Radiohead swimming in a Moon Shaped Pool
and a daydreaming stroll along the River Severn with a Radiohead fan.
and a daydreaming stroll along the River Severn with a Radiohead fan.
I always endeavour to write these blogs in a differing way. You’ll never find a straight A-Z answer to the subject under discussion. We must ramble. We must meander. We must weave a tangential spell and I write from the heart. I’m getting a real solace and a semblance of peace for doing so and I love telling rambling stories and I love entertaining myself. As a reader of this left field introduction, thank you, and I hope it entertains you, for if it does I selfishly win but so will you dear reader if it entertains you, and I hope it does.
This is the culmination of 7 blogs on the mighty Radiohead and the musical obsession of my life hence far. I’ve listened to every album (I listen to Radiohead a lot anyway so it’s hardly been a chore) and had the pleasure of writing both about them and their music as well as the life it was a soundtrack to. All my blogs are shot through the prism of my life to a lesser or larger degree, and so I hope these blogs feel resolutely human to you. I’m an OK Computer, I think, and I try to be fitter, happier and rambling about the human stories that have weaved into my Radiohead fandom helps, entertains, and has given me reasons to travel the entire spectrum of emotions, so as I’m listening to the incredible “A Moon Shaped Pool” as we talk amongst ourselves here, why don’t you do the same? Pour yourself a hot brew and relax as I want to tell you a tale about a blog, this blog, a blog about an album that nearly eclipses my love for “OK Computer”. Nearly. But it’s not really about that spectacular album at all. Not really. It’s going to be a long ramble, via the film “Se7en” and the wonderful and iconic Grand Old Lady of Ironbridge. 2016, 1995 and a few ports of call in between, as well as a peek into the human story behind the music that has kept me sane, uplifted, at peace, angry(!) but wonderful, wonderful company for nearly three decades.
Take a stroll alongside the river with me in Ironbridge dear reader, let’s feed the ducks and bask in the aura that very few places in the world have. Let’s go daydreaming.
Let’s see if true love waits after all.
So it was, on the 8th day of May 2016 that your humble and Radiohead obsessed narrator finally brought a Ful Stop (sic) to his daydreaming of a new Desert Island Disk from his favourite witch burners and with glassy eyes and trying to live in the present tense, he finally realised that true love did wait after all, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. I downloaded the new album whilst perched in my son’s weekend bedroom and enjoyed the view I had been lucky enough to see for nearly four years, of a gentle if mighty at times River Severn flowing through the tiny hamlet, and World Heritage Site of Ironbridge in Shropshire, England. It had seemed an interminable wait since 2011’s underwhelming “The King of Limbs” (see previous blog on the album and my absolute wonder and love for the final four songs) but, in my humble opinion, TKOL was small and perfectly imperfect and resides at Number 8 (of 9) on the roster of the greatness of the albums released by these childhood friends from Oxford.
As I hope to convey in the following elongated ramble, this album immediately usurped “In Rainbows” as my second favourite Radiohead child and nearly, very nearly, tops the greatest album of all time, “OK Computer”. Which would mean therefore that this album, “A Moon Shaped Pool” then becomes the greatest album of all time?
Which it isn’t.
By that confusing logic above, I hope this clearly demonstrates how I’m a confused contrarian who enjoys being confused by himself and absolutely adores every single second of this magnificent piece of art that nearly, so very bloody nearly, equals or surpasses the greatest album of all time.
When I first listened to the album fully I described it on Twitter (I think) as a “kind of unreleased greatest hits of their unheard greatest hits” or some such tosh. Nearly half the album contains oldies kicked around and, one song in particular since the mid to late 1990’s, with the other half of the album contemporary and very new Radiohead. As the album developed on first listen and I read the track details as each song became more and more instantly familiar, there were snippets and samples of grooves or, like Big Ideas/Nude on “In Rainbows”, a familiar song had changed name. Most pleasingly of all though, there were completely album fitted versions of songs played live as a band or more commonly by Thom Yorke in intimate solo gigs. I did not have an advance track listing to pore over, nor did I read any advance reviews. I simply paid my money and waited for the digital bits of musical delight to magically appear on my laptop. How very ironic. How very 2016. How very Radiohead. Those pioneers of the digital download in an electronic Matrix world they warned us about for so long.
How very Radiohead indeed. However, before we continue with the lovefest that is this very blog on those cheery English chaps from Oxford, a quick trip back in time. 5 years in earthly time but a further 100/150 in the time of the Grand Old Lady. I trust you’re enjoying the riverside stroll and I hope so too. And you had best not forgotten the bread for the ducks!
Surrounding Ironbridge in 2016, which at only five years ago seems but a shake of a lamb’s tail was a leap year, an Olympic year and a year in which the UK voted to leave the European Union, and they’ve been clawing at the desks in Brussels ever since! The stage play continues of *adopts upper lipped British accent* “Well, we’re just so jolly well pleased to be rid of those pesky Europeans” and those vacuous bureaucrats over there in that other piece of earthly land we call “Europe”. In the UK we may have appeared to have left the customs union and bureaucratically wise we have, kind of. But we’ll never “leave” Europe. Grow up. We’re the Holy Roman Empire for goodness sake! Even Thom says so so it must be right. We’re Masters of the Universe! We remain. We never leave. Leave/Remain was the question but the question was for chumps. Binary choice of Good versus Bad was here to stay, and we’re all the poorer for it. The UK is far, far too important for the “shadow elite” and their “European Project”. Don’t be fooled by the political stage show.
In January alone of 2016 there were 4/5 recognised bomb attacks or attacks linked to terrorism as well as an outbreak of the Zika virus. As the year progressed, the world turned and the time looped, and there were umpteen further terrorist atrocities, bombings, mass shootings, plane crashes and just a cursory scan at your friend and mine Wikipedia, it seems that 2016 was a rotten and terrorism dominated year of destruction, so let’s veer completely off piste and console ourselves with the bread and circus facts of the year: namely Leicester City and Portugal upsetting their own particular apple carts and triumphing as underdogs and against the odds at club and international football level, and we had the Olympics from a very sunny Rio and broadcast exclusively, or so it seemed, always, from a very sunny Copacabana Beach. Not forgetting we had that laugh fest that was the USA Elections and the vote tampering that led to the Punch and Judy show, as well as the vote tampering that followed after the election too as Mr Punch floored the Madam President in Waiting with a surprising underdog blow. The Chicago Cubs ended their own witches curse and won the World Series for the first time in 118 years and, according to Wikipedia, the USA withdrew the majority of their troops from Afghanistan. Considering recent events and another final withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, perhaps there’s a glitch in the Matrix and the prior withdrawal, final withdrawal, didn’t happen. Perhaps the next final withdrawal will be final after all? The time loop of world history sure does bend back in on itself.
Back in Ironbridge and quite literally a world and a century or more away from the above madness, 2016 was the final year of my tenure in one of my many spiritual homes. I fell in love with the place in late 1999. It was an immediate love and a love I’d like to think is felt by the hundreds of thousands of visitors the old bridge in Ironbridge receives every year. Because of the contours and confines of the hamlet and as you wind your way along the Wharfage adjacent to the River Severn you have a uniquely changing view of this tiny yet World Heritage recognised site. The bridge itself or as I call her “The Grand Old Lady” naturally stands out but don’t discount the surroundings of the gorge and it’s natural beauty or indeed the commerce needed in such a tiny hamlet but a commerce that is absolutely dedicated to keeping Ironbridge pleasingly in a different century, in a different world and a place with an atmosphere and aura all of it’s own. Ironbridge really matches the precarious English seasons that surround it, from piercing early Spring sunshine rising above the bridge to a town teeming and blooming with Summer vitality and the Annual festivals that close the high street to traffic and for the hoards of visitors to enjoy this beautiful place at the very height of Summer. Ironbridge is picturesque as the sun sets on another crisp Autumn day and under a full Moon on a bitingly cold Winter’s night you could very well be the only person in residence with the Grand Old Lady. And I was lucky enough to have this particular late night stroll over the bridge hundreds of times, just me and a late night chat with the grand old lady. If you were lucky you’d see occasional roaming bats and hear the siren songs from the owls in the huge trees that give the bridge such a wonderful backdrop. I try to paint Ironbridge in the grandest of pictures because I absolutely adore the place! So why did I leave?
I had a lack of 1’s and 0’s in a bank account and I was being harassed by an energy supplier with whom my 18 month entanglement dance often resembled a scene from Mission Impossible, just without a hunky Ethan Hunt, clinging onto speeding aeroplanes or a really cool theme tune. Minute by minute meter readings were supplied as I tried to get mobile receptions in the cellar of what was once a 19th Century pub cellar. The surreal and almost otherworldly telephone calls left me expecting a message to self destruct in 5 seconds. Emails were sent. Invitations given. Strong words exchanged. I only untangled the impossible mission a month or so after leaving Ironbridge, and I was vindicated for my truthful stance. Despite my best Tom Cruise impersonation, the energy supplier nor the companies to whom they sold my “debt” particularly care and I for one don’t blame them. I don’t care either. The energy supplier are out of pocket and as I said to those oh so helpful chaps from the beginning, it had nothing to do with me. Your problem. I’m being deliberately vague as if I went into the detail and the skulduggery and the shenanigans of a couple of human beings that God didn’t really care that much for that lived above me. And who grew illegal drugs. And who had a myriad of other rather delightful sounding enterprises on the side we’d be here all night. And we’re here to talk about Radiohead and their album “A Moon Shaped Pool”. But we’ll get to that. Shortly.
As we wind our way along the River Severn and after feeding those dastardly hungry feathery fiends that laughably call themselves ducks, there was a further reason for leaving Ironbridge, and that reason was love. Cupid had fired his arrows and two people had fallen in love. Just not really. Unfortunately. Two people had fallen in love with the idea of being in love whilst also not particularly loving themselves in the process. I should have been in love, but I wasn’t, and the person who professed love for me articulated it toward a ghostly representation of a person that I should or could be. If I really tried like. I’m not a target market for such fripperies, or the “What are you going to do in 5 years?” brigade. These trivial actions simply dismiss the human being of the now. Not a projection. Nor a time traveller. There was no need for Mission Impossible styled self destructive messages being surreptitiously read, no pantomime show required, no deceit, no dances with wolves. Cupid’s arrows didn’t come close to even a grazing blow. We wanted to burn each other’s witches! And we should’ve just played more games of scrabble on a riverbank and been mates.
As we make the turn for home along the beautiful River Severn why, you may well ask, have I told that anonymous tale of lost love? Because I’ve watched the film “Se7en” too many times to realise, fundamentally and emotionally, that I’ll never love or be loved again.
“A Moon Shaped Pool”? I know! We’ll get there, and I know the statement about never being loved again is a tad melodramatic and self regarding nonsense but first, picture yourself in a cramped apartment with Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow. OK? Next, a train rumbles loudly past and shakes the very foundations of the apartment. Nervous laughter, right? Then, the question:
“Why aren’t you married William?”
The “William” is Morgan Freeman, or here on the big screen “Detective Somerset” being asked that somewhat impertinent sounding question by Gwyneth Paltrow or “Tracy Mills”, wife of Brad Pitt’s character “David”. Gwyneth is veering away from the good housewife role she neither needs or desires, so her question is not impertinent after all, merely a human question to another human being they’re warming to. “William’s” reply is a smile laden “I was close once” before giving me the greatest get out clause in the history of Hollywood:
“Anyone who spends a significant amount of time with me finds me disagreeable”
It was ever thus and I carry this quote like some people carry bibles, under the arm and ready at a moment’s notice. David Fincher’s 1995 dark ode to a darkening and destructive society is violent, gory and unapologetically, atmospherically brilliant. And I choose a simple answer to an honest question above love from a throwaway scene in the same film? That’s me being disagreeable again. Because I am. Disagreeable. And my last dalliance with love simply reinforced it.
Back in the late years of the 1990’s Radiohead had a song they kicked around, and really tinkered with as they did so. Thom Yorke too on many occasions and captured on really clear audio. The song tells a tale of love, perhaps indeed waiting for love, as well as sacrificing your own ideals to match those of your partner’s. It’s a beautiful song that after over a decade of refinements finally made “A Moon Shaped Pool” and followed in the traditions of the Oxford gentlemen from Radiohead of ending their albums with a soaring, beautiful and meaningful song. True love waits apparently, in “haunted attics” and lives on “lollipops and crisps”. If that is what true love really is then perhaps I shouldn’t discount myself from the vagaries of a future love story after all. Lollipops and Crisps? I’m not disagreeable to that at all.
Count me in.
Anyway, here’s “A Moon Shaped Pool” Radiohead’s and Thom Yorke’s inspired cry out for the good of humanity, the letting go of a cherished loved one and the cataclysm that is the impending ecological disaster being heaped upon planet earth. And lollipops and crisps too.
(1) “Burn the Witch” As Thom menacingly reinforces with his repeated “This is a low flying panic attack” warnings, the first song on the album is an explosion of claustrophobia and Psycho-esque strings from Jonny as he ramps the building tension with his orchestral brilliance very much to the fore in the musical mix. His strings are hugely important in building that tension, panic and angst. There’s Colin’s fuzz bass(?) and an organ, guitar work from Ed and Phil’s beautifully irregular drum beats, but it’s Thom and Jonny front and centre in a brilliant song rebelling against the further intrusion of spying surveillance and data capture. “If you float you’ll burn” returns to the analogy and stories of burning witches and now, heretics, misinformation peddlers and dare I say freethinkers who disbelieve the facts portrayed to them by their very own eyes, rather than an over arching “Authority” figure in an expensive suit. The song is bathed in secrecy, “round ups” and suspicion of others yet the video released with the song, a stop motion animation resembling an old children’s programme mixed with the horror film “The Wicker Man” begins and ends with birdsong, which is perhaps a throwback to their previous album and that the nature of a wonderous world will prevail against our societal monsters.
Favourite Lyric — “Sing the song of sixpence, that goes”
(2) “Daydreaming” is this album’s “Codex” (from 2011’s The King of Limbs) and a song that made me cry on first listen and continues to do so to this day. So I’m a fan, obviously! Because it’s stunning. From Colin’s unobtrusive bass to Jonny’s string accompaniment building a fraught tension yet again, it falls to Thom Yorke with a beautiful piano piece amid his own beautiful if mournful vocals and added reverbs and samplings. Where on previous albums these cut and paste samples were heavy and high in the mix, here they are perfectly blended into the background of a song so beautiful it should be the finale’ to the greatest of films. As the video for the song (of Thom walking through door after door into various domestic and public settings — a hospital, a house, a car park, a beach) is directed by a cinematic hero of mine, Paul Thomas Anderson, maybe he’ll steal it one day from his friends for one of his masterpieces. The song and the video coalesce perfectly: the heightened sense of urgency of the music and lyrics of being “beyond the point of no return” and the “damage is done” points towards the ecological disaster we all walk away from, one encounter to another, as we daydream our way through life. In the video Thom is never worried or hassled by time or anxious about going through the next door. He is daydreaming and with almost a sense of peace before he crawls into a cave and utters (in reverse speech) “Half of my life” and “I’ve found my love” which, like everything to do with Radiohead, and especially this song, is all open to interpretation. What is clear is that this song is simply majestic.
Favourite Lyric — “Dreamers. They never learn. They never, learn”.
(3) “Decks Dark” feels like another beautifully crafted band “jam” song as everyone feels so dominant in the mix, Thom’s slightly ethereal singing, Colin’s majestic bass, Phil’s beats, Ed and Jonny on orchestral background duties again and a song that follows in a Radiohead tradition of sounding so beautiful yet is lyrically so dark. Or they could be construed as so. “Darkness” is repeated four separate times and there’s “nowhere to hide” which I interpret as from your own self, from a failing relationship or, to continue the above theme, of the failing of the ecology all around us. I favour the first interpretation and it’s lyrical “Darkest hour” as depression can greatly heighten the sense of being unable to hide from yourself, whatever you may do.
It’s a sublime song, a true band song for me, and brilliantly used in the TV series “Ozark” as a musical finale’ to the very first episode of our new televisual family as they ponder life in the depths of the Ozarks. It’s both cleverly used in the show as well as being the musical backdrop to some wonderful camera work as the episode ends.
Favourite Lyric — “It’s whatever you say it is. Split infinity”.
(4) “Desert Island Disk” and the first of the songs I’m reasonably certain the band kicked around for a wee while before including here on the album. I’m certain I’ve heard this sung on varying bootlegs over the years, or at the very least segments of the song. Regardless, it’s beautiful and can easily be interpreted within the confines of some of the album’s central themes, personal loss, ecological loss and as always with Radiohead, the human condition. The intertwining of being “alive” as well as the metaphors for death are brilliantly done and the song lyrically twists allusions to being let go but also of being the one letting go, of now being free and being alive. Ostensibly just Thom on acoustic guitar but the band as a whole are all over this too and it’s four virtually perfect songs in a row. The next one joins the perfect club too.
Favourite Lyric — “Different types of love. Are possible”.
(5) “Ful Stop” Adored this on first listen and it’s continued to age brilliantly ever since. I’ve joked on Twitter that if you’re really serious about seeing the aliens land, just play the opening 1 minute and 50 seconds of this Kraut Rock blended electronica and just lie down in a darkened room and focus on Colin’s booming, hypnotic bass. Listen to that opening over and over again and perhaps six or so hours later I can pretty much speculate that you’ll see aliens landing in your garden. “The truth will mess you up” exhorts Thom breathlessly and the central themes of the album noted above are all present here again but I interpret this glorious song and personal favourite as more of a personal story, of recriminations perhaps of a cheating partner and “why should I be good when you’re not?” is jaggedly delivered and pointed, as is “foul tasting medicines” and being “trapped” in an untruthful relationship. Just an interpretation of a wonderful song. I also believe this is a deeply, deeply personal song from Thom and why he infuses the song at live gigs with such raw energy. Again, just an interpretation.
Favourite Lyric — “To be trapped in your full stop”
(6) “Glass Eyes” The shortest and quietest song on the album and a sheer musical delight. Jonny’s orchestral strings and the yearning Thom inserts into his vocals evoke images of stumbling bewilderment or more probably daydreaming again or recalling the pieces of a broken dream. Or there is both a more literal take, of someone arriving by train to a grey world he escapes via a daydream or wish, to a more personal story again told by Thom and of his loss and dealings with grief. “I feel this love to, the core”. A love song for someone he misses to the very core of his being.
Favourite Lyric — “Their faces are concrete grey”
(7) “Identikit” Almost a four part song in one with the first “part” kicking around the band for a while as I feel I’ve heard it for years! The opening and closing parts are simply an irregular beat from Phil behind Colin’s sublime bass and Thom’s mournful lullaby of a seemingly conflicted individual as he talk about “sweet faced ones” and love whilst also complaining of being messed around. Ed adds some brilliantly echoed backing vocals before parts two and three of the song are first Thom and then an orchestra repeating the lyric “broken hearts make it rain”. I may be wrong about the piecing together of the disparate parts of the song but it is the seventh brilliant song on this album and spectacular when played at live gigs.
Favourite Lyric — “Pieces of a ragdoll mankind. That we can’t create”.
(8) “The Numbers” Ostensibly just Thom and Jonny on acoustic guitars but with the mix of the song comes the beauty too as there’s a separate track of Thom on piano as well as yet more orchestral string arrangements from Jonny that create almost a slow meditation and gentle invocation from Thom. I’ve always seen this as the boys gentlest of calls to arms, of rebellion and of rolling back the authority we’ve collectively lost over our own lives. It’s a love song to the earth, and to nature “and to her we do return” but it’s also a rallying cry for people power, to see “your system is a lie” and the need to reclaim what is ours as a species. I could also speculate that the title refers to us humans as merely numbers, or the electronic digitally numbered Matrix we all reside in. Another song that fits in the “amazing at live gigs” category and another song with an accompanied video directed again by Paul Thomas Anderson (see Daydreaming above). Again, the music blends perfectly with the video shot by Anderson as it combines into a trippy meditation and Jonny’s guitar work is just sublime.
Favourite Lyric — “The future is inside us. It’s not somewhere else”.
(9) “Present Tense” See above! A personal meditation on the grieving process and of living in the present but being mindful of that state too and of the self defence he uses via his own dancing and stage presence. An ode to a life partner who died far, far too young. A meditation on moving on, putting on the blinkers and moving ahead as well as a beautiful love song too.
“In you, I’m lost”. Indeed.
Video released similar to the above and directed again by Paul Thomas Anderson.
Favourite Lyric — “I won’t turn around when the penny drops”.
(10) “Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief” Despite the elongated track name, the let down of the album but a song that has grown on me but is still a messy mess of a mess. But what do I know? The strings and orchestral background from Jonny is beautiful again, as is the lyrical message and the urgency with which we need to slow down and protect the natural beauty we have “before it’s too late”.
Favourite Lyric — “I am here, come to me before it’s too late”.
(11) “True Love Waits” As a song, True Love Waits had been kicking around since I believe the late 1990’s but had never been polished enough or deemed suitable for inclusion on an album. This Radiohead fan thanks the musical Gods that the boys finally saw sense. It was often played live in the late 90’s to rapturous audience reactions and Thom particularly played it live as an acoustic number in his solo/charity shows and all these years later it finally arrived on an album in an all encompassing band form. Well, sort of. It’s certainly more polished now but still very much a singular vision from Thom as he sings with a slightly distorted vocal set against a piano ballad interspersed with snippets of further overdubs of other piano pieces. Now, this Radiohead obsessive has adored this song for many, many years and here it is in it’s final album glory and it’s never sounded so beautiful, and some of the bootleg versions of Thom singing this alone on acoustic are monumentally brilliant, but here it is and it never fails to move me and often moves me emotionally to tears. Lyrically again, Radiohead merge the downbeat with the beautifully uplifting and as urban legends have long suggested this is a love song merging both Thom’s relinquishing of his own thinking “I’ll drown my beliefs, to have your babies” as well as a real life tale of a young child left alone by his parents and living on whatever snacks they could find: “And true love waits, on lollipops and crisps”. Relinquishing control or beliefs for the good of a loved one that the singer implores to “don’t leave” and being so in love with someone that your entire world revolves around them and the spirit crushing refrain of “I’m not living. I’m just killing time”. It’s an old Radiohead song for a new world and a Radiohead song that is so damn Radiohead. A twisted, downbeat love song that has its heart firmly rooted in the right human place.
So there we have it, “A Moon Shaped Pool”, ten stunning tracks and one that will no doubt grow on this grumpy old Radiohead fan. They usually do. I hope you’ve enjoyed this ramble through 2016 and got a sense too of the love I have for the Grand Old Lady of Ironbridge. This blog and the others listed below are all written from a perspective of love and of wanting and enjoying writing embellished tales that meander and ramble. To include my Radiohead obsession beside those tales has really given this Paranoid Android a pep talk in recent weeks, and I’ve enjoyed myself. If you’ve found this entertaining, there are a number of blogs below that you may also be interested in. A further 8 blogs for the price of 1.
So is true love still waiting for me? I don’t know, but I can’t shake off that damn quote from “Se7en”. I am disagreeable but aren’t we all perfectly imperfect? The real, honest reason behind overly using the “disagreeable” quote is that I was lucky enough to be in love with and loved by, two of the finest human beings amongst us and between 1995 and 2012 (with a couple of off years in between) I was really in love with, and really loved by my “lost loves” and to whom no-one can hold a candle. So I may be disagreeable, and I am, but for a 17 year period I experienced the precious commodity of real love from an “older lady” and from “Buns” and they both actually kind of liked me and liked me for being me. Not a projection into a 5 year future period, nor a reflection on times past. So I’ve been lucky enough to experience a loosely defined state of “true love” and whether it “waits” to find me again in the future, who’s to say? But this allows me to also end this opus like string of blogs on Radiohead by focusing on the human stories I’ve perhaps touched on in the Radiohead blogs alone and so I’ll salute Matthew, life long friend and my Radiohead brother in arms and to whom I will be more than mildly intrigued as to how my appreciation of the band has come across to him, a fellow fan. And we’ll end dear reader exactly where we started, at the beginning. And a golden hearted scatterbrain called Gareth who flatly refused my rejection of “The Bends” in 1995 and was probably mildly offended I was being so crass with my refusal. “Listen again” he simply said and flatly refused to take the CD from me. I have a lot to thank that scatterbrain for, and as I always say at this juncture, I hope the mad old soul is still kicking and still listening to the boys from Oxford.
The blogs below contain all previous Radiohead albums and two old film blogs on the careers of David Fincher (Se7en) and Paul Thomas Anderson (Daydreaming, Present Tense, The Numbers) as well as the interwoven human stories that go with them.
Radiohead, Pablo Honey
and how I came to love this early unruly childmedium.com
Radiohead, OK Computer
And how saying no to The Bends saved my life.medium.com
Radiohead, Kid A and Kid B
and do we all have collective amnesia or is Kid B far better than is critically recognised?medium.com
Radiohead and a Hail to a Thief
The “prog rock” album that isn’t really but continues to age like a fine whinemedium.com
Radiohead, In Rainbows
and how giving away a near perfect album for free saw the jigsaw falling into place again for Radiohead.medium.com
Radiohead, The King of Limbs
The King isn’t dead, but with a universal sigh, it’s rather small and perfectly formed.medium.com
David Fincher - 22 Years in Film
Tired, weary and soon to retire "Detective Somerset" (Morgan Freeman in yet another stellar performance) and "Detective…stephenblackford.blogspot.com
Paul Thomas Anderson - An appreciation
For the record, I saw them out of the chronological order I have placed them here. I was immediately won over by…stephenblackford.blogspot.com
