A Moon Shaped Pool

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A Moon Shaped Pool
A Moon Shaped Pool.jpg
Studio album by Radiohead
Released 8 May 2016 (2016-05-08)
Recorded 2014–16
Studio
Genre
Length 52:31
Label XL
Producer
Radiohead chronology
The King of Limbs: Live from the Basement
(2011)The King of Limbs: Live from the Basement2011
A Moon Shaped Pool
(2016)
Singles from A Moon Shaped Pool
  1. "Burn the Witch"
    Released: 3 May 2016
  2. "Daydreaming"
    Released: 6 May 2016

A Moon Shaped Pool is the ninth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was released as a download on 8 May 2016, backed by the singles "Burn the Witch" and "Daydreaming". CD and LP editions will be released on 17 June 2016 through XL Recordings, followed by a "special edition" in September containing additional artwork and two additional tracks.

Radiohead worked on A Moon Shaped Pool intermittently after finishing the 2012 tour for their previous album, The King of Limbs. The album was recorded in southern France with long-time producer Nigel Godrich. It includes several songs written some years earlier; "True Love Waits" dates to at least 1995, "Burn the Witch" to 2000, and "Present Tense" to 2008. A Moon Shaped Pool features strings and choral vocals arranged by band member Jonny Greenwood and performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra. It received widespread critical acclaim and became Radiohead's sixth chart-topping album in the UK.

Background and recording

During the 2012 tour for their eighth album, The King of Limbs (2011), Radiohead performed several new songs, including future Moon Shaped Pool tracks "Identikit" and "Ful Stop".[1] While on tour, the band recorded a version of "Identikit" and another unidentified song at Jack White's Third Man Records studio.[1]

After the tour, Radiohead entered hiatus and the band members worked on side projects.[2] In 2013, singer Thom Yorke and long-time Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich released an album, Amok, with their band Atoms for Peace;[3] in 2014, Yorke and drummer Philip Selway released their respective second solo albums, Tomorrow's Modern Boxes and Weatherhouse. Guitarist Jonny Greenwood composed film scores, including the Paul Thomas Anderson film Inherent Vice (2014), and worked with classical musicians.[2]

Radiohead and Godrich recorded A Moon Shaped Pool in the La Fabrique studio near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France.[4] The studio, originally a nineteenth-century mill producing artist's pigment, has been used by musicians including Morrissey and Nick Cave, and houses the biggest collection of vinyl records in the world.[4] In February 2015, Selway told Drowned in Sound that Radiohead had worked from September to Christmas 2014, and would resume work that March.[5] In the same month, Greenwood told Pitchfork that Radiohead had changed their methods, "working in limits" and using "very old and very new technology" together.[6] In June 2015, Greenwood said that the band had been slow to regain momentum after their hiatus;[7] Selway stated that the band had worked in "fits and starts", but that a "full schedule" would begin from September.[8]

File:Jonny Greenwood in Geneva (2015).jpg
Jonny Greenwood performing in 2015 with the London Contemporary Orchestra, who appear on A Moon Shaped Pool

In November 2015, composer Robert Ziegler, who worked with Radiohead on The King of Limbs, tweeted photos of the band recording with a string orchestra.[9] The strings were arranged by Greenwood and performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra, who previously worked with Greenwood on the score for The Master,[2][10] and recorded at RAK Studios in London.[11] Cellist Oliver Coates said: "Nigel, Jonny and Thom all have this awesome relationship, and were so animated during the recording. I remember we were laying down the cello part at the end of 'Daydreaming' and Thom said, 'That’s it – that is the sound of the record.'"[12] He credited the "intensity" of the orchestra's performance to Radiohead's influence on the musicians as teenagers. Additional string and choir parts were recorded but cut from the album.[12] Drummer Clive Deamer, who performed with Radiohead on the King of Limbs tour,[13] played additional drums on "Ful Stop".[11]

In December 2015, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, Yorke performed three Moon Shaped Pool songs: "Present Tense" (then known as "The Present Tense"), "The Numbers" (then known as "Silent Spring"), and "Desert Island Disk".[14] On Christmas Day, Radiohead released a new song, "Spectre", on the audio streaming site SoundCloud. It was written for the James Bond film of the same name, but went unused.[15]

Several Moon Shaped Pool tracks were written some time before the album's release. "True Love Waits" dates to at least 1995; a live version was released on the live album I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings (2001).[16] Godrich said of the song in 2012: "We tried to record it countless times, but it never worked ... To Thom's credit, he needs to feel a song has validation, that it has a reason to exist as a recording. We could do 'True Love Waits' and make it sound like John Mayer. Nobody wants to do that."[17] Radiohead worked on "Burn the Witch" during the sessions for their albums Kid A (2000), Hail to the Thief (2003), and In Rainbows (2007), and lyrics from the song appeared in previous album artwork and on Radiohead's website.[18][19] "Present Tense" dates to 2008;[20] Yorke first performed it in a solo set at the UK Latitude Festival in 2009.[1][21]

Music and lyrics

Moon Shaped Pool combines electronic elements such as drum machines and synthesisers with acoustic timbres such as acoustic guitar and piano, and particularly Greenwood's string section and choral arrangements.[22] According to Pitchfork writer Jeremy Larson, "while lite orchestrations are nothing new for the band, A Moon Shaped Pool brings them to the fore of the songwriting, and Greenwood’s arrangements do more heavy lifting than on any other album."[10]

"Burn the Witch" features col legno strings, meaning that the players strike their strings with the stick of the bow rather than bowing them, creating a percussive effect.[23] "Daydreaming" features a piano figure and backwards vocals that resemble "someone struggling for breath".[24] "Identikit" has a jam-like opening, with "snatches" of vocal and guitar, and ends with an "agitated" guitar solo.[24] The Guardian felt that the strings, bassline and funk rhythm of "The Numbers" was a homage to Serge Gainsbourg’s 1970 album Histoire De Melody Nelson.[24] "Present Tense" features a Latin shuffle beat.[24] "Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief" combines strings with electronic percussion and a distorted keyboard. "True Love Waits", first performed on acoustic guitar over 20 years prior, is performed on piano, with additional overdubbed pianos building as the song progresses.[25] The tracks are listed in alphabetical order.[10]

Many of the lyrics discus love, forgiveness, and regret with, according to Larson, "a sense that beyond tectonic heartbreak there is an anaemic acceptance that is kind of beautiful if you don’t get too sad about it".[10] Several critics felt the album's lyrics were coloured by Yorke's recent separation from his partner of almost 25 years, noting that the manipulated vocals of "Daydreaming", when reversed, resemble the words "half of my life".[10][26][27][28] The lyrics of "Burn the Witch" were interpreted by Pitchfork writer Jillian Mapes as criticism of authority and groupthink, expressing a "deep sense of dread and skepticism";[29] the Guardian felt the song might address mass surveillance or the threat to open discussion posed by the self-policing users of social media.[30] Pitchfork interpreted "The Numbers" as a comment on climate change.[10]

Artwork

The artwork for A Moon Shaped Pool was created by Stanley Donwood, who has worked with Radiohead since 1995.[31] Donwood worked in a barn at the studio, with speakers connected to the studio where the band recorded, allowing their music to influence his art.[4]

Release and promotion

The leaflet sent to fans, featuring lyrics to "Burn the Witch"

In a departure from industry practice, Radiohead did no interviews or touring in the months preceding A Moon Shaped Pool, teasing the album only as it was about to be released.[32] On 30 April 2016, fans who had previously made orders from Radiohead received embossed cards with lyrics from the album's lead single, "Burn the Witch".[33] On 1 May, Radiohead deleted all content from their website and social media profiles, replacing them with blank images,[34] which Pitchfork interpreted as symbolising their re-emergence.[32] After releasing excerpts on Instagram, Radiohead released "Burn the Witch" as a download on 3 May, accompanied by a stop-motion animated music video.[30] The video homages the animation style of the 1960s English children's television Trumpton Trilogy programmes[35] and the plot of the 1973 horror film The Wicker Man.[36][37]

On 6 May, Radiohead released the second single, "Daydreaming", accompanied by a music video directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.[38] The video was projected in 35 mm film in select theatres.[39] On the same day, Radiohead announced that their ninth album, then untitled, would be released at 7pm BST on 8 May, with physical formats to follow from 17 June via XL Recordings.[38] It was made available to buy from Radiohead's website and the digital music services Google Play Music, Apple Music, iTunes Store, Amazon Music, Bleep.com[40] and Tidal.[41] It debuted at number one in the UK album chart, becoming Radiohead's sixth UK number-one album.[42]

Customers can also order a special edition of the album from Radiohead, with packaging "inspired by the albums for 78rpm shellac records" in the studio where they recorded. It includes the album on two heavyweight 12" vinyl records, a CD with two bonus tracks, 32 pages of original artwork, and an original piece of master tape, less than a second in length, from one of Radiohead's past recording sessions. As tape degrades over time, the band decided that "rather than it ending up as landfill we would cut it up and make it useful as a part of the special edition."[43]

A Moon Shaped Pool was played in its entirety on BBC Radio 6 Music on the day of release, presented by Tom Robinson.[44] The following week, Radiohead released the first in a series of video vignettes by visual artists set to short clips of music from the album.[45] Radiohead began a tour in support of the album in May 2016, with dates in Europe, North America, and Japan.[46][47] They are joined by additional drummer Clive Deamer, who also performed with the band on the King of Limbs tour.[47]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 88/100[48]
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 4/5 stars[49]
The Daily Telegraph 5/5 stars[50]
Entertainment Weekly A[51]
The Guardian 4/5 stars[24]
The Independent 4/5 stars[52]
NME 4/5[53]
Pitchfork Media 9.1/10[54]
Rolling Stone 4.5/5 stars[55]
Slant Magazine 4.5/5 stars[56]
Spin 9/10[57]

A Moon Shaped Pool has a score of 88 out of 100 on the review aggregator website Metacritic, based on 34 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim."[48] Patrick Ryan of USA Today wrote that "the brooding, symphonic and poignant A Moon Shaped Pool ... was well worth the wait."[58] Chris Gerard of PopMatters felt the album was "worthy of Radiohead’s peerless catalog, a rich addition to what is the most vital and important string of rock albums of the last 30 years."[59] Jamieson Cox of the Verge praised the album's string arrangements and "emotional magnanimity".[60] Andy Beta of Rolling Stone described it as "a haunting, stunning triumph" and Radiohead's "most gorgeous and desolate album to date", praising its timbres and melodies.[22] In a separate review, Rolling Stone critic Will Hermes wrote that "it's Yorke's voice that holds the emotional center, and it's never been more affecting ... [A Moon Shaped Pool is] one of their most musically and emotionally arresting albums".[55] Sam Richards of NME described A Moon Shaped Pool as "an album of eerie, elusive beauty that is strange, shimmering and uncertain all at the same time".[61] Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote for AllMusic that "there's a melancholic comfort to its ebb and flow, a gentle rocking motion that feels comforting; it's a tonic to the cloistered, scattered King of Limbs and even the sleek alienation of Kid A."[49]

Eric Renner Brown of Entertainment Weekly praised the album's variety of musical textures and grand scale: "By nature, Radiohead albums will always be somewhat epic, but this one is more consistently grandiose than any of the band’s releases since 2000’s masterpiece Kid A."[51] Jon Pareles, writing for The New York Times, wrote that A Moon Shaped Pool was perhaps "[Radiohead's] darkest statement — though the one with the band’s most pastoral surface." He praised Yorke's vocals and Greenwood's string arrangements, writing: "Both Mr. Yorke and Mr. Greenwood are relentlessly inquisitive listeners, lovers of melody and explorers of idioms, makers of puzzles who don’t shy away from emotion."[26] Alexis Petridis of The Guardian criticised the "suffocating gloom of the lyrics", but felt the album was an improvement over The King of Limbs, writing that Radiohead had "[achieved] something they've never achieved before [...] alone among their commercial peers, Radiohead are held to not just release albums but make grand artistic statements worth dissecting and poring over."[24] Chris Barton of the Los Angeles Times described A Moon Shaped Pool as "a rich and engrossing listen that somehow finds more undiscovered territory for a band that has built a career on doing just that."[62] MTV's Simon Vozick-Levinson wrote: "A Moon Shaped Pool provides a thrilling answer to the existential concerns that confront any band that’s made it this far ... After all this time, hearing these five old friends challenge themselves into a new phase of evolution can still blow even a jaded fan’s mind."[28]

Justin Joffe, writing for the New York Observer, praised the album as "a stunning display of naked vulnerability and a notable achievement ... Radiohead remain dedicated craftsmen of strange new sonic universes."[27] Like Joffe, Nina Corcoran of Consequence of Sound praised the inclusion of older songs such as "True Love Waits", writing: "Waiting five years to hear previously released tracks is worth it precisely because Radiohead finally feels connected enough to perform them with meaning ... waiting to release a studio recording of a song over two decades old allowed Radiohead to peel its words when riper than ever."[63] The Quietus, however, felt the inclusion of older songs gave the album an unwelcome “'B-sides and Rarities' feel", writing: "Certain tracks feel less than fully fleshed out, really given the treatment that their age warrants ... There’s simply so little spark here, barely glowing embers and blackened dust where once Radiohead blazed a fascinating, furious trail for others to attempt to follow.".[64] DIY felt that "Ful Stop" was the centrepiece, but that the album "could do with another breakneck force shock to the system" and that "some moments are unnecessary, like the over-tinkering echo of ‘Present Tense’’s backing guitars, or the jagged closing section of ‘Decks Dark’". Nonetheless, it concluded that "every inch of this record has been meticulously crafted, tailor-made to fit the strengths of every member. Not once does a song sit out of place or come across as unfinished. These are gorgeous, human, complete works - some of the best of their remarkable career."[65]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Radiohead.

  1. "Burn the Witch" – 3:40
  2. "Daydreaming" – 6:24
  3. "Decks Dark" – 4:41
  4. "Desert Island Disk" – 3:44
  5. "Ful Stop" – 6:07
  6. "Glass Eyes" – 2:52
  7. "Identikit" – 4:26
  8. "The Numbers" – 5:45
  9. "Present Tense" – 5:06
  10. "Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief" – 5:03
  11. "True Love Waits" – 4:43

Personnel

Charts

Chart (2016) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[68] 2
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[69] 12
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[70] 2
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[71] 5
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[72] 2
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[73] 5
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[74] 3
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[75] 3
French Albums (SNEP)[76] 6
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[77] 13
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[78] 22
Irish Albums (IRMA)[79] 1
Italian Albums (FIMI)[80] 4
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[81] 2
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[82] 1
Portuguese Albums (AFP)[83] 4
Scottish Albums (OCC)[84] 1
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[85] 3
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[86] 1
UK Albums (OCC)[87] 1
US Billboard 200[88] 3
US Top Alternative Albums (Billboard)[89] 1
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[90] 1

Certifications

Region Certification Sales/shipments
United Kingdom (BPI)[91] Silver 60,000

^shipments figures based on certification alone

Release history

Region Date Label Format Catalogue no.
Worldwide 8 May 2016 XL XLDA790[40]
17 June 2016
XLCD790 / XLLP790 / XLLP790X[92]

Notes and references

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  69. "Austriancharts.at – Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 19 May 2016.
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  82. "Norwegiancharts.com – Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool". Hung Medien. Retrieved 14 May 2016.
  83. "Portuguesecharts.com – Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool". Hung Medien. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  84. "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
  85. "Swedishcharts.com – Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool". Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 May 2016.
  86. "Swisscharts.com – Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool". Hung Medien. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  87. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 14 May 2016.
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  89. "Radiohead – Chart history" Billboard Top Alternative Albums for Radiohead. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  90. "Radiohead – Chart history" Billboard Top Rock Albums for Radiohead. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
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External links