Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
NME.COM feature on Radiohead - Hail to the Thief album including album review, artwork, tracks, listen now, tour dates, discography and more.
Album Review
Release date: 31 August 2009
Radiohead : Hail To The Thief
...a band still coming to terms with the puzzle of what to do after you've made an album universally hailed as one of the greatest ever...
When 'OK Computer', Radiohead 's third album, swept aside all competition in 1997's end of year polls, it did so for a good reason. Not only was it a toweringly complex and beautiful record, but alongside releases from Spiritualized ('Ladies And Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space') and Primal Scream ('Vanishing Point') it also seemed to point to a...
- May 1, 2003
Tracklisting click track to read more
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Radiohead - Hail to the Thief: Wikipedia Album Entry
Hail to the Thief (subtitled The Gloaming) is the sixth studio album by English rock band Radiohead, released on 9 June 2003 in the United Kingdom and 10 June 2003, in the United States. It debuted at number one in the UK and at number three in the United States.
After two Radiohead albums that featured heavily processed vocals, less guitar, and strong influence from experimental electronica and jazz, Hail to the Thief was seen as a return to alternative rock, drawing its sound from every era of the band's existence. Preceded by the single "There There", the album reached number one on the UK charts, and met with modest but worldwide commercial success, selling 994,000 units in the United States.
Band members described the album as having a more "swaggering" sound and a relaxed recording process, in contrast to the tense Kid A/Amnesiac sessions. At nearly an hour in length, Hail to the Thief is the band's longest album, although many of its songs are within the three- and even two-minute range, shorter than the band's average. Thom Yorke said he was inspired by Beatles songs of that length which he thought felt much longer. This album has been released with the Copy Control protection system in some regions.
The album received universal acclaim from professional critics upon release, based on a Metacritic score of 85/100, or 85%. 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 lists, especially in the United States. It was the fifth straight Radiohead release to be nominated for a Grammy for Best Alternative Album. 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." In 2004, coproducer Nigel Godrich and engineer Darrell Thorp were honoured with Grammy Awards for their work on Hail to the Thief.
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Radiohead - Hail to the Thief Lyrics
Radiohead - 2 + 2 = 5 Lyrics
I'll lay down the tracks
Sandbag and hide
January has April's showers
And 2 and 2 always makes a 5
Radiohead - Scatterbrain Lyrics
I'm walking out
In a force ten gale
Birds thrown around
Bullets for hail
Radiohead - Myxomatosis Lyrics
The mongrel cat came home
Holding half a head
Proceeded to show it off
To all his newfound friends
Radiohead - A Punchup At A Wedding Lyrics
No no, no, no no, no
No no, no, no no, no
No no, no, no no, no
No no, no, no no, no
Radiohead - I Will Lyrics
I will lay me down
In a bunker underground
I won't let this happen to my children
Radiohead - There There Lyrics
In pitch dark I go walking in your landscape
Broken branches trip me as I speak
Just âcause you feel it doesn't mean it's there
Just âcause you feel it doesn't mean it's there
Radiohead - The Gloaming Lyrics
Genie let out of the bottle
It is now the witching hour
Genie let out of the bottle
It is now the witching hour
Radiohead - We Suck Young Blood Lyrics
Are you hungry?
Are you sick?
Are you begging for a break?
Radiohead - Where I End And You Begin Lyrics
There's a gap in between
There's a gap where we meet
Where I end and you begin
Radiohead - Go To Sleep Lyrics
Something for the rag and bone man
Over my dead body
Something big is gonna happen
Over my dead body
Radiohead - Backdrifts Lyrics
We're rotten fruit, we're damaged goods
What the hell, we've got nothing more to lose
One gust and we will probably crumble
We're backdrifting
Radiohead - Sail To The Moon Lyrics
I sucked the moon, I spoke too soon
And how much did it cost?
I was dropped from moonbeams
Radiohead - Sit Down, Stand Up Lyrics
Sit down, stand up
Sit down, stand up
Walk into the jaws of hell
(Sit down)
Radiohead - A Wolf At The Door Lyrics
Drag âem out your window, dragging out the dead
Singing I miss you, Snakes and Ladders
Flip the lid, out pops the cracker
Snaps you in the head, knifes you in the neck
