RADIOHEAD
Hail To The Thief (Capitol)
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes

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I'm a Radiohead fan, but I'm finding it hard to gush about Hail To The Thief. Ever since OK Computer their experimental pop has been getting less and less accessible. That's not necessarily a bad thing; I like adventurous stuff. Kid A was a great album, but I also like songs like "Creep" and "Planet Telex" and there's nothing of that stature on Thief.

I think Coldplay is closer to the kind of music that I used to like Radiohead for. A shame because Thom York's voice, near that painfully beautiful range that Jeff Buckley had, is so much better than Chris Martin's, but on A Rush Of Blood To The Head Coldplay's melodies have a lot more hooks, especially the early-Moby-like "Clocks." However even Rush Of Blood had its share of tedious moments.

The good news is that Thief's starting to sound better on the fourth listen but so far no tune has set up housekeeping in the back of my head like "Subterranean Homesick Alien" or "How To Disappear Completely" did. Fans are better served by a nice acoustic set Radiohead did recently on KCRW (http://www.kcrw.com/mb030626Radiohead.html) when they seemed much more in the moment.

Finally, as Cosmik's resident social commentator, I must say that with a title like Hail To The Thief I expected something a bit more - gasp! - political, but that's nowhere to be found in all this late night noodling. Oh well, next time I feel like Ramen at 2AM I'll bring this out and study the lyrics to see if I missed something.

© 2003 - Rusty Pipes