“Someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again” – C.S. Lewis
Hail to the Thief is an odd album in the catalogue of its creators. It is an album that many fans will claim to be their favourite whilst an almost equal amount of fans dismiss it as one of their worst. It is unlike Pablo Honey and The King of Limbs which are often voted the bands least popular (unfair on the latter if you ask me but that’s a different story for a different time) and seemingly the main criticism is that it is just “ok” compared to their other works. The band themselves have publicly stated mixed feelings about the album with Yorke describing it as “rushed” and “too long”. Yorke even offered up an alternative track listing which omitted a couple of songs (more of which later). All of this of course is aided with the beauty of hindsight because to be a Radiohead fan in 2003 was to feel pretty good about things. We were reading interviews where the band were describing the making of the album as a positive experience and we were to get the much clamoured for by some sections of the fanbase, GUITAR album. The only concern was the fact we were informed that some of the album was recorded in Drew Barrymore’s studio and that Radiohead were enjoying the sun of LA. Had they succumbed fully to the lure of Hollywood fame? Were the band now about to churn out MOR soft-rock recorded whilst sipping cocktails? Of course they were not…
Hail to the Thief was not all shiny happy people. Instead what it was a collection of songs seeped in a paranoia and dread (this IS Radiohead after all) but this time married to more varied textures than on Kid A / Amnesiac. Guitars were definitely back but the electronics remained thus making this album a beautiful representation of a fork in the road. A road that was leading to what many people consider their finest album In Rainbows. This was also the most like The Beatles that Radiohead would get, in particular ‘The Beatles’ (White Album) as it shares that album’s eccentricities and skill in marrying a whole heap of tonally different songs yet still creating a cohesive whole. Another quality it shares with ‘The Beatles’ is its lyrics which are full of nursery rhyme couplets and fairy tale themes and like all good fairy tales there was an undercurrent of darkness that ran throughout. Influenced by becoming a father, Yorke manages to write allegories about the climate crisis, the war on terror, the illegal invasion of Iraq (which would happen only three months before the album was released) from the perspective of a dad’s fear for the future and how it will impact his son. Then came the tour….
And what a tour it was. 2003 was where the band truly embedded their position in the leagues of great live groups. Yes, there had been the mammoth OK Computer and the glitch of the tent tours, however it was in 2003 where we saw a band that looked truly happy and comfortable on stage (I witnessed three gigs in 2003 alone and not one was phoned in or stressed) and no more so was this apparent than their return Glastonbury’s famed Pyramid Stage. Gone were the technical issues and obvious anxieties and whilst the weather certainly helped, the band delivered a set that was so perfect and so perfectly them that it deserves to be ranked as one of the great Glastonbury performances (yes even higher than ‘97 ducks for cover) Here was a band comfortable with their history, their future and their position in the musical landscape.
Then we fast forward to 2025…..
Now is a weird time for Radiohead. They’re not the overtly politically vocal band they once were and there will be many fans who will have felt disappointed in their response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza even though Yorke and Jonny Greenwood have both made statements about the matter and Ed O’Brien is constantly sharing links and news stories about it on his Instagram page. There are of course other fans who will applaud their stance and agree with how they have approached everything and whilst that discussion should be held for other occasions, it is impossible not to recognise the fact that these recordings, from one of the band’s most politically charged albums being released now is a very timely reminder of what the band stand for.
Spurred into action after hearing a load of live songs from the album in preparation for his reworking of them for Hamlet Hail to the Thief, Yorke found an energy in the songs that he hadn’t noticed before and the band agreed to get them mixed properly and to release them and in doing so they may have created another classic album as these recordings which span 2003 – 2009 a truly great reminder of what an untouchable live band they are when they are firing on all cylinders. And a band in every sense of the word because this album highlights every single member’s unique and vital contribution to the sound of Radiohead.
The rhythm section of Phillip Selway and Colin Greenwood are often unfairly overlooked outside of the fan base and a few music critics but this album should stop all of that dead in its tracks. Listen to the way they drive songs such as ‘2+2=5, Sit Down’, ‘Stand Up’ (the way Selway interacts with the electronics and Greenwood powers through whilst remaining funky on the second act of this song is an album highlight), ‘Where I End and You Begin’ becomes an even more powerful homage to New Order with Selway and Greenwood giving us their best Morris and Hooky, and of course ‘The Gloaming’ which, when performed live, is the Mount Everest of their marrying of electronica and traditional. You can feel Greenwood loving every second of his bass parts when they come in.
Ed O’Brien holds a special place in the hearts of Radiohead fans. His backing vocals alone have become iconic and then you throw in the facts that he’s obviously a really talented musician, looks like a rock star and parties at Glastonbury, you have a cult hero on your hands. Here we are given further evidence of the above with his wonderfully textural guitar playing sometimes opposing and sometimes integrating with Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke’s. O’Brien’s (and occasionally Selway’s) backing vocals are an essential component to the Radiohead live experience as they they allow Yorke to truly go where he wants to go with his voice secure in the knowledge that he has a strong base to land back on. Hearing the well-known guitar riff fan let loose on ‘There There, Go To Sleep’ and ‘2+2=5’ is a treat.
One of modern rocks finest sights is seeing Jonny Greenwood in full flight. Think of him blasting off on ‘Paranoid Android’ or bowing his guitar to create the dolphin-like sounds of ‘Pyramid Song’. He is undoubtedly one of the greatest musicians of his era and here we get to truly experience his skills as they range from the static freak out solo at the end of ‘Go To Sleep’, his gorgeously handled playing on ‘Sail To The Moon’ and his Harrison-esque playing on ‘A Wolf At The Door’ which is another fine example of the Fab Fours influence on Hail to the Thief. Greenwood also gets involved in the electronics that make those songs fizz and glitch and his playing around with Yorke’s vocals is always done with great care for arrangements and texture more than gimmick. It is on the guitar tracks we are presented here though where we are truly reminded of his unique skills. A master at work.
Then there was one…Mr Thom Yorke, chief songwriter and frontman. Like all artists there are a myriad versions of him and all are played out to perfection on these recordings. HIs voice, oh my god, his voice. Thanks to the source material, we are not given the more falsetto heavy vocals that Yorke has used more and more of late (aside from a stunning rendition of I Will which remains one of his greatest vocals and most powerful lyrics which most certainly be referenced by both sides of the current divide), instead we are hearing a happy, powerful, radically charged Yorke who delivers the songs with an extreme passion elevating these songs past their studio recordings. Listen to the way he soars with the “WALK INTO THE JAWS OF HELL” and onwards section of ‘Sit Down. Stand Up’. By the time he gets to “we can wipe you out anytime” you feel fired up, and like you are in that room with the energy of a crowd and frontman working in unison to send the roof into space.
Yorke’s beautiful optimism and fear for his son is sung with such passion on ‘Sail To The Moon’ that it makes you want to go hug your own children and tell them everything will be ok. Angry Yorke then arrives with ‘Myxomatosis’ which he snarls and spits his way through (“a right nasty fucker” as he once described it) and fluid, Warp-fan Yorke dances and threatens his way through The Gloaming which is pure mood. Any questions that anyone has had about Yorke and his talents should be deemed null and void after hearing this album and what he is capable of when flying high with his incredible band supporting him.
Hail to the Thief (Live Recordings 2003-2009) delivers on Yorke’s promise to sort out the track listing for the album with the band omitting ‘Backdrifts’ and ‘A Punch Up At A Wedding’ which seems a weird choice especially as they have kept ‘We Suck Young Blood’ on there (maybe the band liked the fact that the audience got the handclaps right?). Maybe there were no decent recordings of them or maybe they felt those two songs altered the flow of the album, only they will know. This is the tiniest of complaints because what remains is not only a wonderful rekindling of a relationship between a band and one of its overlooked creations, but also a reminder of what brilliant songs they were (and remain) and how truly masterful Radiohead are when flying high. This deserves to become an essential part of the bands catalogue and it would not surprise me if people start listening to this version instead of its studio parent.
Now about that tour lads yeah…..
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Review by Simon Tucker
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