Since 1997 Radiohead have constantly evolved and innovated, redefining the boundaries of rock music, and collating a back-catalogue of remarkable, genre-defying variety. Their ninth studio album, A Moon Shaped Pool, embraces yet another a change of style. The eleven tracks, released last week, move away from the energetic rhythmic focus of The King Of Limbs and return to gentler melodic songwriting driven primarily by piano, acoustic guitar and strings.
While Burn The Witch, accompanied by Chris Hopewell’s fantastically twisted stop-motion video, is a grabbing, full-blooded single, as the opening track it is quite misrepresentative of the rest of the album. It is the second single, Daydreaming, that truly encompasses the sound of A Moon Shaped Pool. As a minimalist, Phillip Glass-like piano line gently holds the floor for Thom Yorke’s vulnerable melody, the song subtly immerses you in its world. Chiming ambient guitar, vocal cut-ups and double bass create layer upon layer of sound; biting strings come whirling in, playing off the vocal loops, before the song slides into a breathtakingly emotive retreat. Radiohead’s longest album track since Paranoid Android is a very different style of masterpiece.
Like Daydreaming, Glass Eyes is a song of sublime, unashamedly sincere beauty. With a melody that is reluctant to resolve itself circling a liquid, glassy piano, swathes of strings wash in and out before a stunning cello flourish closes proceedings. On this, the shuffling Flamenco/Bossa Nova hybrid, The Present Tense, and the hooky chorus of Decks Dark, Thom Yorke demonstrates that he has not lost his melodic brilliance.
Though there are departures, traces of The King of Limbs remain on Ful Stop and Identikit, two songs that were written and performed on the album’s 2012 tour. Though these new studio versions are more subdued than their original incarnation, the pair sound an exciting live prospect. On Ful Stop polyrhythmic guitar arpeggios and overlays of Phil Selway and Clive Deamer’s frenetic beats develop over an ominous, menacing bass riff, bringing a change of pace from Desert Island Disk – a forgettable if pleasant acoustic track, featuring spacey effects reminiscent of Ok Computer b-sides. Meanwhile Identikit, starting off like a jam, patiently builds into a low-key dance classic featuring choral harmonies as well as an uncharacteristically harmonic, and fiendishly patterned guitar solo. On these tracks and Decks Dark with its hip hop beat, grooving bassline and head-bobbing outro, Radiohead sound most like their old selves.
As Spectre and Burn The Witch forecasted, A Moon Shaped Pool sees Radiohead make more developed use of orchestral arrangements with Jonny Greenwood teaming up with the London Contemporary Orchestra. In comparison to the percussive, discordant hallmarks of his film scores, the majority of the arrangements on the album are lyrical and classically conventional. The controlled free jazz of The Numbers and the laid-back electronica of Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Thief are both pierced by dramatic string additions that threaten to take over before the tension eventually recedes.
The latter crackles and creaks into what is a gift for Radiohead ultras. Over 20 year since it was first played while touring The Bends, True Love Waits has finally found its home. Radiohead’s 100th album track is one to bring tears to the eyes of hopeless romantics. Continuing their tradition of devastating album closers, it is a testament to the power of love, setting lyrics born out youthful optimism to the plaintive soundtrack of tender human experience. A song that is heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure.
A Moon Shape Pool is an album that grows with every listen. It may not have the same powerful crescendos as The Bends and Ok Computer, or the daring experimentalism of Kid A and Amnesiac, but Radiohead are no longer young rockers violently reacting against attempts to pin down and label their sound. Instead they are a collective of masterful musicians in their late 40s, confident in their talent and combined alchemy. Their trademark marriage of complexity, intensity and emotiveness is unrivalled in modern alternative music, and has not departed them on their ninth record.
9/10
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