Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
XL Recordings
Radiohead's ninth studio album and most recent installment in the music mogul's legendary discography came out on this day 5 years ago. With longtime producer in Nigel Godrich on the decks and Stanley Donwood working with Thom Yorke on art duties this had all the external signs of yet another seminal Radiohead release.
Quite possibly the finest band of the last 25+ years, I would even go as far as saying of all time but that’s for another day, proved yet again why they're always brought up in conversation when the time comes. Their tendency to be prolific over the years continues on A Moon Shaped Pool but with a focus on the more atmosphere centric side of their repertoire. Do strings and their arrangements, in popular music, get as good as Johnny Greenwood's?
A Moon Shaped Pool can be looked upon as the poster boy(album) of how to handle music production. Everything sits snuggly in the mix while also having sufficient space to breathe and exist on its own accord. Worlds within worlds, moon shaped pools within moon shaped pools. A wholly immersive experience. This is as spacious an album as you’re going to find yet it still has an air of claustrophobic feel about it. Has an album ever been as much of an absolute pleasure to get lost in even on repeated listens. This sort of material can only get better with time. In years to come this will be hailed as one of the finest works ever brought to life. Fine wine material. Like any masterful studio performance the album is enhanced with a decent pair of headphones and closed eyes.
The re-working of True Love Waits is a beautiful way to close the album. I can remember the first time seeing it on the tracklist and hoping that it would live up to its possible quality. Safe to say it does. Considering that the track had been floating around on Radiohead live shows and bootlegs since roughly 1996 it's nice to see that Thom and co. kept it close.
A lot of people would say that working on songs that have been in the ether for up to 20 years is lazy. And to that I say blasphemy! If it's good and hasn't worked out in the past there's always a chance it'll come back around. Time has a funny way of presenting a perfect time for rekindling. Maybe the equipment didn't exist to produce the right sound or feel, the reasons are fairly limitless.
I, very luckily, managed to see them on the A Moon Shaped Pool tour which became a night that will live long in my memory. You could tell something special was happening. A tangible feeling hung in the air. The stage, the sound, the lights - everything was spot on and added something to the overall sensation. A spiritual experience of sorts.
May 8th, 2016.
