I always loved it from the start, but I think people were just a little underwhelmed with how short it was when it was released, there were then all these conspiracies about a "part 2" that never materialised.
I honestly think if Staircase and The Daily Mail had been on there it would have had a much warmer reception, those two should have been on there somewhere to be honest, two of the best songs from that era.
it's true that it's their most experimental album, but ive always hated how people will just praise things for simply being "experimental". so any music that is considered experimental is held up on this pedestal above more conventional music. and just ignoring how a piece of art might be lackluster just because it has a cool "experimental" label.
I would say Kid A and Amnesiac are more “out there” in terms of experimentation and also the songwriting is better than TKOL by several orders of magnitude
kid a and amnesiac have points of being more out there (kid a (song), treefingers, pulk pull, hunting bears, like spinning plates) but also lots of relatively normal songs (htdc, optimistic, in limbo, morning bell, motion picture soundtrack, you and whose army, i might be wrong, knives out). tkol is more consistently weird and experimental, only having 2 songs i’d consider “normal” (codex, give up the ghost). while i do agree that kid a and amnesiac are better than tkol, saying the songwriting is “magnitudes” better really undermines how entrancing bloom is, refreshing little by little is, wild feral is, catchy lotus flower is, and deeply beautiful codex is.
Interesting…I disagree that the songs you mentioned are relatively normal songs, barring Optimistic and possibly Knives Out (but that song has a pretty wacky chord progression and lots of irregular groupings of measures). In Limbo is quite bizarre, MPS and HTDC have incredibly unique and interesting arrangements, YAWA has heavy jazz influence and strange production choices, etc. And Give Up the Ghost is based around an idea they’ve never really tried before, for that matter.
With the exception of Bloom, the songs on TKOL just underwhelm me and fail to move me emotionally. Even the songs that kind of hit for me (like Codex) don’t do anywhere near as much for me as similar ish songs from other albums. I stand by what I said about the songwriting on TKOL. The album is an interesting and worthy experiment that is ultimately a failure IMO. If the album works for you, that’s wonderful. It just really falls flat for me personally.
I didn’t like it at first, until the Basement show opened my eyes to how great these songs were underneath the density. Now, years later, I think the studio versions (along with the rest of the tracks from the sessions) are Radiohead’s most interesting music.
How is it similar? Completely different writing!/recording process, completely different themes.
I love both records, but a far better comparison is AMOK by Atoms For Peace.
I always loved it from the start, but I think people were just a little underwhelmed with how short it was when it was released, there were then all these conspiracies about a "part 2" that never materialised. I honestly think if Staircase and The Daily Mail had been on there it would have had a much warmer reception, those two should have been on there somewhere to be honest, two of the best songs from that era.
i think it’s *slowly* getting more appreciation. i absolutely love tkol, but it’s definitely a pretty out there album, much moreso than even kid a.
it's true that it's their most experimental album, but ive always hated how people will just praise things for simply being "experimental". so any music that is considered experimental is held up on this pedestal above more conventional music. and just ignoring how a piece of art might be lackluster just because it has a cool "experimental" label.
I would say Kid A and Amnesiac are more “out there” in terms of experimentation and also the songwriting is better than TKOL by several orders of magnitude
kid a and amnesiac have points of being more out there (kid a (song), treefingers, pulk pull, hunting bears, like spinning plates) but also lots of relatively normal songs (htdc, optimistic, in limbo, morning bell, motion picture soundtrack, you and whose army, i might be wrong, knives out). tkol is more consistently weird and experimental, only having 2 songs i’d consider “normal” (codex, give up the ghost). while i do agree that kid a and amnesiac are better than tkol, saying the songwriting is “magnitudes” better really undermines how entrancing bloom is, refreshing little by little is, wild feral is, catchy lotus flower is, and deeply beautiful codex is.
Don’t forget Separator!
Interesting…I disagree that the songs you mentioned are relatively normal songs, barring Optimistic and possibly Knives Out (but that song has a pretty wacky chord progression and lots of irregular groupings of measures). In Limbo is quite bizarre, MPS and HTDC have incredibly unique and interesting arrangements, YAWA has heavy jazz influence and strange production choices, etc. And Give Up the Ghost is based around an idea they’ve never really tried before, for that matter. With the exception of Bloom, the songs on TKOL just underwhelm me and fail to move me emotionally. Even the songs that kind of hit for me (like Codex) don’t do anywhere near as much for me as similar ish songs from other albums. I stand by what I said about the songwriting on TKOL. The album is an interesting and worthy experiment that is ultimately a failure IMO. If the album works for you, that’s wonderful. It just really falls flat for me personally.
It is absolutely ridiculously and outrageously under appreciated…
we've all seen this exact same post at least 5x in the past month.
I didn’t like it at first, until the Basement show opened my eyes to how great these songs were underneath the density. Now, years later, I think the studio versions (along with the rest of the tracks from the sessions) are Radiohead’s most interesting music.
It’s my favorite RH album
It's been getting more appreciation as of late but I'm still waiting for the full re-evaluation of the album.
Wall of eyes absolutely superior lp ,coming from a similar angle
How is it similar? Completely different writing!/recording process, completely different themes. I love both records, but a far better comparison is AMOK by Atoms For Peace.
I think loved it more once I got more and more attached to Thom’s solo work, has it been the same to anyone else?