Like a mildly more cheerful Pyramid Song
Interesting quote:
Godrich said he believes people place too much emphasis on studio equipment and âtrickeryâ, which is less important than musical sensibility and communication. He said: âI get very annoyed with people asking me what my favourite microphone is. It doesnât matter ⌠One of the reasons why music has become generally worse, and Iâm sorry to say that, is that people think about technology more than the actual music theyâre making.â[1] He feels that âthe recording process is best when fast, because itâs then the smallest obstacle to the actual musicâ.
sounds like the synth lines are really from telharmonic lol
Thatâs interesting, and agree with the technology part to a large degree.
However, in terms of recording fast⌠for me, Radioheadâs best albums are Kid A / Amnesiac and In Rainbows⌠and they were made from long sessions
I think the length of the session may not matter for what Godrich is talking aboutâŚfor those albums the (glorious) musicâs writing process emerged from those lengthy sessions for sureâŚbut they were constantly recording and capturing. I think Godrich is more pointing to worrying less about trying to find the perfect device or dial in a perfect mic setup and focusing instead on the musicâŚrecording fast maybe means âget the ideas when they happenâ
Yeah I think youâre probably right, aligned to his previous point about obsessing over the technology
The Smile are better than Radiohead have been at any point since 2007.
I dunno⌠I really loved the King of Limbs, especially that From the Basement thing and all those other tracks around that point. I thought that maybe they should have been on the album⌠talking Staircase, Daily Mail, The Butcher, Supercollider⌠in fact Supercollider is one of my fave tunes from them.
Just listened to the new Smile record, as ever with these guys things tend to grow on you (I find amywayâŚ)
Yeah, I honestly doubt they spend a lot of time talking gear, these guys. Certainly theyre a bit more up to date than a lot of other bands, but piano, guitar, bass and drums and still the primary instruments.
In the book âMeet Me In The Bathroomâ (an absolutely awesome read btw), it was reported that The Strokes stopped working with Godrich on their second album because he didnât care about the sound of high hats: âHats are hatsâ. And to Julian Casablancas, âhats are like fine wineâ
IdkâSmile and post HTTT Radiohead are equally dull/self-parodying unfortunately. The only interesting things in Smile have been the guitar parts in Thin Thing and Bending Hectic but the songs built around those parts are just meh. Iâm certainly no RH hater; Amnesiac is my fav rock album of all time. But there seems to be a sort of relaxing of taste and self-criticism that happens at least by the time they get to In Rainbows. Itâs a bummer but it happens to basically every artist so itâs hard to get too down about it. The comparison of anything post HTTT with anything pre is baffling to me. Everything post sounds like what someone who doesnât like Radiohead would do to imitate them (queue generic spooky song). Also Thomâs cringy dance moves and long hair feel very mid-life-crisis. But what do I know? Iâm one of the 11 people who actually loves Pulk/Pull.
Everyone has different tastes and you canât please everyone.
I can understand that people donât want something to change after finding something they like, but people age, their influences change as does their process for making music, let alone sharing it with others.
For people who do make it, you gotta wonder what their drive is to keep making music.
I saw a Lauryn Hill concert and people around us were pissed and booing because she played new versions of her old songs.
Itâs gotta suck when you have new creative energy but people only want to hear what you did 10-20 years ago (or longer)
I love that tune too! But I also love In Rainbows⌠in fact thatâs probably my favourite of their albums, with Kid A⌠whilst falling into self parody is a trapping that any artist(s) can fall into long term (or sometimes short term in some cases) I canât see that being the case with in Rainbows⌠it was nothing like they had done before, in my view
I think this is very much personal taste. Thereâs some amazing stuff on In Rainbows and especially The King of Limbs, in my opinion. TKOL is a very weird record (in a good way). I agree with your summation when talking about A Moon Shaped Pool, but even that has some excellent moments (Iâm besotted with âThe Numbersâ).
Middle age is very weird. I think itâs a 2nd teenager-dom, but with the complexity of aging, accumulated experience and (if youâre lucky) relative wealth. Crises here seem a symptom of the stupid times we live in and an artist succumbing to that, and making art out of it gives us a window to reflect on ourselves if we want to look through it. Iâm not usually one for celeb gossip, but I find it very interesting that Yorke split from his wife of many years (and I think they have kids together)⌠and that it was functionally amicable. Thatâs a weird place to be in middle age (well, in media terms itâs weird). Itâs really no surprise heâs âhaving a crisisâ of sorts.
Who cares about dance moves and long hair anyway? Let people do what they want!
My gripe, or one of them, isnât that theyâve changed, rather itâs that they have calcified, and that theyâve done so around a sort of dull imitation of their middle period. One of the many really exciting things about Radiohead for a while was just how dramatic the change was from one record to the next. But obviously that canât go on forever.
Itâs an aside. If the songs were still interesting none of the extra-musical details would matter of course. That said Iâm sure if Thom started doing Edward Jones commercials or collecting Ferraris, you might find it a bit of a turn-off. Or maybe youâre into that sort of thing.
Iâm number 12. I think production wise itâs extraordinarily radical.
But I think a lot of people underestimate how wildly experimental Thom has gotten with compositions: odd time signatures, unique chord progressions and voicings, polymeters, multi-segmented song structures. The Smile has been, for me, the ultimate expression of whereâs heâs come with this. Itâs experimental, but in a different way from pre-HTTT. A way he prefers to experiment in currently. And All power to him Fortunately for us itâs been excellent.
I dunno. I think everything up to The King of Limbs was pretty different to what they did before. And besides, they have released only one record in 12 years since then⌠I kind of agree that it was exciting, but I also think that people were expecting every new record to be some kind of seismic shift forward in the whole outsider pop / rock thing⌠which i always thought was a bit unrealistic at best. And I think that happened because, in my view, there were so few artists really taking things forward - and that has kind of continued to this day in that field, in general terms.
Are you even âmiddle ageâ? Once youâre actually in your 40s and 50s youâre going to be surprised about how you still feel like youâre twenty-five (even if your body is sore all the time).
I donât know who or what Edward Jones is. Ferraris look nice I guess⌠maybe not great for the environment!