The Daily Spin, September 6
Radiohead | A Moon Shaped Pool
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
Album: A Moon Shaped Pool (2016)
Artist: Radiohead
Link:
Classically strong, as so much of their catalogue is, Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool rose and solidified the band’s continued strength, twenty-plus years on from their original breakthrough with ‘Creep’ and everything that has come since.
I don’t think anyone would necessarily claim that this is their best - not a dig, rather an acknowledgement of the immense power of albums like Kid A and In Rainbows - but pound for pound, it’s hard for me to look at it anywhere below second, maybe third.
With the passage of time, it feels as though some of the sadness and depression that clouded some of Radiohead’s earlier work has ebbed away, leaving a rather touching form of enlightenment in its wake, angst giving way to the melancholy of acceptance. Though I think some of this form is lost in the presentation, the music a little too pared down - not quite enough Downward Spiral for my tastes - the basic building blocks are there, and that’s what matters in the end.
I think the middle/back-half of the album is likely to be a little forgotten for the aforementioned reasons, but when the tracks shine, there’s a glow to them that few bands have ever managed to replicate. Radiohead being able to manage it so consistently is a reminder of the plaudits that they deserve in basically every sense.
Rating: 8.9/10
Best Tracks: Decks Dark; Present Tense
Worst Tracks: Glass Eyes