Radiohead is the last remaining legendary band in the world.

No, not really, but there’s a reason why anyone would believe that: Radiohead, the UK-based band, has always been stuck in the canon of highly influential musicians and bands.

The band has at least two albums of comparable shelf life and legendary stature to, say, the Bob Dylans and the Led Zeppelins of modern rock. In 2007, when Radiohead made headlines by releasing its seventh album, In Rainbows, for the price of whatever you want, people bought both the album and the narrative within.

And they’re still around! So what do you do when, eight albums in, you’re about to release a new one? You wipe your internet presence and announce that the album will come in a week.

That album is A Moon Shaped Pool, released digitally about a month ago. Radiohead’s music has always mirrored their status; remaining consistent when there’s a reason not to (you know, cashing in
on fame).

Starting off by playing polite rock music that resulted in 1993’s Pablo Honey, Radiohead steadily kept
reinventing itself: The terrific OK Computer (1997) had it unleash paranoia and eclectic instrumentations, Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001) turned the band into weird, electronic Paranoid Androids. Radiohead could release an album of sound collages and it’s going to score an 80+ on Metacritic anyway.

So when A Moon Shaped Pool sounds like Radiohead found yet another uncharted room to cement its place as a Great Band, it causes both relief and incredulity.

I can think of one word to describe this record that separates it from the others: patience. Built around pensive, gloomy guitar music with electronic flourishes, A Moon Shaped Pool is filled with slow songs that reward your patience.

Listen to “The Numbers”, a song which finds vocalist/guitarist Thom Yorke crooning before his chilling falsettos are accompanied by the ascending strings.

This record will stealthily hug your ears, although a bit coldly. And take “Glass Eyes” and “Desert Island Disk,” the former built on a quiet piano and the latter on an acoustic guitar: For everything Radiohead is, it hasn’t been “quiet” for quite some time.

But it’s not an unnerving record, the one quality that pervades In Rainbows and OK Computer (their classic song, “Paranoid Android” from OK Computer, is a three-part suite complete with that zany guitar solo and those vocal harmonies).

The closest thing this record has to a thud is “Ful Stop”, a kraut-influenced rock song – it really begins at the 2-minute mark, so, you know, patience). Opener “Burn the Witch” is also staggeringly awesome, with the strings providing the engine of the song.

That said, the slowness is a bit of a hit or miss, but with Radiohead, when it hits, it hits you hard: “Daydreaming”, a six-minute ambient tune that’s complete with warped vocal melodies and some light cello, is insanely beautiful.

I gotta give this one to Jonny Greenwood, Radiohead’s primary multi, whose recent film-scoring extracurricular lends this record a cinematic feel.

Everyone, once again, brings their best: guitarist Ed O’Brien remains as a constant source of power, bassist Colin Greenwood brings contrasting depth to Jonny’s busy music (and London Contemporary Orchestra) and drummer Philip Selway lends stealth when the song calls for it.

Anyway, another great song is the closer “True Love Waits”, a live fan-favorite song that dates back to 1995 (Thom’s vocals in this one are just heartbreaking).

The misses, simply put, are the fact that this labyrinthine record can be a bit of a chore: “Decks Dark”, “Present Tense” and “Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief” sound a bit turgid; the pay-offs aren’t there. And the lyrics remain inscrutable to diminishing returns.

All in all, A Moon Shaped Pool is a deep, quiet record that may not reassure you that Radiohead is the best band in the world. It will, however, remind you of one thing: That it’s always great to have Radiohead around.

— Stanley Widianto

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