Radiohead - Hail to the Thief

Radiohead fans were promised a rock record in mid-2001, and what they got was Amnesiac, which, for all intents and purposes, was more of the same techno-based sorta-pop music that was featured on Kid A. While it was good, even brilliant, it wasn’t what faithful fans had been expecting. Neither was Radiohead’s next release, I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings, which featured only songs from those two aforementioned albums. All of the music that Radiohead was putting out was fantastic, but one could understand why the typical fan would have been frustrated. Radiohead did not seem to be coming through on its promise.
2003’s Hail to the Thief seems to be their answer to the many scowls and long faces that were pointed at them. It rocks harder than Kid A and Amnesiac put together, I guess, but it only proves that Radiohead’s perceptions are slightly different than their fan base’s. It is rock, but its rock on Radiohead’s terms. That is clear from the opening strains of “2+2=5,” for which the beginning part is in 7/4 time at a frantic pace. When the song really gets cooking it’s in the standard 4/4, but Radiohead is still staking its claim as its own band. That song’s low opinion of President Bush shows that the band is not completely cut off from reality. The album seems to have a lot of songs that start off quiet and end up loud, but the tone still seems a little more subdued than The Bends or OK Computer. The best offering is “There There,” which is haunting and insistent, managing to be both lilting and apocalyptic at the same time. If the end of the world were to come, Radiohead would greet it with a shrug.
It’s not really fair to say Hail to the Thief is better or worse than any of their other albums, because each of their albums has its own flavor and particulars. Even Kid A and Amnesiac had their differences, even though they both came out of the same studio session. In short, Hail to the Thief is another Radiohead album, and that speaks to its originality and uniqueness of vision. One can expect that the next Radiohead album will go in a completely new direction.

Prime Cuts:
There There
A Wolf at the Door
Sit Down. Stand Up.
Go to Sleep

22 Rating: 17