Bloom has already become one of my favorites, instantly signaling yet another musical departure clearly inspired by, and originated in the music of Four Tet and Burial. It’s like The Eraser two point ohhh. And who would have thought that Morning Mr. Magpie was going to resurface after it was criminally overlooked for In Rainbows? All we had to go on was this webcast performance, which promised much, and found itself frequently on repeat on my iTunes. Indeed, what immortalizes Thom Yorke’s genius is his appreciation for what makes a song, and no element was lost in the studio rendering of MMM.
As De Sade wrote on licentiousness, “the best way of enlargening and multiplying one’s desires is to try to limit them”. The sexual merits of Radiohead have already been noted on this blog, and I could not be more satisfied with my endeavors to starve myself of bootleg recordings. In so doing, Give Up The Ghost sounds just as fresh as when I heard Thom perform it live in Santa Barbara. Similarly, Codex made me cry on first and second listens, forcing me to reassess my view that Pyramid Song would never be surpassed in its profound tenderness and melancholy.
Further, what can I possibly say about Lotus Flower? It is a masterpiece. Thom’s voice is ratcheted up to full falsetto, unleashed into the pits like a castrated songbird, launching the album into its second phase. The effect is perhaps even more resounding than when I first listened to Reckoner over three years ago.
Other reactions: well, the bass is very much to the fore, indicating that Colin must have become quite confrontational for once during the mixing process. Equally, the percussion section seems to have undergone a complete overhaul, perhaps inspired in part by Mauro Refosco’s superb collaborative work with Thom over the summer with Atoms for Peace. Jonny’s previous movie scores, I would argue, pervade, especially during the first half of the album; his overlapping rhythms and sounds are responsible in part for pushing the album’s genre into unexplored territory. The only disappointment, if we were pushed to find one, is the absence of Ed’s backing vocals, but we can’t have everything. Still, it was Ed who decided to leak the album one day early without the band’s permission (that’s what I suspect anyway).
There’s so much more to say, but I already regret saying so much at this early stage. I’ll shut up for a bit. Go enjoy the record.
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