Radiohead to start Studio recordings after the Tour

We had written about it a few months ago, but Ed O’ Brien confirmed this in his interview for BBC. The long Radiohead tour that started yesterday and finishes in October will be the last thing they will do before they return to the studio.

O’ Brien said: “Because by the end of the tour, you’re bored of what you’re playing. You need more life and energy and the only way to do that is writing new songs.”. Unfortunately Ed didn’t give any clue in the question when new material will come to public. He noticed “It could be five years, it could be the end of this year, it’s whether it’s any good, that’s the point. We’ve just got to do it and see if it’s any good.” But i guess that this is one of the secrets of Radiohead brilliant career.. they never push themselves in order to get new albums and hits. They do it only when they feel the new songs are just what they expected to be!

Ed O’ Brien also had a comment about the starting point of their Tour (West Palm Beach):”It’s about music and direct communication. But it’s also a very unreal existence. I can’t get excited until we’re doing the soundcheck on the first day and it really dawns on me what we’re doing.”

His interview shows that the band is in a great shape and mood! We can feel safe that Radiohead will continue creating masterpieces.

BBC Gig for Radiohead is coming!

After the webcasts, Radiohead are going to give a Radio Gig for BBC. According to BBC, Radiohead decided to give a free concert for BBC Radio 2, along with a few interviews, in order to promote their upcoming UK Tour.

The concert will take place on April 1 in London at BBC’s Radio Theatre, inside its Broadcasting House HQ, in central London! The Radiohead fans have just to apply for a ticket. Every household can apply for a pair of tickets. The tickets will be allocated randomly!

The band will have two performances. The first, which is called “Matinee Performance“, will be played on 6 Music’s Steve Lamarq show (4-7pm). The second performance will be a live broadcast on Radcilffe and Maoconie show (8-10pm). Other parts of matinee show will be played on April 14.  The main interview that Radiohead will give will be for Steve Wright show.

Ok Computer Reviews

Ok Computer, is, for a big part of the Radiohead fans, the best album they ever composed! Though we believe that the 2007’s In Rainbows is even better we can’t agree that Ok Computer isn’t something less than a Masterpiece! With millions of copies sold Ok Computer is considered to be one of the best albums of the 20^th Century. The album’s hottest moments are Paranoid Android (the best song they ever created?), Exit Music (for a Film) and Karma Police. A great pure alternative rock album, with up tempo tracks (like Electioneering, or Paranoid Android), sweet ballads and sad slow melodies (Exit Music, Karma Police, The Tourist). Yorke had his best performance till that moment. But it wasn’t just an alternative rock album.. it was something more.. it was the first sign that Radiohead will be experimental in their following creations.. remember the proggresive-ish 3 parts of Paranoid Android, for example!! Don’t forget that the readers of Q Magazine voted Ok Computer as the Greatest album of all times.

Answers.com writes: “Radiohead have stripped away many of the obvious elements of guitar rock, creating music that is subtle and textured yet still has the feeling of rock & roll. Even at its most adventurous — such as the complex, multi-segmented “Paranoid Android” — the band is tight, melodic, and muscular, and Thom Yorke‘s voice effortlessly shifts from a sweet falsetto to vicious snarls”.

BBC‘s John Lusk writes: “The dense instrumental textures never seem over-stuffed and are wide-ranging and often thrilling, driven by Phil Selway¹s meaty drumming, layered with growling guitars and the varied use of keyboards, synthesisers and electronic treatments. Tom Yorke’s dread-filled voice will get on some peoples’ nerves.“

Pitchfork‘s Ryan Schreiber writes: “Thom Yorke’s fragile vocals backed by the intricate guitar duels of Jonny Greenwood and Ed O’Brien, Phil Selway’s intense, rhythmic pounding and the subtle but effective bass guitar of Colin Greenwood sends an energetic flare clean through your speakers, hurtling into the room around you and charging the air with static electricity.“

Finally Rolling Stone‘s David Fricke writes: “OK Computer,” ostensibly a concept LP about a zombie world of hard law and infernal software, is a song cycle about serial fear and suffocating routine, laid out in mad leaps of melody, tempo and pathos that slowly accrue their queer beauty“.

 

 

Hail to the Thief Reviews

How did the famous music magazines face the 6th album of Radiohead? What did NME, PitchFork etc wrote about Hail to the Thief?

PitchFork wrote: “Because today, Radiohead are U2, Pink Floyd, and Queen– and they could have been bigger than The Beatles if the success of “Creep” hadn’t agitated an Oxford-bred guilt complex.” ” For its moments of gravity and excellence, Hail to the Thief is an arrow, pointing toward the clearly darker, more frenetic territory the band have up to now only poked at curiously. Experimentation fueled the creativity that gave us Kid A and Amnesiac, but that’s old hat to Radiohead, who are trying– and largely succeeding– in their efforts to shape pop music into as boundless and possible a medium as it should be.“

BBC‘s Dan Tallis wrote: “Hail To The Thief is without question more accessible than its two predecessors. But to say it’s a step backwards or disappointing in any way is foolish.” and added “This album sees a return to simple song construction. Guitar, drums and keyboards form the backbone of these 14 indie pop songs“. He concluded “How do Radiohead maintain their position as the world’s most successful, non-mainstream band? Is it because Thom Yorke rarely smiles? And doesn’t have a celebrity girlfriend? I suspect it’s because they make some of the most amazing, anthemic, inspiring music around today“.

MTV writes “…but the vibe and celebrity culture of the West Coast certainly had an effect on them. The music on Hail to the Thief is far less sterile and claustrophobic than the band’s last two discs. Some songs are colored with electronic samples, but most abound with evocative guitar lines and real drums, and tracks like “There There” and “Go to Sleep” mark a return to the gloomy melodic pop dynamics of OK Computer.”

NME‘s James Oldham assumes: “Hail To The Thief, then, is a good rather than great record. It sounds exactly how you expect it to sound after ‘Kid A’ and ‘Amnesiac’ – and that’s the problem. Radiohead are a band still coming to terms with the puzzle of what to do after you’ve made an album universally hailed as one of the greatest ever. They’re finding it’s a trick that’s hard to produce twice“.

But what did Thom Yorke himself say about Hail to the Thief? “It was like a beach vacation. We did everything we weren’t supposed to do, and we felt kind of sick afterwards. It was like eating too much chocolate or something. It didn’t feel like the world was going to end, so we wanted to make the sort of sounds that get you up in the morning and [that] sort of have a positive energy to them. It was the most fun we’ve ever had in the studio“.