This is truly an album of the times...and those of you who have not read the lyrics are missing out on this. The record requires multiple listens and that is what I have always loved about Radiohead. Everybody needs to shut up about their use of electronics and just enjoy the music. It's legendary and reflective of this messed up world that we live in. Despite Thom's denial that it's not a political record, it really is, just like OK Computer was a reflection of the paranoia and inhumanity of technology in these modern times. I know it was so much more than that... but having said that, this record is just as relevant and important as OK Computer. It's not a sequel, and the critics that want one need to get over it. Evolve. Evolution.… Expand

The album starts out with a amp cord being plugged in and a dialogue between Thom and Jonny on the amazing 2+2=5. Although less experimental than Kid A and Amnesiac it still satisfies the eager legions of Radiohead devotees. Standout Tracks: 2+2=5, Sit Down?Stand Up, Myxamatosis.

That's it. Their best.

And once again it kicks ass! the best of the bends/ok computer, of Kid A / Amnesiac, and we have a LP which can be considered as a compilation of what we enjoy the most from Radiohead. Without being a great revolution, it's an evolution in the continuity. "BRAVO!".

I've had a downloaded copy of this ever since it initially leaked, and, to be perfectly honest, I was, at first, a little underwhelmed. Wait, that's not true. At first, I was blown away by the blistering brilliance with which the band rocks out on the opener, 2 + 2 = 5 , one of Hail to the Thief's finest moments and Radiohead's most rawking track since at least My Iron Lung. Then, listening to what followed, most of which was neither as startling as 2 + 2 = 5 nor as immediately amazing as Kid/Amnesiac, that's when a slight sense of disappointment began to set in. As a huge fan and unflagging champion of that preceding duo (though, all elements considered, OK Computer still cakes the cake for me), Hail to the Thief struck me as lacking the mesmerizing cohesiveness of those masterworks, and only about half of the songs fulfilled their promise upon my first listen. The more I listened to the album, however, the more I came to both immensely enjoy and admire what I heard. Songs such as Where I End and You Begin (which calls to mind Kid A's Optimistic with its line "dinosaurs roam the earth") , A Punch-Up at a Wedding, A Wolf at the Door (in which THOM YORKE RAPS...sort of), and the beautiful piano ballads Sail to the Moon and I Will are easily in the same league with the best of the Radiohead catalogue. The band's Big Step Forward here is their expert integration of the avant-electronic-based experimentation that has defined their most recent work (and redifined Radiohead as artists) into the more song-oriented format of The Bends and OK Computer. It's yet another supreme work of art from The Band From Whom Nothing Less Can Be Expected. … Expand

you cant go wrong with radiohead. OK comp, amnesiac, and hail to the thief are now my official favourites. Theres nothing really new as predicted but they are still great songs. "sit down stand up" always gives me a rise. "punch up at a wedding" makes me want to F@#ck, and "myxamatosis" is like a hit of acid. the rest fall into place accordingly. anyway, buy the record, you wont regret it.

Whats with that sudden electronic part in sit down stand up - it was going well up to there!-oh well perhaps it'll grow on me. There There and 2+2=5 are obviously fantastic and Go to Sleep is also really good (when the guitars kick in with the drums it is a magnificant sound). Backdrifts sounds different but I sort of like it. There is good music throughout the album but it still doesnt have an epic feel like previous albums - feels more like a collection of songs. I think Radiohead will drop the emphasize on electronics in the next album though. It won't last forever. In some ways Ok Computer can be described as having an electronic element (Airbag). That album perfected the fusion of guitars and machines - so quite simply that is still the best. Really interesting album then and you really should buy it so a good band will be at the top of the charts for once.… Expand

Guitar, piano, beatbox, it all seems to work. There are a couple songs that could have been left off. Punch-up at a Wedding doesn't go anywhere, it just deteriorates. The Gloaming and Go to Sleep don't really do it for me either. Radiohead doesn't owe the public anything. Personally, I can't believe that anyone would expect them to "return to rock." It sounds like something the Stones would do, or any other band that can't age gracefully. I like this record for what it is, not what it was supposed to be. … Expand

Of course it's a great album. Radiohead albums always are..yes it's true. Damn True.

there isnt anyone on this earth today making anything in the same league as radiohead as far as im concerned. if you beg to differ, i will listen, but everything i have listened to on reccomendation has disapointed me greatly.

Chef d'oeuvre.

best RH album ever.

there isnt anyone on this earth today making anything in the same league as radiohead as far as im concerned. if you beg to differ, i will listen, but everything i have listened to on reccomendation has disapointed me greatly.

Once in a while an artist comes along that can not be rated, like Dahli, Gaudi, Lennon, Hendrix... You just have to accept their contributions as pure art that others will one day be compared to, but in their own age cannot be accurately judged. Radiohead have proven to be unclassifiable, and instead of judging their albums, just sit back and enjoy the experience, we are lucky to have them.

If you think they've lost it you're not listening hard enough.

Extremely dark but highly addictive CD that gets better with each listen.

makes more sense and becomes more perfect with each listen.

While it is not a return to the rock of OKC, it would be a shame if it was, its astouding the way it is.

Shows they are still the best band in the world

no comments

NEARLY PERFECT

Awesome

first of all, try playing "i will" backwards...it's "spinning plates!!" anyways, httt is definitely a wonderful effort by a great band. while they may have not gone all out onto a new experimental branch this time, they certainly have developed on what they started in previous releases. The band seems to have found a new love for the harmonic minor scale with its dissonant augmented second that permeates several songs, including "2+2=5" and "sit down stand up." i think httt is a great album and is certainly more accessible to the masses than amnesiac and certainly kid a. … Expand

Although I admit I wasn't a huge fan of "Kid A," Radiohead's new album "Hail to the Thief" shows a maturation of the experimental direction they've taken the past few years. The piano adds a haunting, mysterious quality to their music and the vocals are masterfully interwoven within the textured melodies. I recommend this album to anyone with a taste for the ethereal. A few listenings and you'll be hooked...Trust me.… Expand

Brilliant! I don't know how Radiohead could top this album, but the amazing thing is I would expect them to with their next release. There aren't many bands around that have such consistently high standards.

Perfect. It truly is perfect. Every note, every word blends together to form a truly classic album. Their best work and it is definitely one of this year's top five albums.

Hail To The Thief is at least on par with any of Radiohead?s work, which is an incredibly big statement since OK Computer was probably the most acclaimed album of the ?90s and its follow-ups some of the most controversial hate/love affairs of the early ?00s. Where to start, then, in describing an album as expansive, as mind-blowingly incredible as Hail To The Thief? Some history, probably, would be good. After getting unanimous praise for the progressive rock on OK Computer, Radiohead apparently decided that nothing less than a 180 degree turn in their musical style was in order. Kid A was the sound of a band dodging the all-too-easy fate of getting painted into a corner; the album took cues from the experimental electronica born from the womb of Aphex Twin and Autechre, nurturing it in the rock shell of OK Computer. The result was brilliant enough to spawn two albums from the same recording session: Amnesiac was slightly less avant garde, retaining basic strong structure but still remaining rooted in the splintered electronica of Kid A. With the announcement of Hail To The Thief, popular rumour held that the band would be returning to the more universally appealing style of OK Computer. Instead, Radiohead have done something even more unbelievable. On Hail To The Thief, they build a cohesive, meticulously arranged bridge between the disparate styles of OK Computer and Kid A, filling a gap many thought irreconciliable. On ?2 + 2 = 5? and ?There There,? Radiohead plumb the OK Computer side of their natures, to wonderful, loud, emotive effect that is nothing short of amazing. On the other hand, ?Backdrifts? and ?The Gloaming? would fit perfectly on Kid A, and ?Myxomatosis? may just be too far-out even for the latter. Lyrically and in terms of its message, Hail To The Thief is also a bridge, embracing neither the obsessive-compulsive apocalypticism of Kid A nor the Orwellian futurism of OK Computer. Instead, Hail To The Thief is a work of paranoia, of cornered desperation both anchored in the here and now (look no further than the title and the opener ?2 + 2 = 5? to reveal fear of the political landscape in the world) and in the future, a future singer Yorke fears may be spoiled for future generations (the lyrics of ?I Will? and ?A Wolf At The Door?). Stylistically, Hail To The Thief is too kinetic to be branded post-rock, but piano-driven ballads like ?Sail to the Moon? are unquestionably not experimental electronica. Indeed, this album is an amalgamation of all of Radiohead?s diverse elements, all of the strengths that each individual pulls from the band and admires in part. Yet Hail To The Thief is so much more than simply a mix of styles and voices. Everything here is so immaculately made, so perfectly integrated into the whole of the album that one can only listen in open-jawed admiration. When the album goes rock-electronic-rock-piano and then goes into the harshly kinetic/glitchtronic ?Backdrifts,? the shift is perfectly natural, the sound of a band that, quite simply, can pull off absolutely anything and does on this album. Thom Yorke has said that this is the last album Radiohead will make in their current vein, that Hail To The Thief is Radiohead?s ?pop? album and the band will be unrecognizable in two years. He seems to have a very unnatural view of pop. If only pop were this good, the music industry would be in an entirely different place. Hail To The Thief is only ?pop? in the sense that it is a retracing of what Radiohead has done so far, already in the public?s view. But, again, there is absolutely nothing dated on this album. ?2 + 2 = 5? is frenzied, paranoid, and skittering, but it sounds like nothing on OK Computer did. The rest of the tracks also carry an incredibly fresh sound. Hail To The Thief is all about the new, not the old. It is an embrace of different styles rather than a temperate mediation. The closest Radiohead come to retracing their steps is the first single, ?There There,? strangely chosen for the role as it is best listened to in the context of the album- ?There There? acts as the emotional climax before songs 10-14 bring the action down to a dark, brooding finish. Words don?t describe how absolutely brilliant all of this is. On Hail To The Thief Radiohead have taken an ever-so-brief pause to show us that the jagged edges of Kid A and the island of perfected prog-rock that was OK Computer, the eclectic freewheel of Amnesiac and the prefiguration of The Bends were not the isolated tinkerings of a band searching for a single musical home. Instead, it is now proven that Radiohead don?t need a single musical home. They can take all of it, all of their influences and styles and themes and thoughts, put it all together, and come up with an genius conglomeration of purpose and art. The result is a glorious triumph of musical achievement, an album where A Silver Mt. Zion-style operatic backdrop on aggressive baseline (?Where I End and You Begin?) is completely in place amid delusionary quasi-spoken word (the brilliantly original ?A Wolf At The Door?) and catchy alt-rock melodics (?A Punch-Up At A Wedding?). If Yorke is to be believed, this is a culmination, an end to Radiohead?s current ?track?- one that most people consider less of a track than a random jumping- before the band moves into a new one. If so, there could be nothing better for the role than Hail To The Thief, the best album of this half of 2003. To understand what Radiohead have been doing for the last decade as a whole, to understand what all the disparate genres of modern music have been pushing at but falling short of achieving, to hear the worlds of electronic music and rock brought to their absolute zenith of achievement before the defining band of our generation moves on to something new, you must listen to Hail To The Thief. It defines the term ?essential record.? It isn?t new, it isn?t a musical revolution, but it is divine. And you don?t really need any other album this year if you have this one. Seeing as Hail To The Thief takes about ten listens to appreciate and probably at least 700 before it gets old, that isn?t a problem.… Expand

I LOVE this album. It's the best they've made since OK Computer and my definite pick for album of the year. I can't get it out of my cd player, much less out of my head!

Not as good as ok computer or the bends but its incredibly hard to beat those albums. This cd is absolutely ingenius as with most of Radiohead's work. You people have no clue what you are talking about.

This is terrific. I love every song. Despite a mixture of different types of songs, the album is cohesive. It is all very melodic. I also found this album extremely moving. Thom sounds really desperate (though I think 'We Suck Young Blood' is hilarious.) If you think Thom sounds "whiny" or don't see what he is all worked up about, take a look at the world around you. "You haven't been paying attention!", Thom sings in 2+2=5.… Expand

another brilliant effort from the band that can keep reinventing itself. its not perfect. in my opinion, its good to hear them rock again ("2+2=5") and the better songs on the album seem to be the ones more guitar-orientated. like every other radiohead album, this one is very different from the others.

An album that continues to impress and excite after nearly 3 weeks of constant listening, the poignancy that the album creates is nothing short of heartbreaking.

Most likely, "The Bends" will always be Radiohead's number one album, but this one comes close. "Kid A" and "Amnesiac" were decent works, but the songs could not hold up by themselves without the "concept". Hail To The Thief is an album of songs AND ideas and not just a group of interesting abstract thoughts. Highlights include "There There", the first single, "2+2=5", and a Bends-like tune and a superb opener. The surprisingly catchy tune "Punch Up At A Wedding" is my personal favorite. If Punch Up isn't a future single, I will be amazed. Do yourself a favor and buy the album, even if you downloaded it. Chances are that you downloaded a very early mix of it anyway. … Expand

One word to describe it...beautiful

"Hail you the Thief" has a little of the best aspects of the four last albums of the band. Attention for "2+2=5", "I Will" and "Go to Sleep". A great record.

it is the best compromise, between ok computer and Kid A , Amnesiac sessions... and at every spin you'll grasp sounds that only radiohead can make so unique...and dreaming.. Brilliant

This is not Pablo Honey, The Bends, OK Computer, Kid A, or Amnesiac. This is Hail to the Thief, and like every other Radiohead album (barring PH), it stands in a league of its own. Like every other Radiohead album before it, they craft a definitive mood and unique progression of music that manages to be fresh and inviting at the same time. Rarely ever is the music on this held by the conventions of pop, but that doesn't matter, as there is so much that is accessible and easy to love here. From the beginning wavering guitar strumming of "2 + 2 = 5." to the gorgeous synth pads and harmonious pleas of "Sail to the Moon," to the harsh fuzz of "Myxomatosis," the moods swing wildly between warmth and angst, melody and dischord, often with such dichotomies appearing within a single song. Thom Yorke gives one of the most eclectic, yet strong vocal performances to date, his voice mutating yet again to match the mood of the record. Intense, sly, and focused, he conjures dark and intriguing images of a world gone awry, in danger of having no future. Issues of control, martyrdom, and infection abound throughout the record. Musically, you could say this is Radiohead's "pop" record, if merely for the more live-sounding bent of the music in comparison to some of their recent works. The best way to describe it is a different approach, meant to be more immediate superficially while betraying a deeper, intricate heart. Such complex beauty shouldn't remain hidden in any case.… Expand

I feel this is there best album since OK Computer. People should not expect another album like OK Computer. Its impossible to top a perfect album. This album is a solid mix of a more rock oriented Radiohead with some of the usual techno also. Highlights include There There, 2+2=5, and Wolf at the Door.

Awesome

Besides being in my humble opinion a phenomonal record and also in my opinion being tied for third (with The Bends) in Radiohead's discography (behind OK Computer and Kid A), Radiohead diversifies themselves and shows all the Creep lovers and Kid A fanatics that we can all just get along and make a record that has it all. From heavy rock (2+2=5, Myxomytosis), to jazz (Sail to the Moon, We Suck Young Blood), to electronic (Sit Down Stand Up, Backdrifts, The Gloaming), to rock funk (Where I End and You Begin, A Punch Up at a Wedding), to Beatles/Rolling Stones-clad rock tunes (Go to Sleep, There There, A Wolf at the Door), to heart felt ballads (I Will, Scatterbrain.) It may be noticed that I have named every song on the album in that list, yet this only furthers my point that this is a record that somehow combines several very different genres to create a very well synced album. Not only that, but lyrically, Radiohead almost undoubtedly writes out their most politically vocal set of songs that exemplifies thier Orwellian and anti-Big Brother views in a way that is while very open, but is also not completely in your face and gives you an opportunaty to enjoy the music while not having to focus in politically. In this album Radiohead in a raw manner redefines their sound (again) and in the process creates a very memorable record.… Expand

Completely melts my face off. I was confused by it at first, like most of their records, but unlike Kid A, I lost hope in this one for a while. After shelving it for a while I came back to it and was listening to it all the time. It might take effort, but this record will win you over if you let it.

Radiohead's most underrated album, in my opinion. It may lack the unforgettable songs of other efforts but it makes for a damn fine listen. Its being stuck between Kid A/Amnesiac and In Rainbows probably hurts its reputation a bit, but Yorke and Company still deliver.

this album is it's own genre."sail to the moon" with it .
this is a perfect album containing elements of all things radiohead.political but not preachy true collectors item.

This album is one of their best- at least in the parts of the whole sum. the problem with the whole is tracklisting. get rid of 2-4 songs and it really works well. i'd say we suck young blood, and scatterbrain and a few others would have comfortably fit onto a rather good side EP. no two people would agree on which songs to omit- the whole 14 gets lost, but when i have listened to about 11 and used the skip button-always a different set of songs, but it works and i think this is perhaps the most artistically developed and mature radiohead album in concept, if it is missing some of the more instinctive musical features. these points have never bothered me in the slightest!… Expand

My favorite Radiohead album. Why? Because in addition to the experimental sound that was developed during the Kid A era, the rock sound is back with it. And these two sounds surprisingly incredible, and go together like vanilla and chocolate ice cream. This is one heck of a treat, for rock listeners and hipsters alike. In ways, I believe this is better than Kid A and OK Computer.

My first non-immediate album back in the day. There There worked from the first listen, but the rest of the album seemed boring on first hand and my teenage mind didn't expect patience to be rewarded, but through repeated listenings I came to understand what a deep and pertinent yet abstract work of art this is. You'll see imperfections at first, quirks later on, and by the crucial listen you will see charisma and strength.… Expand

Super album. You will find a lot of things. Rock and piano ballads with a slight touch of electronic music. It's a very original sound, and the lyrics are deep and poetic.