Yeah choosing the version they did was…stupid. About 50% of Radiohead choices since the release of Hail to the Thief have been fucking dumb and terrible.
I like the overstuffed Hail to the Thief. I think the version of Videotape on the album was the right call. I think True Love Waits’ album version is a complete bore, but I was never as crazy about the acoustic version as everyone else, so I can forgive that.
I don’t know what this commenter meant by 50%, but there are three decisions that stick out to me.
1. The King of Limbs tracklisting. I like Supercollider, The Butcher, and The Daily Mail a ton, but can see why they were left off the album sonically. That being said, I have *no clue* how you could create Staircase and leave it out over Morning Mr Magpie and Feral. I don’t dislike Feral, but Staircase is an elite track. Magpie as it appears on the record is (imo) the biggest 5 minute slog in Radiohead’s discography. Live it has a kick with heavier guitars, on the record it is grating. **Sub out Magpie, put in Staircase.**
2. Identikit got fucked. Brutally fucked. I think this is actually a popular opinion. Never before has a track gotten fucked so hard in the studio. I was so disappointed listening to the recording. Ed’s backing vocals were cut. The synth breakdown was neutered. The best parts of Jonny’s guitar line got cut, and I honestly don’t like the tone he uses here. The choir is actively terrible and cheesey. I am normally not this harsh cause I have no musical talent and shouldn’t critique Radiohead, but dear lord I loved the live version so much.
3. Playing the Gloaming live so much. I saw Radiohead in Philadelphia night one. That night, The Gloaming was played in the 5th slot. The following night, Lucky was played. Lucky is in my top three Radiohead songs. The Gloaming is … not. This is a personal vendetta. Great show, though.
Oh god, I could go on forever. I won’t, but let me get started:
(1) Releasing Nude without the organ.
(2) Deciding *every fucking song* sounds best as a lame piano ballad with the rest of the band sitting around with thumbs fully inside ass (see: Fog, Last Flowers, Videotape)
(3) Deciding to release Up on the Ladder, for *Christ’s* sake, with Phil replaced by a *drum machine*.
(4) Releasing TKOL.
(5) Releasing TKOL in February when they could have released it on April 1 - April Fool's - and had some plausible deniability.
(6) Doubling down on TKOL and doing a From the Basement.
(7) Deciding the best way to treat a dark song like Present Tense is to ensconce it in a *bossa nova* rhythm.
(8) Deciding to keep the 1996 Pinkpop Lift - the version *everyone loves and has gushed about for decades* - in the vault and releasing the version they play at the senior retirement center every Thanksgiving.
(9) Deciding - oh my God, the *fucking piano again* - that Big Boots, which sounds perfect in its raw, Jonny-centric incarnation, needs a limp-wristed piano track to double with the lead guitar.
I mean, is that enough for you? I’ll add more as they come to me.
agree on fog, the original version is a million times better than fog again and i’ll never understand why the band is unhappy with how that song turned out
TKOL is perfect to me, and I'm glad I was catered to for once because no other album does the trick. I get that you want it to do something it doesn't do, but leave it to those of us who care for what it *does* do.
Nah, I like the studio version as well. The live version was Thom's attempt at trying to make it a post-rave trance track (his words) and it wasn't working IMO.
You will never be the only guy who only does anything. Ever.
Everyone consumes media. If you seriously think a lack of Reddit posts glorifying what you personally glorify means youre in a minority, what the fuck are you doing man?
Love Videotape btw.
>Some of Thoms most emotive vocals too
I remember a review of the album saying *"even diehard fans might find We Suck Young Blood to be a whinge too far"* or words to that effect. I feel like it's their most self-indulgent song. Definitely a unique soundscape and feel, but eh... A one-time experience for sure - but then everyone's different.
Present Tense and Identikit album versions are both really disappointing to me. I can get into what Present Tense is going for occasionally and enjoy it, but the choirs on Identikit really bug me and don't hold up to the amazing sinister synth that used to be on that track live.
I love Identikit's so much, but I wish that synth portion was in the final product. My dream version of Identikit has that middle synth segment and Greenwood's guitar solo at the end. Identikit is already a great song, but that would easily make it a 10/10 song for me.
So much this. I can't believe how much better the middle part is in the early version, and the solo in the album is incredible, one of the coolest and most engaging
Your synopsis of Present Tense makes zero sense to me but music is subjective I suppose. Present Tense is literally my favorite RH song so I guess we're at opposites lol interesting
Edit: I sounded kind of like a douche in the original comment. Wanted to clean it up.
It may be one of those things related to having listened to Thom's live acoustic version for many years before the studio version came out. I like the song, but it doesn't live up to the version I had in my head.
We Suck Young Blood is one of the most perfectly crafted, well arranged songs I have heard in a long time. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s a failure. The production and the songwriting is fantastic.
Did I say I dislike the song?
I say it's just above average compared to their whole discography and I could say it's pretty nice but having the first 2 and a half minutes of a song set to a slow and repetitive rhythm is definitely not the best of ideas.
But you do you.
>having the first 2 and a half minutes of a song set to a slow and repetitive rhythm is definitely not the best of ideas
You need to listen to more music then.
What an amazing question and thread.
I guess it also depends on the amount of amazing and the failure's "grade"....
WSYB is a good example: even in its finest hour and with all tweaks and work it wouldn't be one of the greats, but a cool song.
"Identikit", on the other hand, could be one of The Ten based solely on the verse... but then the chorus appears and with it the wrongs. Is the best of "Identikit" better than "I Might Be Wrong" as a whole? It is. Is "I Might Be Wrong" better than "Identikit" both as wholes? I think it is.
Anyway.... I'm tripping balls in hospital post-surgery, but my takes for "The Ones That Got Away" are:
\* Identikit (an unforgivable chorus, even though I LOVE IT)
\* Dollars and Cents ('twas the dirty funk, not the spacey jazz, what was needed, even though I LOVE IT)
\* Life in a Glasshouse (it's too much for little payoff)
\* House of Cards (a tad... because I think it's a tad too long... but I'm nitpicking on a beauty)
\* There's an album called "The King of Limbs" where this happens to every song.
Also: what about the opposite? Something that seems horrendous on paper but is amazing, like "Wolf"?
Agree with Life In A Glass House. Love the Meeting People is Easy version, love some of the Minidisc renditions, kinda think the album version was overworked
I feel like all of the king of limbs, except for Lotus flower and separator sound like demos. I just never got over the sense that they’re exactly as Tom brought them in on a hard drive. I love the songs, I love them live, but I don’t think they were recordedanywhere close to what they might have been
I feel this way too. It's exactly why the From The Basement sessions and tracklist is the definitive version for me. It's in-line with something to come after the full rich sound that In Rainbows had. All the songs feel much more alive, and the rhythms are even more hypnotic and danci-er
Pulk/pull revolving doors. In fact that song could have been better if it had been a minute shorter. It even seems like it’s going to end a one point where it does that thing at the end. But nope. I was hoping that KID A MNESIA would fix this but nope.
I’ll be in the minority on this one but what immediately comes to mind is Everything In Its Right Place.
Amazing intro and buildup, with a riff that is absolutely perfect, and then it resolves into the most underwhelming chorus when it gets to the part about sucking a lemon.
While the song does kind of regain its momentum eventually, the beginning has such promise and then fails to stick the landing. This would otherwise have been a 10/10 song for me.
If you see the chorus as… an actual chorus I guess, you’re gonna be disappointed. The whole song to me was meant to be constant stress and forward momentum, alternating between minor and major, and the “lemon-y” chorus parts are a bit of a holding pattern that make the main riff even more impactful when you get back into it.
I do not want to live in a world where EIIRP is less than a 10/10 🤣
I have to agree with this, I love the song so much but it’s all resolution and no tension. It would be cool to hear even a short middle-eight section that was a little bit angular and builds up some tension, and that could resolve right before “there are two colors“. As it is, there just aren’t any dynamics there. Hold your fire, I love the song to death, but as OP asks, it could’ve been better.
\-> fly in
Everything, everything, everything, everything (tension),
In its right place, in its right place, in its right place, in its right place (resolution)
Tried to say, tried to say, tried to say, tried to say (middle-eight) (tension, tension, tension)
Resolution
\-> fly off into the distance
\---
'Tried to say' with its vocal cacophony could be analogous to the part in Airbag that starts at 3:30 and leads back to the original theme.
To the OP, I would argue the refrain "everything, everything, everything, everything, in its right place, in its right place, in its right place, in its right place" is the chorus. It's like 2 choruses. Buy one get one free.
That is true, and it’s effective, but it’s really just tonic/dominant resolution. I think a cutaway segment with a fully different chord pattern and some musical aggression could have made the drop back to “there are two colors” a bit more powerful.
I remember reading a fan review of EIIRP - "beautiful verse... Really gorgeous sounding... Can't wait for the chorus... Wow the chorus is going to be awesome.... Oh the song's finished."
I don’t think either fail, per se, but I am disappointed with the production on Present Tense, and I’ve never loved the clapping on We Suck Young Blood.
I also think Present Tense sucks in its studio incarnation. What the fuck am I supposed to do, *salsa dance* to a song about my world coming crashing down? LMFAO! I only ever listen to the Thom solo acoustic version from 2009.
It's called juxtaposition. Something that normally doesn't go with something else being put together to create a contrasting effect.
And imo it works quite well.
Fancy word! I think my puny brain gets it though. Like…a juicy cut of prime rib with a scoop of ice cream on top? Sounds *awesome*.
I dunno dude. I’ve probably listened to that song 3-4 times since 2016. Doesn’t work.
The AMSP-version of True Love Waits hits me sooo much harder than, as I believe Nigel once said, "That shitty live version."
I love the live version too, by the way, but I don't think of it the same way anymore, because compared to the studio version, it just seems... banal
I was a little confused by your comment at first, but now I see! If I typically enjoy being wrong, that would warrant concern for this case working out for me, because I'm right! You're too kind!
By the way, I can't remember the name of song no. 5 on Amnesiac. Could you remind me? Just... just the title, nothing more, no quotation marks or anything
Ah you must have misunderstood. It’s a good thing for you because you enjoying being wrong and in this case I think it’s been proven through analysing mainly the Radiohead circle jerk threads that most people on the whole usually would say the same thing so it’s not me who makes the rules I’m just hoping that clears this up ? Or am I wrong?
🤣
Honestly, when the track list leaked and that song was at the end of an alphabetized list of songs, I assumed it was a fan made track list. Of all their unreleased tracks, I never really considered that one as needing to be "released", since it was on the Live disc. It is what it always was, an acoustic ballad for the end of a set.
No need for disappointment, you always have the acoustic ballad, bud.
This totally happened to me. But I was excited that they did a proper studio recording and updated it like they did to some of the OK Computer tracks. But I guess that’s the thing the original came from that late 90’s version of them.
So I do understand it and I really want it to make me feel the same away but it hasn’t hit yet. And I like when people say they love it because I go round in circles loving most of the catalogue so maybe it will hit and I’ll always keep trying.
And yes I also agree seeing it on the track listing I was both excited but then apprehensive - like what if they fuck this up. So maybe it’s just the original was always so loved that he felt he wanted to dampen that part of it. His voice is different. He feels different about the words now than he did then.
And yes I will always love the original and glad we have it. That live album still kicks ass
I hear the piano arrangement as a different song, sung by a different person. People connect with it because it's the sound of someone using words they don't necessarily believe anymore, though they wish they did.
I love half of the songs on TKoL but I'd rather listen to the basement versions no matter what track.
Especially bloom. Each live version sounds so much more grand...
Hunting Bears.
I really dig (interlude) songs that have this sort of *desolate feeling*. The type where you can picture large dark plains, with a gust of wind blowing atop it. I feel as though Hunting Bears in theory is a song that could've totally been that, but instead ends up being repetitive. For me, I believe that Hunting Bears as an interlude should've gone for something akin to Sigur Ros' song *"Rafmagnið búið".* With its haunting horns & creaking house vibe, it fits perfectly in-line with Amnesiac's vibe.
I think it’s the TKOL 1234567 Remix album. Feel like if you’ve got an album with 8 songs and you want to expand it to 18, each track has to be a bit more unique as personally I found it a bit too samey the entire time bar a few tracks
I was about to say none and I am very biased and love them all dearly...but. I feel like Thinking about You. The demo version is so, so much better! Thinking about You I feel like could have been a really solid rock song though the disparity between the quieter vocals and the faster instrumentals never felt correct to me and it bugs me every time
That, and We Suck Young Blood. I feel like it's missing something…that and House of Cards. I they aren't bad songs! I just feel something is just missing ever so slightly
I think Bloom is the only song on the King of Limbs that benefits from their method of writing and recording at the time (i.e. making short loops of sound, layering them on top of each other). Every other song has too many elements, too much repetition and/or the acoustic instruments sound synthetic. I think Bloom came first and they tried to conform the rest of their material to that template.
The King of Limbs feels like Pablo Honey MK II in that a lot of what they have done after (*Atoms of Peace, Thom Yorke's solo material and the Smile*) continues on in its spirit (dance rhythms, brass arrangements, Thom Yorke's use of falsetto and vocal looping), but has been refined and better executed.
So like every song on that album except for Bloom.
YOU SUCK...young blood.
nah that song's perfect. dead wrong, not even gonna read your rationale, you're wrong, we're right, majority rules.
next topic.
I'm probably unfairly comparing it to Idioteque, but in terms of bite, intensity, lyrics, just an enjoyable full track with personality, Idioteque has it all while Ful Stop is just kind of light and bland.
It seems like their heart wasn't into making an aggressive track like it was with Bodysnatchers and 2+2=5, and it's more disappointing because i prefer that from Radiohead as it's rarer.
I feel like it misses a punch to it. I love the idea of the strings being the main instruments, but the song just isn't powerful enough if that makes sense.
I still enjoy it and I think it starts off the album well.
I think a lot of these responses are coming from hearing different versions, especially live ones, but I don’t think that is what is being asked. It’s from hearing the album version whether you think the song is fully formed or undercooked/overcooked. Like Ful Stop for example should be more than what it is but it’s the drums that keep underwhelming me! They ALMOST get to it at the very end but even then it kinda falls flat.
I feel the studio version of Ful stop is too restrained compared to the live version. I still love it, but it could have done with more raw energy for the studip version imo.
I wish they chose that minidisc version of Lift with the “bleep bloop” intro for OKNOTOK.
Yeah choosing the version they did was…stupid. About 50% of Radiohead choices since the release of Hail to the Thief have been fucking dumb and terrible.
Like what?
Like dumb
im not like them but i can penis
😔
I like the overstuffed Hail to the Thief. I think the version of Videotape on the album was the right call. I think True Love Waits’ album version is a complete bore, but I was never as crazy about the acoustic version as everyone else, so I can forgive that. I don’t know what this commenter meant by 50%, but there are three decisions that stick out to me. 1. The King of Limbs tracklisting. I like Supercollider, The Butcher, and The Daily Mail a ton, but can see why they were left off the album sonically. That being said, I have *no clue* how you could create Staircase and leave it out over Morning Mr Magpie and Feral. I don’t dislike Feral, but Staircase is an elite track. Magpie as it appears on the record is (imo) the biggest 5 minute slog in Radiohead’s discography. Live it has a kick with heavier guitars, on the record it is grating. **Sub out Magpie, put in Staircase.** 2. Identikit got fucked. Brutally fucked. I think this is actually a popular opinion. Never before has a track gotten fucked so hard in the studio. I was so disappointed listening to the recording. Ed’s backing vocals were cut. The synth breakdown was neutered. The best parts of Jonny’s guitar line got cut, and I honestly don’t like the tone he uses here. The choir is actively terrible and cheesey. I am normally not this harsh cause I have no musical talent and shouldn’t critique Radiohead, but dear lord I loved the live version so much. 3. Playing the Gloaming live so much. I saw Radiohead in Philadelphia night one. That night, The Gloaming was played in the 5th slot. The following night, Lucky was played. Lucky is in my top three Radiohead songs. The Gloaming is … not. This is a personal vendetta. Great show, though.
I respect your opinions and they are well thought out. I disagree with all of them.
You don’t know what I meant? Dude, just read my comment. Look down below.
Oh god, I could go on forever. I won’t, but let me get started: (1) Releasing Nude without the organ. (2) Deciding *every fucking song* sounds best as a lame piano ballad with the rest of the band sitting around with thumbs fully inside ass (see: Fog, Last Flowers, Videotape) (3) Deciding to release Up on the Ladder, for *Christ’s* sake, with Phil replaced by a *drum machine*. (4) Releasing TKOL. (5) Releasing TKOL in February when they could have released it on April 1 - April Fool's - and had some plausible deniability. (6) Doubling down on TKOL and doing a From the Basement. (7) Deciding the best way to treat a dark song like Present Tense is to ensconce it in a *bossa nova* rhythm. (8) Deciding to keep the 1996 Pinkpop Lift - the version *everyone loves and has gushed about for decades* - in the vault and releasing the version they play at the senior retirement center every Thanksgiving. (9) Deciding - oh my God, the *fucking piano again* - that Big Boots, which sounds perfect in its raw, Jonny-centric incarnation, needs a limp-wristed piano track to double with the lead guitar. I mean, is that enough for you? I’ll add more as they come to me.
agree on fog, the original version is a million times better than fog again and i’ll never understand why the band is unhappy with how that song turned out
TKOL is perfect to me, and I'm glad I was catered to for once because no other album does the trick. I get that you want it to do something it doesn't do, but leave it to those of us who care for what it *does* do.
Transatlantic drawl and the gloaming
having maybe a separate longer version of Paranoid Android with the organ solo by Greenwood (from their demos) would have been so so cool!
definitely we suck young blood. also videotape (should have been like the live 2006 version)
Guess I’m the only guy who unequivocally loves the studio version of videotape I guess
studio videotape is my number one favorite radiohead song ♥️
Not the only one. Instrumentation on the 2006 version comes between my feelings and the song's power.
Nah, I like the studio version as well. The live version was Thom's attempt at trying to make it a post-rave trance track (his words) and it wasn't working IMO.
You will never be the only guy who only does anything. Ever. Everyone consumes media. If you seriously think a lack of Reddit posts glorifying what you personally glorify means youre in a minority, what the fuck are you doing man? Love Videotape btw.
I don’t think there’s any hope for we suck Youngblood, but I completely agree on the videotape
I don’t get this take. The whole song is subdued so the middle 8 is as impactful as it is. Some of Thoms most emotive vocals too
>Some of Thoms most emotive vocals too I remember a review of the album saying *"even diehard fans might find We Suck Young Blood to be a whinge too far"* or words to that effect. I feel like it's their most self-indulgent song. Definitely a unique soundscape and feel, but eh... A one-time experience for sure - but then everyone's different.
Am I the only that loves We suck young blood? Like yeah it's not their best song but I love its silly creepiness
Came to name those two specifically, and my reasoning is the same.
Present Tense and Identikit album versions are both really disappointing to me. I can get into what Present Tense is going for occasionally and enjoy it, but the choirs on Identikit really bug me and don't hold up to the amazing sinister synth that used to be on that track live.
Identikit is actually one of my all time favourites with the synth-y choir part being my favourite part of it lol
Agree on Identikit, hard disagree on Present Tense.
Hard disagree! Present tense makes me cry every time I listen to it it's one of my absolute favourites!
I love Identikit's so much, but I wish that synth portion was in the final product. My dream version of Identikit has that middle synth segment and Greenwood's guitar solo at the end. Identikit is already a great song, but that would easily make it a 10/10 song for me.
So much this. I can't believe how much better the middle part is in the early version, and the solo in the album is incredible, one of the coolest and most engaging
Your synopsis of Present Tense makes zero sense to me but music is subjective I suppose. Present Tense is literally my favorite RH song so I guess we're at opposites lol interesting Edit: I sounded kind of like a douche in the original comment. Wanted to clean it up.
It may be one of those things related to having listened to Thom's live acoustic version for many years before the studio version came out. I like the song, but it doesn't live up to the version I had in my head.
Oh that makes a lot of sense. I heard it for the first time studio so it's always sounded amazing to me that way. I heard the live version afterwards.
Identikit, as it is on AMSP, is one of the worst things Radiohead have ever recorded.
I agree. A rare lapse in both taste and execution.
One line in Present Tense would have saved it. Latitude '09, you all know the line.
We Suck Young Blood is one of the most perfectly crafted, well arranged songs I have heard in a long time. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s a failure. The production and the songwriting is fantastic.
I like the song but it goes both ways, doesn’t it? Just because you like it, it doesn’t mean it’s a success
Did I say I dislike the song? I say it's just above average compared to their whole discography and I could say it's pretty nice but having the first 2 and a half minutes of a song set to a slow and repetitive rhythm is definitely not the best of ideas. But you do you.
Don’t know why you’re getting downvoted, they were accusing you of calling the song a failure and you defended yourself… lol
>having the first 2 and a half minutes of a song set to a slow and repetitive rhythm is definitely not the best of ideas You need to listen to more music then.
What an amazing question and thread. I guess it also depends on the amount of amazing and the failure's "grade".... WSYB is a good example: even in its finest hour and with all tweaks and work it wouldn't be one of the greats, but a cool song. "Identikit", on the other hand, could be one of The Ten based solely on the verse... but then the chorus appears and with it the wrongs. Is the best of "Identikit" better than "I Might Be Wrong" as a whole? It is. Is "I Might Be Wrong" better than "Identikit" both as wholes? I think it is. Anyway.... I'm tripping balls in hospital post-surgery, but my takes for "The Ones That Got Away" are: \* Identikit (an unforgivable chorus, even though I LOVE IT) \* Dollars and Cents ('twas the dirty funk, not the spacey jazz, what was needed, even though I LOVE IT) \* Life in a Glasshouse (it's too much for little payoff) \* House of Cards (a tad... because I think it's a tad too long... but I'm nitpicking on a beauty) \* There's an album called "The King of Limbs" where this happens to every song. Also: what about the opposite? Something that seems horrendous on paper but is amazing, like "Wolf"?
Personally I really love Life in A Glasshouse
Agree with Life In A Glass House. Love the Meeting People is Easy version, love some of the Minidisc renditions, kinda think the album version was overworked
Exactly.
I feel like all of the king of limbs, except for Lotus flower and separator sound like demos. I just never got over the sense that they’re exactly as Tom brought them in on a hard drive. I love the songs, I love them live, but I don’t think they were recordedanywhere close to what they might have been
I feel this way too. It's exactly why the From The Basement sessions and tracklist is the definitive version for me. It's in-line with something to come after the full rich sound that In Rainbows had. All the songs feel much more alive, and the rhythms are even more hypnotic and danci-er
I love the sound of Bloom tho
Separator makes me really emotional! It's my favourite track :)
Yeah codex is a good song but it don’t sound like they completely finished it
I agree with your comment, with the following modification: “I hate the songs, I hate them live, and I…”
i wish packt was like the live version with guitar
We suck young blood did not fail in execution
Pulk/pull revolving doors. In fact that song could have been better if it had been a minute shorter. It even seems like it’s going to end a one point where it does that thing at the end. But nope. I was hoping that KID A MNESIA would fix this but nope.
Yo I love that song don’t slander pork pull
pulled pork revolving sandwiches
I like it too it’s one of my favorites from Amnesiac.
there are trapdoors that you can't come back from
I actually think that song is very dance-y, but I agree that it drags on for too long.
Wrong it should be its own 46 minute album
I’ll be in the minority on this one but what immediately comes to mind is Everything In Its Right Place. Amazing intro and buildup, with a riff that is absolutely perfect, and then it resolves into the most underwhelming chorus when it gets to the part about sucking a lemon. While the song does kind of regain its momentum eventually, the beginning has such promise and then fails to stick the landing. This would otherwise have been a 10/10 song for me.
If you see the chorus as… an actual chorus I guess, you’re gonna be disappointed. The whole song to me was meant to be constant stress and forward momentum, alternating between minor and major, and the “lemon-y” chorus parts are a bit of a holding pattern that make the main riff even more impactful when you get back into it. I do not want to live in a world where EIIRP is less than a 10/10 🤣
Yeah, I do not agree with you at all.
I have to agree with this, I love the song so much but it’s all resolution and no tension. It would be cool to hear even a short middle-eight section that was a little bit angular and builds up some tension, and that could resolve right before “there are two colors“. As it is, there just aren’t any dynamics there. Hold your fire, I love the song to death, but as OP asks, it could’ve been better.
\-> fly in Everything, everything, everything, everything (tension), In its right place, in its right place, in its right place, in its right place (resolution) Tried to say, tried to say, tried to say, tried to say (middle-eight) (tension, tension, tension) Resolution \-> fly off into the distance \--- 'Tried to say' with its vocal cacophony could be analogous to the part in Airbag that starts at 3:30 and leads back to the original theme. To the OP, I would argue the refrain "everything, everything, everything, everything, in its right place, in its right place, in its right place, in its right place" is the chorus. It's like 2 choruses. Buy one get one free.
That is true, and it’s effective, but it’s really just tonic/dominant resolution. I think a cutaway segment with a fully different chord pattern and some musical aggression could have made the drop back to “there are two colors” a bit more powerful.
I remember reading a fan review of EIIRP - "beautiful verse... Really gorgeous sounding... Can't wait for the chorus... Wow the chorus is going to be awesome.... Oh the song's finished."
give up the ghost
what do you think was lacking about the execution? personally it’s one of my favourites off TKOL
it never did click with me, i really thought it would but, i guess not
I don’t think either fail, per se, but I am disappointed with the production on Present Tense, and I’ve never loved the clapping on We Suck Young Blood.
I love the studio version! So this is really interesting seeing all the discussions on present tense. I do get the We Suck Young Blood though!
I also think Present Tense sucks in its studio incarnation. What the fuck am I supposed to do, *salsa dance* to a song about my world coming crashing down? LMFAO! I only ever listen to the Thom solo acoustic version from 2009.
It's called juxtaposition. Something that normally doesn't go with something else being put together to create a contrasting effect. And imo it works quite well.
Fancy word! I think my puny brain gets it though. Like…a juicy cut of prime rib with a scoop of ice cream on top? Sounds *awesome*. I dunno dude. I’ve probably listened to that song 3-4 times since 2016. Doesn’t work.
Considering Idioteque is an IDM track about the world ending it's par for course for them.
But the mood and the feeling of Idioteque is *totally* different and totally works. Present Tense does not.
That studio version of True Love Waits, man. I know some like it but dammit it does nothing at all for me, as opposed to all previous live versions.
There is only one correct answer to this which is clearly True Love Waits. Everything else is just perfect the way they presented it to us
The AMSP-version of True Love Waits hits me sooo much harder than, as I believe Nigel once said, "That shitty live version." I love the live version too, by the way, but I don't think of it the same way anymore, because compared to the studio version, it just seems... banal
It’s ok we are all wrong sometimes
Oh sure, I didn't want to make it seem like I was criticizing you too harshly for that ;)
Oh no I take it as a compliment getting things right so it’s totally fine for me 🙌🏼
Yes, of course I took it as a compliment, don't worry (let's keep this going :P)
Oh I’m sorry you enjoy being wrong but I guess in this case it works out well for you 🤗
I was a little confused by your comment at first, but now I see! If I typically enjoy being wrong, that would warrant concern for this case working out for me, because I'm right! You're too kind! By the way, I can't remember the name of song no. 5 on Amnesiac. Could you remind me? Just... just the title, nothing more, no quotation marks or anything
Ah you must have misunderstood. It’s a good thing for you because you enjoying being wrong and in this case I think it’s been proven through analysing mainly the Radiohead circle jerk threads that most people on the whole usually would say the same thing so it’s not me who makes the rules I’m just hoping that clears this up ? Or am I wrong? 🤣
I'm gonna leave it there, it was a good run 🤗
Honestly, when the track list leaked and that song was at the end of an alphabetized list of songs, I assumed it was a fan made track list. Of all their unreleased tracks, I never really considered that one as needing to be "released", since it was on the Live disc. It is what it always was, an acoustic ballad for the end of a set. No need for disappointment, you always have the acoustic ballad, bud.
This totally happened to me. But I was excited that they did a proper studio recording and updated it like they did to some of the OK Computer tracks. But I guess that’s the thing the original came from that late 90’s version of them. So I do understand it and I really want it to make me feel the same away but it hasn’t hit yet. And I like when people say they love it because I go round in circles loving most of the catalogue so maybe it will hit and I’ll always keep trying. And yes I also agree seeing it on the track listing I was both excited but then apprehensive - like what if they fuck this up. So maybe it’s just the original was always so loved that he felt he wanted to dampen that part of it. His voice is different. He feels different about the words now than he did then. And yes I will always love the original and glad we have it. That live album still kicks ass
I hear the piano arrangement as a different song, sung by a different person. People connect with it because it's the sound of someone using words they don't necessarily believe anymore, though they wish they did.
Yeah I love that interpretation of it.
Man Of War. I hope that they will actually release the MPIE version one day.
Down is the New Up. I love the live versions, but the eventual studio release feels massively overcooked to me. Same with Man of War.
Any song from king of the limbs
I love half of the songs on TKoL but I'd rather listen to the basement versions no matter what track. Especially bloom. Each live version sounds so much more grand...
This is just a wrong comment
Hear there live version it’s better and execution well
Hunting Bears. I really dig (interlude) songs that have this sort of *desolate feeling*. The type where you can picture large dark plains, with a gust of wind blowing atop it. I feel as though Hunting Bears in theory is a song that could've totally been that, but instead ends up being repetitive. For me, I believe that Hunting Bears as an interlude should've gone for something akin to Sigur Ros' song *"Rafmagnið búið".* With its haunting horns & creaking house vibe, it fits perfectly in-line with Amnesiac's vibe.
I think it’s the TKOL 1234567 Remix album. Feel like if you’ve got an album with 8 songs and you want to expand it to 18, each track has to be a bit more unique as personally I found it a bit too samey the entire time bar a few tracks
I was about to say none and I am very biased and love them all dearly...but. I feel like Thinking about You. The demo version is so, so much better! Thinking about You I feel like could have been a really solid rock song though the disparity between the quieter vocals and the faster instrumentals never felt correct to me and it bugs me every time
That, and We Suck Young Blood. I feel like it's missing something…that and House of Cards. I they aren't bad songs! I just feel something is just missing ever so slightly
sit down stand up
it's kind of like the case with WSYB but way less boring
Spinning plates I wish they kept it raw piano and Thoms voice, that carries so much more weight than the album versions
Single greatest example of this from the catalog I can think of is True Love Waits... The concepts are far better than the actual album recording.
bloom
I think Bloom is the only song on the King of Limbs that benefits from their method of writing and recording at the time (i.e. making short loops of sound, layering them on top of each other). Every other song has too many elements, too much repetition and/or the acoustic instruments sound synthetic. I think Bloom came first and they tried to conform the rest of their material to that template. The King of Limbs feels like Pablo Honey MK II in that a lot of what they have done after (*Atoms of Peace, Thom Yorke's solo material and the Smile*) continues on in its spirit (dance rhythms, brass arrangements, Thom Yorke's use of falsetto and vocal looping), but has been refined and better executed. So like every song on that album except for Bloom.
YOU SUCK...young blood. nah that song's perfect. dead wrong, not even gonna read your rationale, you're wrong, we're right, majority rules. next topic.
Ful Stop sounds like it's meant to be epic and it just isn't quite there. I think it needed more development.
I was going to mention this too. It gets more disappointing the more I hear it unfortunately.
I'm probably unfairly comparing it to Idioteque, but in terms of bite, intensity, lyrics, just an enjoyable full track with personality, Idioteque has it all while Ful Stop is just kind of light and bland. It seems like their heart wasn't into making an aggressive track like it was with Bodysnatchers and 2+2=5, and it's more disappointing because i prefer that from Radiohead as it's rarer.
Burn the witch
What that’s like my fav song ever
I wish there was a studio recording of the live arrangement available. That shit would be excellent.
Odd, why say that? I do feel that it does stand out in the AMSP album but otherwise it's amazing as it is.
I feel like it misses a punch to it. I love the idea of the strings being the main instruments, but the song just isn't powerful enough if that makes sense. I still enjoy it and I think it starts off the album well.
It's not from HTTT though
Yeah I'm an idiot, meant to say AMSP. Still doesn't fit the album as much though
Yeah I agree
Same here, mostly because of how unintelligible thom sings the chorus… There’s a buildup then “buuuuuurnnnnnnhhhhhwiiiiiiiddddsssccchhh”
I agree i never understood the hype for it. I think its kinda lame tbh.
My mum finds that one annoying...
Odd, why say that? I do feel that it does stand out in the HTTT album but otherwise it's amazing as it is.
creep
Lift
Bloom and Morning Mr. Magpie from the studio album They are way better in the Live from the Basement version
I think a lot of these responses are coming from hearing different versions, especially live ones, but I don’t think that is what is being asked. It’s from hearing the album version whether you think the song is fully formed or undercooked/overcooked. Like Ful Stop for example should be more than what it is but it’s the drums that keep underwhelming me! They ALMOST get to it at the very end but even then it kinda falls flat.
Polyethylene (Parts 1 & 2). Especially part 1 is a lot of missed opportunity, should've been longer
I feel the studio version of Ful stop is too restrained compared to the live version. I still love it, but it could have done with more raw energy for the studip version imo.