General Chat / Hail To The Theif Blows

Let us discuss this, shall we? Maybe I'll post my reasons as to why it blows, once somebody else decides to argue with me that it doesn't.

And I will win, because I'm correct. It blows, a lot.

Just go and listen to it on MTV.com's "The Leak" and see how terrible it is for yourself. They should of just shelled out more Kid A B-sides.

That would have been nice...

I like that song and video...."There There". It's cool.

I don't know much about Radiohead, but that song is kinda cool.

I'm gonna get American Life and Think Tank instead though....

I listened to it, and don't know what you are talking about.

It's a good radiohead album.

Kid A was just a destructive time in Yorke's life, you can't expect them to make another album like that.

Basically, with this one, they are trying to stop re-inventing themselves and are just making music.

If they kept doing kid A type stuff, they would have broken up.

There's an article in TIME about them this week.... read it.

Arslock, why should I read an article? How will that make me like an album? Especially one that is bad?

I could care less about Radiohead, all I care about is the music. And the music is just, blah.

There isn't any reason to listen to it, at all. Nothing to enjoy, nothing to respect, nothing. It didn't stimulate me, it just bored me.

And it isn't a solid album, by anyones standards.

I didn't expect shit from Radiohead this time around.. Not because every single track was 3 years old, and they had a ridiculous amount of tracks to choose from to jumble all of them into an album, but because they couldn't possibly get better than Kid A.
Why bands choose to stay together after making such pivotal works of music is beyond me. And, why bands choose to stay together after their time has run out, just because they feel some brotherly devotion to each other is beyond me as well. Amnesiac was a decent follow-up, and no doubt Hail to Theif will be decent as well, but it still doesn't change my attitude about the whole Radiohead situation. Thom and the gang should have just receded back into the insomia...Tic shadows of England and forgot to even think that they could do better than Kid A.
OK COmputer is my favorite album.

Well I don't know if you're being serious or not, but Kid A is not Radiohead's masterpiece. It's a good album and a bold experiment but by no means a masterpiece. OK Computer is the masterpiece and it seems Radiohead knew they couldn't top it and so they went as far in the opposite direction as they possibly could. Listening to Hail to the Theif, it's clearly a continuation of the path they started out on with Kid A. Overall, I find more to like on Hail to the Theif than either Kid A or Amnesiac but it's still in a completely different genre practically from the first three Radiohead albums (those being the three I own). It took me a half dozen listens to really get into Kid A and it's still very hit and miss for me. Hail to the Theif is also hit and miss and just generally more depressed and wandering musically but it still keeps me hooked all of the way through. If you think you know what Radiohead is all about than I can see why you wouldn't like Hail to the Theif. If on the other hand, you simply let Thom Yorke and co. take you on their journey without trying to compare it to where they've been I think you'll enjoy it. So consider that a recommendation.

That being said, however good Radiohead may be with their new focus and musical style I can't helping wondering what might have been if they instead continued the guitar rock of their first three albums. OK Computer really is a masterpiece. Not just the well known songs but also Electioneering and Exit Music and Airbag are some of my favorites and they all fit together perfectly. Where have all of the guitars gone in modern rock that's what I want to know.

If on the other hand, you simply let Thom Yorke and co. take you on their journey without trying to compare it to where they've been I think you'll enjoy it. So consider that a recommendation.

I did that, the first time through, the second time through, everytime through. As I said: I couldn't care less about Radiohead, all I care about is the music.

And the music blows.

Also, this has nothing to do with Kid A and Amnesiac, and everything to do with Ok Computer and (especially) prior. Whatever.

Kid A is the masterpiece. It is their best work. This is (one of) their worste. And that is that.

New albums of your favourite artists for which you've been waiting for SO LONG are always shit nowadays. It's sad, really.

interesting argument. I've never liked radiohead that much. OK computer was however a good album but none of the other stuff is that impressive for me.
U can never please everyone in the music industry. for every person who says its crap (Cg) there will be one who says it rocks..

And as an answer to why bands stay together as to creating a masterpiece?? why should'nt they?
Hell if steven king stopped writing after his first hit book......

OK Computer is and always be Radiohead's shining moment. For that album not to win the Grammy was baffling, but that's the way corporate music is. Kid A took me many months until I really started to feel it (though, at the time, I was also listening to Linkin Park, so hey), but OK Computer was fucking sick. I'll compare Hail to the Theif once I get it in my posession, maybe tonight, or tomorrow. MTV.com is utter shit and I can't get the Leak to work. So there.

Paranoid Android owns your ass.

Paranoid Android owns your ass.

Music like art, photography, painting, even parkmaking, is about just that: art.

It's not about you liking it, me liking it, the corporate asses liking it (unless you're a sellout). If the artist makes their "work" and they are happy with it, then there you go.

Personally, OK Computer is my favorite album by Radiohead (brilliant really), but does that mean we should just expect them to say "OK, we made a f-ing brilliant record, so we're done."?

Hell no, we'd all cry cop out. Would you have wanted Picasso to stop after one painting, Stephen King or Tolkien to stop after one novel? Pyro or Toon to stop after Disney Dreams or Gila?

No.

So what happens. Some artists create future works that are well received, and some that aren't. Not everyone will be able to follow up "popular" works of art like King has with countless novels/films, or as Pyro did with Aurora's Bay, and least of all the very sensative mind of CG.

Does this mean the future work is garbage, or that the fickle spotlight of popularity has shifted to another artist in the field. I'd go with the latter, and know that as far as Radiohead is concerned, they like the art (music) that they are making now, and that's what really matters. Screw you, me, the corporates, and you CG, you. It's Radiohead's album, not ours.

Kai

Oh, and 'Exit Music For A Film' owns 'Paranoid Andoid', and your ass.

Oh, and 'Exit Music For A Film' owns 'Paranoid Andoid', and your ass.

Valid point.

I got "Hail to the Thief" yesterday, and I think it's the worst shit they've done since "Pablo Honey". Amazingly, it still totally fucking rocks. My only complaints with it is that it's rather schizophrenic in nature, worse even than "Amnesiac". I'll post a full review on Friday probably, once I have time to soak it in, seeing as I do aspire to be a music critic, and I need to form a full opinion, you know? Okay then. Yeah, and those bastards better do a fucking US tour.

Yes. Nevermind about that review shit that was promised.

All I have to say about the abum is, if I had the money, I would go to Circuit City, and buy every copy. After doing so, I'd drive my ass all the way to the east coast, throwing CD's under the moving wheels of the car. When I got to the east coast, I would knock on one of the cardboard walls on Chauncey's 'house.' Once he answers, I would invite him outside, so we can relieve ourselves all over the remaining copies.

But, there's no logic in trying to make shit shittier. So I won't.

I had to bring this old topic back up again because I've been listening to Hail to the Thief for a couple days and it's fucking brilliant. Better than Kid A and Amnesiac combined. It still doesn't compare to OK Computer but it's filled with varied and memorable music. Not that any of you are going to change your minds, but I really can't understand why you think this album sucks. Anybody who remotely likes Radiohead should buy this album.

I've only liked one song by them, Freak. All the other stuff is way too weird for me. I've heard There There on the radio while driving around town a lot lately, so tonight I downloaded on the most un-stable of un-stable programs out there, Kazaa 2.5 (DON'T UPGRADE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!), and I listened to it once, then twice, thrice, uno more time, and I came to the conclusion in which that the following emoticon "says" it best...



Surry, my money's going for Michelle Branch's Hotel Paper and FischerScpooner's #1 tomorrow after I cash me check.

Someone remind me again why Michelle Branch is so fucking great?

Yeah, and I'd say Hail to the Thief is better than Amnesiac and The Bends, but not quite as good as Kid A, and still nowhere near OK Computer. It's too goddamn bouncy, the album has no flow. But it does have good songs.

Someone remind me again why Michelle Branch is so fucking great?

She's not blonde.

She's hot, she plays her own insturmant, she got pissed when they pulled that prank on her on MTV, so that shows that she's like, real, she's hot, very much unlike the people from Radiohead, who look like the worst creation ever (accidently) made, and she played with Santana.

She's hot, she plays her own insturmant, she got pissed when they pulled that prank on her on MTV, so that shows that she's like, real, she's hot, very much unlike the people from Radiohead, who look like the worst creation ever (accidently) made, and she played with Santana.

She isn't hot, most any real artists player their own instrument, anyone would get pissed if somebody pulled a prank on them, and everyone (should be) "real".

Besides, she butchered Santana. Yes, it was a great song (and the only one by her worth shit), but Santana was just a goddamned session musician.

Then again, the same is true of the entire album and his previous album as well.

When will I get my new Santana album? With Santana actually doing something other than playing guitar? Hmm? Like actually making music, instead of letting talentless popstars do it?

But when it comes down to it her music is crap.

Santana sucks. Michelle Branch sucks. Everything sucks.

Ha ha. No, seriously, what the hell does Santana do on his new albums. Let some pop stars sing and some other band play the music, and he delivers one "solo" throughout the whole song.

Dickhead.

Though he once said that marijuana isn't a drug because it's made by God. That's a great quote.