Girl. Rag Doll)

And some tracks that don't quite work yet :

Backdrifts (Honeymoon Is Over)
The Gloaming (Softly Open Our Mouths In The Cold)

A mixed album then, but the good stops Hail to the Thief from being one of those "file and forget" albums.