Hail to the Thief
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| Hail to the Thief | ||
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| Studio album by Radiohead | ||
| Released | June 9, 2003 | |
| Recorded | September 2002 - February 2003 at Ocean Way, Hollywood, California | |
| Genre | Art Rock, Alternative Rock | |
| Length | 56:31 | |
| Label | EMI, Parlophone, Capitol | |
| Producer(s) | Nigel Godrich, Radiohead | |
| Professional reviews | ||
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| Radiohead chronology | ||
| I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings (2001) |
6th Hail to the Thief (2003) |
COM LAG (2plus2isfive) (2004) |
Hail to the Thief, or "The Gloaming" as it is subtitled, is the sixth studio album by English rock band Radiohead, released on June 9, 2003 in the United Kingdom and June 10 in the United States and Canada. After two albums that mined a distinctive groove, with heavily processed vocals and few guitars, Hail to the Thief draws its ideas from every era of the band's existence, coupled with a new-found confidence and live energy — the bulk of the record was recorded in two weeks in Los Angeles. The album was released on Parlophone and produced by Nigel Godrich (who has worked with Radiohead on four previous releases).
Contents |
[edit] Overview
Radiohead's previous two albums, Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001) suffered from notably differing reactions, both from fans and the music press. Some hailed the albums as masterpieces, especially Kid A. Others thought the electronic beats and experimenting were pretentious, and longed for the guitar-filled style of OK Computer or The Bends. In perhaps an effort to please both camps, Hail to the Thief features much more guitar than the last two albums, but keeps the electronic beats. The best example of this can be found in the album's first single, "There There," and in its opener, "2 + 2 = 5". The album is their longest so far, clocking in at almost an hour.
Given the controversial nature of Radiohead's post-OK Computer work, fan and critical reaction was typically mixed but tended towards the positive: Neil McCormick, writing in the Daily Telegraph, called it "Radiohead firing on all cylinders, a major work by major artists at the height of their powers" and the record performed typically well in magazines' end-of-year polls. Unswayed, the NME's James Oldham saw it as "a good rather than great record" and Alexis Petridis of The Guardian called it "neither startlingly different and fresh nor packed with the sort of anthemic songs that once made them the world's biggest band".
The title of the album is considerered by some to be a reference to an anti-Bush chant (itself a play on "Hail to the Chief," a march played to announce the arrival of the President of the United States) used by activists during the controversy surrounding the 2000 U.S. presidential election. However, the band has emphasised the wider political context of the phrase, citing its use during the 1888 American election. Accordingly, in the June 2003 issue of Spin Magazine Yorke was quoted as saying "If the motivation for naming our album had been based solely on the [current] U.S. election, I'd find that to be pretty shallow."
A version of the album that had not yet been mastered was leaked onto the Internet several months before it was officially released, possibly stolen from their studio. It was by no means the first album that suffered this fate, but it was one of the first unfinished albums to leak by a major artist. One of the earliest examples was Kid A in 2000, also by Radiohead, though in that case it was the finished version of the album leaked. At the time of Kid A the band had been unbothered by the presence of their album on file sharing network Napster, but in 2003 they were upset because they felt their work was being heard in incomplete form, although fans noted only a few differences when the final CD appeared (tellingly, that too was on the Internet before it was in stores).
The album is dedicated to "Patrick and Tamir and a future worth having." Patrick and Tamir are sons of Phil Selway and Jonny Greenwood, respectively, born since the release of Amnesiac.
As of August 2005, Hail To The Thief has sold 932,000 units in the US. This album has been released with the Copy Control protection system in some regions.
The album was also released in a special edition version. This version features slightly different cover art and a huge fold-out poster containing artwork similar to the cover. The poster also contains color-coded poems and other writings.
[edit] Track listing
All tracks written by Radiohead.
- "2 + 2 = 5 (The Lukewarm.)" – 3:19
- "Sit Down, Stand Up. (Snakes & Ladders.)" – 4:19
- "Sail to the Moon. (Brush the Cobwebs out of the Sky.)" – 4:18
- "Backdrifts. (Honeymoon is Over.)" – 5:22
- "Go to Sleep. (Little Man being Erased.)" – 3:21
- "Where I End and You Begin. (The Sky is Falling in.)" – 4:29
- "We suck Young Blood. (Your Time is up.)" – 4:56
- "The Gloaming. (Softly Open our Mouths in the Cold.)" – 3:32
- "There There. (The Boney King of Nowhere.)" – 5:23
- "I Will. (No man's Land.)" – 1:59
- "A Punchup at a Wedding. (No no no no no no no no.)" – 4:57
- "Myxomatosis. (Judge, Jury & Executioner.)" – 3:52
- "Scatterbrain. (As Dead as Leaves.)" – 3:21
- "A Wolf at the Door. (It Girl. Rag Doll.)" – 3:23
- Note: Just like the album's title, each track receives a parenthetical subtitle. The lyrics in the booklet list only the parenthetical subtitles.
[edit] Band
The credits in the liner notes for Hail to the Thief indicate:
| Thom Yorke | vocals, guitar, piano, laptop |
| Jonny Greenwood | guitar, analogue systems, ondes martenot, laptop, toy piano, glockenspiel |
| Ed O'Brien | guitar, harmony vocals, effects |
| Colin Greenwood | bass, string synth, sampler |
| Phil Selway | drums, percussion |
[edit] Release
The album was released in various countries in June 2003.
| Country | Date | Label | Format | Catalog |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | June 2, 2003 | Toshiba-EMI | CD | TOCP 66185 |
| United Kingdom | June 9, 2003 | Parlophone | LP | 5845431 |
| CD | 5845432 | |||
| Australia | June 9, 2003 | EMI | CD | 5845442 |
| United States | June 10, 2003 | Capitol | CD | CDP 7243 5 84543 2 1 |
| United States | June 10, 2003 | Capitol | CD | CDP 7243 5 84805 2 8 (special edition) |
| Canada | June 10, 2003 | Parlophone | CD | 7243 5 84544 2 0 |
