Hail to the Thief

Taattua laatua bändiltä. Ei oma suosikki tuotannosta, mutta erittäin vahva 4/5.

This album came out at a transitional time in my life, so my memories of it aren't as strong as they are with other Radiohead albums. It was right before I moved to Providence, away from everyone I knew, save for my alcoholic girlfriend who was moving with me. It was a fairly lonely, but eye opening year, and I was soaking in all kinds of new things - not least of which was a grim sense of reality that didn't so much start to sink in, but slap me in the face.

This album is great - a natural extension of what they established on their previous two albums. It's Radiohead. It's amazing. But this is where my engagement with them starts to drift away. This was partially due to somewhat painful associations with ex-girlfriends and the fact that I didn't need their existentially sad sound at that time in my life. It would've put me over the edge to wallow in it. That and I think they were starting to repeat themselves a bit here. Not that I don't love the sound but it didn't surprise me in the same way that their previous albums had. I'm not gonna say there were no surprises, but I feel like they had settled into a creative comfort zone of sorts. Understandably so, as they were pretty much universally revered by this point, and could easily rest on those laurels. They were a big fish now, a whale really, and I suppose being that size it was harder to make sharp turns or change directions.

5 🌟

I tend to overlook this album when listening to Radiohead discovery. This is a good album and most likely deserves its place on the list. It just happened to be in the shadows of the other Radiohead true masterpieces. And I would still even prefer the Bends and Amenesica to this. But an average radio head album is still a very good album.

Alright, I liked this one! There was still a little bit of audio channel stuff that hit my ears wrong toward the beginning, and “We Suck Young Blood” brought the whole album to a screeching halt right in the middle, but I liked most of the rest of the songs

very sad

It listens as the album where Radiohead mixed the elements from their rockier-oriented career start with their later electronic experimental style. Call it a Kid A meets OK Computer.

This was certainly not an album I 'got' in just one listen. It has taken a few proper sessions to get through the somewhat dark and inaccessible layers this album has.
Not just musically, but lyrically the band seems to be a lot more cynical and angry than I've known them. But I'm enjoying the album more with every listen, mostly because there's so much to discover with every playthrough.

There are so many details that are revealed with each new listen, and those details are presented in a truly varied way.
There is rarely any repetition; the variety is huge and you're traveling quickly from one place to another, which sometimes makes the album feel a bit disjointed at the start. But after a few listens I think only We Suck Young Blood is a lesser song on a truly great album.

Slowly this might be becoming one of my favourite Radiohead albums.

I'm putting it at 4,5*, but this album might end up as a 5* album in a few years if I revisit it.