The forgotten face of rock. Review on Hail To The Theif - Radiohead

Review : For a sound of protest first sighted the U.S., picked up from the sewage in the streets of Liverpool and unleashed upon the world to claim an audience larger than any faith or ideology had, rock has been on an anaesthetic for some time now. So when the brave few record a disc...well it must be heard.

Hail to the thief is perhaps a more accessible album when compared to Kid A and Amnesiac but certainly as good ...if not better. For one Thom Yorke's drifting wail manages to outdo even the Ok Computer days...especially on songs like Drunken Punchup at a Wedding. For a band which had decided to use chinese radio waves instead of riffs by perhaps one of the best lead guitarists in the world today, these guys are a little beyond the either class of the brave or the foolish.

This album hears them mixing the electronic pulses of Kid A with some ..well ..sheer rock. One must truly marvel at the arrangement of music. To notice the complexity this might ensue , do listen to Backdrifts. johnny Greenwood along with Ed O' Brien find their guitars after an album long hiatus (well not really)...and deliver. For those who have heard the band before I have little to say but to request you to buy the album.

For those new to the band, a few things to note. Miles Davis released Bitches Brew..not a conventional jazz album...good jazz is almost always unconventional...good music, more so...rock was supposed to be a fresh attack on orthodoxy....so if some rock sounds ''weird'', its not to be thrown aside...this band is one of the few that has shaken rock up from its deep slumber in a recycling factory milieu...there are few left now that manage to give the method its madness...so do give these guys a shot...

P.S.: Listen to Pablo Honey/Bends for the bands notion of rock

..................to the later albums for what rock could be

..................to Ok Computer for when it all starts changing

.................to Hail to the thief since on some day of the week I'd be convinced its one of their best albums

.. cheers