One issue I have with this album is that when you are singing about The Suburbs and modern boredom, it’s easy to get into sarcasm and cliches. I don’t think they get into it all the time, but there were points that made me cringe. There’s some melodrama that I didn’t quite buy.
“dead shopping malls .. mountains beyond mountains and there’s no end in sight” … it’s such an easy image to evoke that it becomes too lyrically simple.
But I’m internally conflicted: Thom Yorke worked with these themes too, so why did I buy that? Is it because he personalizes it better? Uses more obtuse metaphors? Is it because of Radiohead’s tendency to muck up the music if it gets too pretty? I’m not trying to bring up the comparison here, but it’s what I’m asking when I listen to this record.
One issue I have with this album is that when you are singing about The Suburbs and modern boredom, it’s easy to get into sarcasm and cliches. I don’t think they get into it all the time, but there were points that made me cringe. There’s some melodrama that I didn’t quite buy.
“dead shopping malls .. mountains beyond mountains and there’s no end in sight” … it’s such an easy image to evoke that it becomes too lyrically simple.
But I’m internally conflicted: Thom Yorke worked with these themes too, so why did I buy that? Is it because he personalizes it better? Uses more obtuse metaphors? Is it because of Radiohead’s tendency to muck up the music if it gets too pretty? I’m not trying to bring up the comparison here, but it’s what I’m asking when I listen to this record.