If ever there was an intimidating band to review, that band is none other than the famous Radiohead. With a ridiculously dynamic career behind them, they really don’t have anything to prove, but somehow the band continues to surprise the world with ever-increasing excellence and creativity with every new record. A commonality runs through each album, the distinct Radiohead sound that millions of fans know and love. You feel like you’re under water. You also feel like there’s no place else you’d rather be. I remember my brother listening to Radiohead and reading science fiction as a teenager. I didn’t get it at the time, but I’ve since come to understand that Radiohead creates a world all by itself. It would be valid to accuse me of using the word “immersive” a little too often, but that is the quality that often endears music to me, and it is definitely true of every piece of music by Radiohead that I’ve heard. It’s a lush, moody escape from the drone of everyday life created by steady baselines, multiple electric guitars and something quite unidentifiable. It’s a seamless marriage of sound that rises above the noise and enchants those who take the time to listen.
A Moon Shaped Pool is, of course, no different. It’s a reprieve from the noise and confusion of being a person, a lush, involved masterpiece that draws you in from the first note and leaves you feeling sorry it had to come to an end. Radiohead has always been experimental, unafraid to go against the grain and so damn good at executing said risks. The band is not afraid to shirk the old in favour of the new. While many bands seem to mellow into the final quarter of their careers, Radiohead continue to re-invent themselves without losing the thing that has always made them unique. The album features spacey backup vocals, easy, unexpected rhythms, acoustic guitar and grand piano undercut by innovative synth sounds and electronic manipulation. Where the band had to rely primarily on live distortion to achieve their earlier sound, the unique production they employ today is on par with the best of beatmakers. It feels familiar, but new, and it’s really easy to get lost in A Moon Shaped Pool if you don’t keep your eyes open. I’d like to dwell, just for a moment, on what I consider to be the crowning jewel of A Moon Shaped Pool, the re-imagined recording of True Love Waits. It’s possible I’m overly sentimental, but I find myself moved by this song on every listen. Something of the delicate vulnerability of this recording was not as obvious in the original version. This is the bare bones of True Love Waits – grand piano and Thom Yorke’s iconic melancholy vocal. This is, in fact, the first studio recording of the song, although a live version appeared on I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings. While Radiohead’s previous albums presented us with many a jarring moment, to our confused delight, A Moon Shaped Pool has a dreamier quality to it. The album waxes and wanes, sending its listeners into a happy melancholy trance should they let it. I experience it as a living thing, engaging my mind with complex lyrics and unexpected musical twists and turns. I find myself feeling quite ill equipped to do the album justice as a reviewer.
Listen to it. I don’t think it’s possible to be disappointed.
