Wow, fabulous and beautiful in equal measure. Finally, after a five year hiatus (aside from the Atoms for Peace project) comes A Moon Shaped Pool, a beautifully constructed and produced piece of art for the Radiohead junkies out there.  I mark myself down as an ‘Amnesiac’ phase junkie, but a Radiohead junkie nonetheless  Thoughtful, mysterious, haunting, ‘what are they on’ are just a few ways of describing the mystery of Radiohead.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my first listen to this album, ‘Burn the Witch’ has Sgt. Peppers’ overtones and is a very energetic introduction, thereafter, ‘Daydreaming’ takes us back into wistful ‘King of Limbs’ mode. My favourite track after ‘Daydreaming’ is probably ‘The Numbers’ which takes me to Led Zeppelin 4 (Stairway to Heaven anyone?) in parts and is a wonderfully constructed track. No idea what the lyrics are about to be honest but there is so much to listen to, there are layers of instruments in every track, it does not really matter.  ‘True Love Waits’ is absolutely gorgeous, I’ve played it three times now, and is an incredibly complex but haunting piece of music.

I’m not living, I’m just killing time

Overall, As It Seems To Me…, this album is dark. Dark, dark. It is cohesive and knits together nicely, electronica meets folk music. I like it, I won’t be spending 60 quid on the gatefold limited edition release but I’m all over the hi-res download.

I’ve just noticed these tracks are in alphabetic order, more mystery.

Burn the Witch ***
Daydreaming ****
Decks Dark ***
Desert Island Disk ***
Ful Stop ***
Glass Eyes ***
Identikit ***
The Numbers *****
Present Tense ***
Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor…….. ****
True Love Waits *****

Album – A Moon Shaped Pool
Artist – Radiohead
Source – Tidal
Player – iMac
Amplification/Output – AudioPro LV33
Released – 8 May 2016
11 Tracks, 52’31”

The album is available here and on Tidal.

http://www.amoonshapedpool.com