I haven't listened to Helplessness Blues yet and I'm not making a comment on it with it.
People take what's in fashion into account because if a style of music has really gone out of style, there's usually a reason for it. Maybe it's been done to death and there's no room for originality within its confines, maybe something newer has made it feel less vital or relevant to the larger conversation, maybe artists that lack quality or authenticity have co-opted the sound and it now conjures negative associations. And if something's particularly in vogue, sometimes it's really just a hollow fad, but sometimes if there's an explosion of a new, "cool" sound it's because it's unexplored territory without the weight of decades of music in that style to live up to, or maybe because that sound really speaks to what a lot of people are experiencing now.
Obviously just listening to what's "cool" at the moment is a bad way to decide what music you like, but I don't think quality and coolness are completely independent variables either. I imagine a lot of people who follow current music don't do so just because they've explored every record made in human history so far and just need more material, but because they want to witness music as a conversation/exchange between a lot of different groups as it unfolds. To me, if there were only one band in the world, no matter how much quality their music had, it wouldn't be very interesting because there wouldn't be any context. And for something to consciously defy what's in vogue is just as much an statement on what's cool.
I don't understand how many people there are who think there is such a thing as "bad" music ... For example, let's say I hate Angles and MBDTF and enjoy TKOL. You think I'm just objectively wrong and you're just objectively right? Haven't you ever changed your opinion on an album after hearing later in different context or something? If so, how can you think that "a bad album is a bad album is a bad album?"
You're not required to like it, music is completely subjective and if it doesn't resonate with you no one can tell you it should. But I really find the attitude of "I deserve better" revolting ... Artists with credibility create art for themselves and hope that someone besides themselves like it, not the other way around.
And excluding Feral, which I like but I think could have gone a lot further into its groove, how are any of these songs unfinished? I'm curious, actually curious not trying to start a fight, as to what your favorite Radiohead songs are. Maybe a lot of this disagreement comes from the fact that a band with such a broad catalogue has sections of their fanbase that value completely different things about them.
I've been hearing that a lot and I actually don't get it. If you listen to The Eraser, Bodysong, and Eureka Street back to back and tell me again that TKOL is mostly Thom. I think some people have a perception that Thom is the electronics and the other band members are rockists, but that's not the case. I get the impression the atmospherics are Ed's area (I think Meeting in the AIsle, Hunting Bears, and Treefingers were mostly Ed tracks) and a lot of the sounds that fill up the soundscape (ondes martenot, any orchestration) are Jonny. While The Eraser is minimal and made mostly of short loops, Bodysong is lush and haunting; a lot of that signature 20th century Radiohead vibe isn't Thom at all. If it doesn't move you as past Radiohead releases do I can't really make a statement on that, but I think the perception that most Radiohead fans share this sentiment might be off-base. It's not my favorite record of theirs but it didn't let me down at all either. I do hope I get something that justifies the price tag for the vinyl, but I'd be more pretty surprised if I didn't.
I also think it sounds just fine blaring in the car or on large speakers. To people wanting more length or more bite, I suggest plopping These Are My Twisted Words down between tracks two and three.
don't you think this is a bigger departure from in rainbows than in rainbows was from hail to the thief? I don't know about "revolutionary," probably won't leave as descendable a mark on other artists as the glory days did, but it's certainly a bigger departure from in rainbows than in rainbows was from hail to the thief. the jittery, staccato guitars + motorik they're using now is pretty new besides these are my twisted words (which is almost definitely from the same sessions).
I know what you mean on House of Cards, Faust Arp, and Nude to a certain extent, and All I Need isn't exactly adult contemporary, more like mainstream indie, like Arcade Fire or the National or something (not that I don't like that song). But 15 Step, Bodysnatchers, Weird Fishes, and Reckoner classics worthy of any high point in their career.
That said I'd share your sentiment if you wanted an album of Paranoid Androids, National Anthems, I Might Be Wrongs, and Paperbag Writers. I'm hopeful because These Are My Twisted Words and Atoms for Peace are both crazy experimental hypnotic fast tempo masterpieces. Hopefully Thom didn't get it all out of his system.
Men Who Stare at Goats seconded. Never has a trailer made such a bad, bad movie look so funny. I was got other people to see that movie with me who didn't want to; for shame.
Pearl Harbor
Slumdog Millionaire
School of Rock
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Mel Brooks
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
But especially Whatever Works -- I was fuming at how unwatchable this movie was after seeing it in theaters. Here are some movies I was not as angry after seeing in theaters:
Star Wars: Clone Wars
Clash of the Titans
The Other Guys
2012
The Break-Up
Not nominees mind you, movies better than Whatever Works.
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