Hail to the Thief
Encyclopedia
Hail to the Thief is the sixth studio album by the English rock
band Radiohead
, released in June 2003 through Parlophone Records. 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 slight return to the band's older alternative rock influences, drawing its sound from every era of the band's existence. Recorded relatively quickly in Los Angeles, the album was described by band members as an attempt to find a more "swaggering" sound and a relaxed recording process, in contrast to their tense sessions for Kid A
and Amnesiac
several years earlier.
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 minute range, shorter than the band's average. Thom Yorke
said he was inspired by Beatles
songs of that length. Yorke said his songwriting on the album had been much affected by current events, but he denied having a strictly political intent. It debuted at number one in the United Kingdom and at number three in the United States, where it sold a greater number of copies in its first week than any other Radiohead album to date. Hail to the Thief was strongly well received by critics, but band members have, in later years, expressed regrets about the album. It spawned three charting singles: "There There
" (a #1 hit in Canada, and #4 in the UK), "Go to Sleep
" and "2 + 2 = 5
".
. Some of the lyrics of "Myxomatosis" were taken from the chorus of the Amnesiac
B-side "Cuttooth" and artwork by Yorke and Stanley Donwood
for the "High and Dry
" single in 1995.
Most of the tracks were recorded in two weeks in a Los Angeles studio, the shortest studio sessions for Radiohead since Pablo Honey
. Additional sessions, along with months of mixing work, were later done in Oxford
. The album's quick recording process was a compromise so that band members could spend more time with their families (most members had children by this time) and also helped protect against the tension of previous recording sessions. In an interview with Yahoo!
, O'Brien said, "This is the first album where, at the end of making it, we haven't wanted to kill each other."
An unmastered version of the album was leaked
onto the Internet several months before it was officially released. Although producer Nigel Godrich
posted a message on the official Radiohead message board expressing disappointment over the leak because he felt the band's work was being heard in an incomplete form, Jonny Greenwood
said: "Shame it's not a package with the artwork and all, but there you go. I feel bemused, though, not annoyed. I'm glad people like it, most of all. It's a little earlier than we'd expected, but there it is." Regardless of the leak, Hail to the Thief sold more copies in its first week than its predecessors, Kid A and Amnesiac, though its overall sales to date have not matched those of Kid A.
chant (itself a play on "Hail to the Chief
", a march
played to announce the arrival of the President of the United States
) that was used by activists during the controversy surrounding the 2000 US presidential election
. The band has emphasised the wider political context of the slogan, citing its use during the 1888 election
. In the June 2003 issue of Spin Magazine
, Thom Yorke was quoted as saying "If the motivation for naming our album had been based solely on the [recent] U.S. election, I'd find that to be pretty shallow." The album's subtitle was also explained by Yorke: "[The Gloaming
] is the imminent sense of moving into the Dark Ages again."
Each song on Hail to the Thief has an official alternative title or subtitle, which is listed in smaller print on the back of the album artwork. Some of the alternative titles are references to lyrics within the song, while others are phrases taken from elsewhere. The entire album has the alternative title The Gloaming, also the name of one of the songs. Yorke said he was considering calling the album itself The Gloaming, but was overruled by other band members for being too "prog rock
". The album title, the titles of songs on it, and the alternative titles are all listed with full stops after them (for example, Hail to the Thief., "There There." and "Sit Down. Stand Up."). Within the lyrics booklet, each song's alternative title or subtitle is the one that appears in the heading above its lyrics, instead of the main title. The alternative titles are rarely used otherwise, and even the band's setlists use the songs' main titles.
, the album artwork is in the style of a road map
, with words and phrases in place of buildings. Many of the phrases relate to the album itself or reference lyrics (for example, "Punchup", "We Can Wipe You Out", and "Are You Fresh?"). Although Radiohead are a British band, many of the words are Americanism
s or use American spellings
(such as "Color" and "Xing"). Graphic artist Stanley Donwood
created the artwork in collaboration with Tchock (a pseudonym
which Thom Yorke has used several times with regard to Radiohead's artwork). Donwood cited the landscape of Los Angeles, where most of the album was recorded, as the primary inspiration on the album cover which is, in fact, a painting called "Pacific Coast". Donwood said other "maps" in the art refer to the street plans of cities such as London, Grozny
, and Baghdad
.
As with Kid A and Amnesiac the album was also released in a "special edition" version. This version has exactly the same music but features slightly different cover art by Donwood and Tchock, and a large fold-out "map" or poster containing artwork similar to the cover. The poster was called a "roadmap", a reference by the band to the Bush Administration
's ill-fated 2003 plan for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. It also contains colour-coded poems and other writings. Hail to the Thief, like previous Radiohead albums, was also issued on 12" vinyl.
than any Radiohead album to date, but also continued to make use of electronic beats
and samples. Band members Thom Yorke
and Jonny Greenwood
, in addition to guitar and vocals, are both credited with playing "laptop" on the album, a reference to their sonic manipulations with software programs such as Cubase, Max/MSP (software developers Cycling '74
are thanked in the credits, a trend continued on subsequent albums), and Pro Tools
. In addition, Greenwood continued to employ the ondes Martenot
, an early electronic instrument he first used on Kid A and Amnesiac.
In interviews, Radiohead members described their attempts to record in a "live" style on Hail to the Thief, not so much to capture the sound of their live concerts, but to achieve more energy and spontaneity with fewer overdubs. They explained that the electronics heard in songs such as "Sit Down. Stand Up." were not added later, but mostly performed in the same room at the same time as the piano, guitar and vocal parts. "On tour in 2001 in America, I think we learned to swagger as a band," Ed O'Brien
said in an interview with Yahoo!. "We wanted to capture that on record. We also didn't want to spend too long in the studio." Yorke said, "The last two studio records [Kid A and Amnesiac] were a real headache. We had spent so much time looking at computers and grids, we were like, 'That's enough. We can't do that anymore.' This time, we used computers, but they had to actually be in the room with all the gear." An example of the album's musical blend can be found in its opener, "2 + 2 = 5
", which begins with a drum machine
rhythm and progresses to a loud rock climax.
Highlighting Radiohead's continuing assimilation of different musical styles, the album liner notes contain thanks from Jonny Greenwood to Jeanne Loriod
, a celebrated player of the ondes Martenot
who died shortly before the album came out. Greenwood, inspired by the music of French composer Olivier Messiaen
(husband of Jeanne Loriod's sister, Yvonne
), picked up the ondes during the Kid A period, and played it on Hail songs such as "Where I End and You Begin" and "We Suck Young Blood". Ed O'Brien mentioned The Rolling Stones
as an influence on Radiohead's attempts at greater spontaneity, while The Beatles
are cited in the songs "A Wolf at the Door" and "I Will". Neil Young
was one of Yorke's largest influences during the period, according to interviews, while Yorke said the Krautrock
band Can
had directly inspired "There There
", and Jonny Greenwood mentioned the influence of Siouxsie and the Banshees on its guitar sound.
Describing influences on his lyrics at the time, Yorke cited Dante
and Thomas Pynchon
, while "2 + 2 = 5" is an allusion to George Orwell
's Nineteen Eighty-Four
. Yorke described his songwriting process on Hail to the Thief as only unintentionally political, saying that he did not seek to make a statement but could not help being influenced by current events. Yorke said he had been listening to the radio frequently in late 2001, after the 11 September attacks
, the War on Terrorism
and the war in Afghanistan
, and noting down common phrases he heard, which went into his lyrics: "I was cutting these things out, and deliberately taking them out of context, so they're like wallpaper. Then, when I needed words for songs I'd be taking them out of this wallpaper, and they were out of any political context at all." Yorke said the song "Sail to the Moon" was written for his son Noah, born in 2001; the song ends with the lyrics, "maybe you'll be president, but know right from wrong / or in the flood you'll build an ark / and sail us to the moon." Yorke said having children increased his responsibility and commitment to speaking out against what he viewed as injustices that could affect the lives of future generations.
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. Allmusic, in a positive review, opined that "Radiohead have entered a second decade of record-making with a surplus of momentum." 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
opined that "you could never describe Hail to the Thief as a bad record", but that it was "neither startlingly different and fresh nor packed with the sort of anthem
ic 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. In 2010, Rolling Stone
ranked Hail to the Thief as the 89th best album of the decade 2000-2009.
, Thom Yorke said, "Of all the records we did, I'd maybe change the playlist. I think we had a meltdown when we put it together. 'There There' is amazing, and '2+2=5' is good, but as Nigel says, I wish I had another go at [Hail to the Thief]. We wanted to do things quickly, and I think the songs suffered. It was part of the experiment. Every record is part of the experiment." In 2008, Ed O'Brien told Mojo
, "We should have pruned it down to 10 songs, then it would have been a really good record. I think we lost people on a couple of tracks and it broke the spell of the record." In the same interview, Colin Greenwood said, "I didn't want three or four songs on there, because I thought some of the ideas we were trying out weren't completely finished [...] For me, Hail To The Thief was more of a holding process, really."
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
, released in June 2003 through Parlophone Records. After two Radiohead albums that featured heavily processed vocals, less guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, and strong influence from experimental electronica
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, Hail to the Thief was seen as a slight return to the band's older alternative rock influences, drawing its sound from every era of the band's existence. Recorded relatively quickly in Los Angeles, the album was described by band members as an attempt to find a more "swaggering" sound and a relaxed recording process, in contrast to their tense sessions for Kid A
Kid A
Kid A is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released in October 2000 by the Parlophone label. A commercial success worldwide, Kid A went platinum in its first week of release in the United Kingdom. Despite the lack of an official single or music video as publicity, Kid A...
and Amnesiac
Amnesiac
Amnesiac was generally well-received by critics. It was also ranked as one of the best albums of the year by several publications. The Village Voice Pazz and Jop poll ranked it number 6 on their top 10 albums of the year. Alternative Press declared it the #1 album of the year...
several years earlier.
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 minute range, shorter than the band's average. Thom Yorke
Thom Yorke
Thomas "Thom" Edward Yorke is an English musician who is the lead vocalist and principal songwriter for Radiohead. He mainly plays guitar and piano, but he has also played drums and bass guitar...
said he was inspired by Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
songs of that length. Yorke said his songwriting on the album had been much affected by current events, but he denied having a strictly political intent. It debuted at number one in the United Kingdom and at number three in the United States, where it sold a greater number of copies in its first week than any other Radiohead album to date. Hail to the Thief was strongly well received by critics, but band members have, in later years, expressed regrets about the album. It spawned three charting singles: "There There
There there
"There there." is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, featured on their album Hail to the Thief and released prior to the album as its first single. "There There" reached number four in the UK Singles Chart and number one in Canada...
" (a #1 hit in Canada, and #4 in the UK), "Go to Sleep
Go to Sleep
"Go to Sleep" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released as the second single from their sixth album Hail to the Thief in 2003. The song has an initial time signature of 4/4, which alternates with 6/8 time throughout the duration of the song. The alternate title for the song as listed...
" and "2 + 2 = 5
2 + 2 = 5 (song)
"2 + 2 = 5" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released as the third and final single from their sixth album Hail to the Thief in 2003. The song reached number 15 on the United Kingdom singles chart.-Lyrics and background:...
".
Album history
Hail to the Thief was recorded in late 2002. The band performed 12 of its 14 songs at concerts in July and August 2002, with only "Backdrifts" and "The Gloaming" absent from the sets. Several of the songs, like "I Will" and "Sit Down. Stand Up.", date from the 1990s; and the band originally worked on "A Wolf at the Door" during sessions for Kid A, according to an Internet studio diary kept by Ed O'BrienEd O'Brien
Edward John O'Brien is an English musician, songwriter and guitarist for the rock band Radiohead. He is also responsible for harmony vocals during live concerts and on many tracks from the band's albums...
. Some of the lyrics of "Myxomatosis" were taken from the chorus of the Amnesiac
Amnesiac
Amnesiac was generally well-received by critics. It was also ranked as one of the best albums of the year by several publications. The Village Voice Pazz and Jop poll ranked it number 6 on their top 10 albums of the year. Alternative Press declared it the #1 album of the year...
B-side "Cuttooth" and artwork by Yorke and Stanley Donwood
Stanley Donwood
Stanley Donwood is the pen name of English artist Dan Rickwood. Donwood is known for his close association with the British rock group Radiohead, having created all their album and poster art...
for the "High and Dry
High and Dry
"High and Dry" is a song by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, and was the first single released from their second album, The Bends . It was as a double A-side with album opener "Planet Telex"...
" single in 1995.
Most of the tracks were recorded in two weeks in a Los Angeles studio, the shortest studio sessions for Radiohead since Pablo Honey
Pablo Honey
Pablo Honey is the debut studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released in February 1993. The album was produced by Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie and was recorded at Chipping Norton Studio and Courtyard Studio, Oxfordshire from September to November 1992...
. Additional sessions, along with months of mixing work, were later done in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
. The album's quick recording process was a compromise so that band members could spend more time with their families (most members had children by this time) and also helped protect against the tension of previous recording sessions. In an interview with Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
, O'Brien said, "This is the first album where, at the end of making it, we haven't wanted to kill each other."
An unmastered version of the album was leaked
Internet leak
An Internet leak occurs when a party's confidential information is released to the public on the Internet. Various types of information and data can be, and have been, "leaked" to the Internet, the most common being personal information, computer software and source code, and artistic works such...
onto the Internet several months before it was officially released. Although producer Nigel Godrich
Nigel Godrich
Nigel Godrich, , is a recording engineer, record producer and musician. He is best known for his work with the English rock band Radiohead and is sometimes referred to as the "sixth member" of the band...
posted a message on the official Radiohead message board expressing disappointment over the leak because he felt the band's work was being heard in an incomplete form, Jonny Greenwood
Jonny Greenwood
Jonathan Richard Guy "Jonny" Greenwood is an English musician and composer, best known as a member of the English rock band Radiohead. Greenwood is a multi-instrumentalist, but serves mainly as lead guitarist and keyboard player. In addition to guitar and keyboard, he plays viola, harmonica,...
said: "Shame it's not a package with the artwork and all, but there you go. I feel bemused, though, not annoyed. I'm glad people like it, most of all. It's a little earlier than we'd expected, but there it is." Regardless of the leak, Hail to the Thief sold more copies in its first week than its predecessors, Kid A and Amnesiac, though its overall sales to date have not matched those of Kid A.
Album title and alternative titles
The title of the album is considered by some to be a reference to an anti-BushGeorge W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
chant (itself a play on "Hail to the Chief
Hail to the Chief
"Hail to the Chief" is a march primarily associated with the President of the United States. Its playing accompanies the appearance of the President at many public appearances. For major official occasions, the United States Marine Band and other military ensembles generally are the performers, so...
", a march
March (music)
A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's Götterdämmerung to the brisk military marches of John...
played to announce the arrival of the President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
) that was used by activists during the controversy surrounding the 2000 US presidential election
United States presidential election, 2000
The United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between Republican candidate George W. Bush, then-governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush , and Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Vice President....
. The band has emphasised the wider political context of the slogan, citing its use during the 1888 election
United States presidential election, 1888
The 1888 election for President of the United States saw Grover Cleveland of New York, the incumbent president and a Democrat, try to secure a second term against the Republican nominee Benjamin Harrison, a former U.S. Senator from Indiana...
. In the June 2003 issue of Spin Magazine
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
, Thom Yorke was quoted as saying "If the motivation for naming our album had been based solely on the [recent] U.S. election, I'd find that to be pretty shallow." The album's subtitle was also explained by Yorke: "[The Gloaming
Gloaming
Gloaming may refer to:* Gloaming, or twilight, the time after sunset and before dark* Gloaming , a famous Australian-bred racehorse who was owned, trained and based in New Zealand...
] is the imminent sense of moving into the Dark Ages again."
Each song on Hail to the Thief has an official alternative title or subtitle, which is listed in smaller print on the back of the album artwork. Some of the alternative titles are references to lyrics within the song, while others are phrases taken from elsewhere. The entire album has the alternative title The Gloaming, also the name of one of the songs. Yorke said he was considering calling the album itself The Gloaming, but was overruled by other band members for being too "prog rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
". The album title, the titles of songs on it, and the alternative titles are all listed with full stops after them (for example, Hail to the Thief., "There There." and "Sit Down. Stand Up."). Within the lyrics booklet, each song's alternative title or subtitle is the one that appears in the heading above its lyrics, instead of the main title. The alternative titles are rarely used otherwise, and even the band's setlists use the songs' main titles.
Artwork and special editions
An example of LettrismLettrism
Lettrism is a French avant-garde movement, established in Paris in the mid-1940s by Romanian immigrant Isidore Isou. In a body of work totaling hundreds of volumes, Isou and the Lettrists have applied their theories to all areas of art and culture, most notably in poetry, film, painting and...
, the album artwork is in the style of a road map
Map
A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes....
, with words and phrases in place of buildings. Many of the phrases relate to the album itself or reference lyrics (for example, "Punchup", "We Can Wipe You Out", and "Are You Fresh?"). Although Radiohead are a British band, many of the words are Americanism
Americanism
Americanism may refer to:* Americanization* A word or phrase considered typical of American English, English as spoken in the United States* An attitude or conviction which gives special importance to the nation, national interest, political system, or culture of the United States* Americanism ,...
s or use American spellings
American and British English spelling differences
One of the ways in which American English and British English differ is in spelling.-Historical origins:In the early 18th century, English spelling was not standardized. Differences became noticeable after the publishing of influential dictionaries...
(such as "Color" and "Xing"). Graphic artist Stanley Donwood
Stanley Donwood
Stanley Donwood is the pen name of English artist Dan Rickwood. Donwood is known for his close association with the British rock group Radiohead, having created all their album and poster art...
created the artwork in collaboration with Tchock (a pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
which Thom Yorke has used several times with regard to Radiohead's artwork). Donwood cited the landscape of Los Angeles, where most of the album was recorded, as the primary inspiration on the album cover which is, in fact, a painting called "Pacific Coast". Donwood said other "maps" in the art refer to the street plans of cities such as London, Grozny
Grozny
Grozny is the capital city of the Chechen Republic, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the preliminary results of the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 271,596; up from 210,720 recorded in the 2002 Census. but still only about two-thirds of 399,688 recorded in the 1989...
, and Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
.
As with Kid A and Amnesiac the album was also released in a "special edition" version. This version has exactly the same music but features slightly different cover art by Donwood and Tchock, and a large fold-out "map" or poster containing artwork similar to the cover. The poster was called a "roadmap", a reference by the band to the Bush Administration
George W. Bush administration
The presidency of George W. Bush began on January 20, 2001, when he was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States of America. The oldest son of former president George H. W. Bush, George W...
's ill-fated 2003 plan for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. It also contains colour-coded poems and other writings. Hail to the Thief, like previous Radiohead albums, was also issued on 12" vinyl.
Musical style
Hail to the Thief featured more conventional use of guitar than the band's previous two albums, and more pianoPiano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
than any Radiohead album to date, but also continued to make use of electronic beats
Beat (music)
The beat is the basic unit of time in music, the pulse of the mensural level . In popular use, the beat can refer to a variety of related concepts including: tempo, meter, rhythm and groove...
and samples. Band members Thom Yorke
Thom Yorke
Thomas "Thom" Edward Yorke is an English musician who is the lead vocalist and principal songwriter for Radiohead. He mainly plays guitar and piano, but he has also played drums and bass guitar...
and Jonny Greenwood
Jonny Greenwood
Jonathan Richard Guy "Jonny" Greenwood is an English musician and composer, best known as a member of the English rock band Radiohead. Greenwood is a multi-instrumentalist, but serves mainly as lead guitarist and keyboard player. In addition to guitar and keyboard, he plays viola, harmonica,...
, in addition to guitar and vocals, are both credited with playing "laptop" on the album, a reference to their sonic manipulations with software programs such as Cubase, Max/MSP (software developers Cycling '74
Cycling '74
Cycling '74 is a San Francisco-based software development company and music label, specializing in Interactive Media. The company is best known for their work with the digital signal processing software environment Max...
are thanked in the credits, a trend continued on subsequent albums), and Pro Tools
Pro Tools
Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation platform for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, developed and manufactured by Avid Technology. It is widely used by professionals throughout the audio industries for recording and editing in music production, film scoring, film, and television...
. In addition, Greenwood continued to employ the ondes Martenot
Ondes Martenot
The ondes Martenot , also known as the ondium Martenot, Martenot and ondes musicales, is an early electronic musical instrument invented in 1928 by Maurice Martenot. The original design was similar in sound to the theremin...
, an early electronic instrument he first used on Kid A and Amnesiac.
In interviews, Radiohead members described their attempts to record in a "live" style on Hail to the Thief, not so much to capture the sound of their live concerts, but to achieve more energy and spontaneity with fewer overdubs. They explained that the electronics heard in songs such as "Sit Down. Stand Up." were not added later, but mostly performed in the same room at the same time as the piano, guitar and vocal parts. "On tour in 2001 in America, I think we learned to swagger as a band," Ed O'Brien
Ed O'Brien
Edward John O'Brien is an English musician, songwriter and guitarist for the rock band Radiohead. He is also responsible for harmony vocals during live concerts and on many tracks from the band's albums...
said in an interview with Yahoo!. "We wanted to capture that on record. We also didn't want to spend too long in the studio." Yorke said, "The last two studio records [Kid A and Amnesiac] were a real headache. We had spent so much time looking at computers and grids, we were like, 'That's enough. We can't do that anymore.' This time, we used computers, but they had to actually be in the room with all the gear." An example of the album's musical blend can be found in its opener, "2 + 2 = 5
2 + 2 = 5 (song)
"2 + 2 = 5" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released as the third and final single from their sixth album Hail to the Thief in 2003. The song reached number 15 on the United Kingdom singles chart.-Lyrics and background:...
", which begins with a drum machine
Drum machine
A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
rhythm and progresses to a loud rock climax.
Highlighting Radiohead's continuing assimilation of different musical styles, the album liner notes contain thanks from Jonny Greenwood to Jeanne Loriod
Jeanne Loriod
Jeanne Loriod was a French musician, regarded as the world's leading exponent of the ondes Martenot.Born in Houilles, Yvelines, she was the younger sister of Yvonne Loriod, the pianist and second wife of Olivier Messiaen. She performed all of Messiaen's works for ondes Martenot, most notably the...
, a celebrated player of the ondes Martenot
Ondes Martenot
The ondes Martenot , also known as the ondium Martenot, Martenot and ondes musicales, is an early electronic musical instrument invented in 1928 by Maurice Martenot. The original design was similar in sound to the theremin...
who died shortly before the album came out. Greenwood, inspired by the music of French composer Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
(husband of Jeanne Loriod's sister, Yvonne
Yvonne Loriod
Yvonne Loriod was a French pianist, teacher, and composer, and the second wife of composer Olivier Messiaen. Her sister was the Ondes Martenot player Jeanne Loriod.-Life:...
), picked up the ondes during the Kid A period, and played it on Hail songs such as "Where I End and You Begin" and "We Suck Young Blood". Ed O'Brien mentioned The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
as an influence on Radiohead's attempts at greater spontaneity, while The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
are cited in the songs "A Wolf at the Door" and "I Will". Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
was one of Yorke's largest influences during the period, according to interviews, while Yorke said the Krautrock
Krautrock
Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental music scenes that appeared in Germany in the late 1960s and gained popularity throughout the 1970s, especially in Britain. The term is a result of the English-speaking world's reception of the music at the time and not a reference to any one...
band Can
Can (band)
Can was an experimental rock band formed in Cologne, West Germany in 1968. Later labeled as one of the first "krautrock" groups, they transcended mainstream influences and incorporated strong minimalist and world music elements into their often psychedelic music.Can constructed their music largely...
had directly inspired "There There
There there
"There there." is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, featured on their album Hail to the Thief and released prior to the album as its first single. "There There" reached number four in the UK Singles Chart and number one in Canada...
", and Jonny Greenwood mentioned the influence of Siouxsie and the Banshees on its guitar sound.
Describing influences on his lyrics at the time, Yorke cited Dante
Dante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
and Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...
, while "2 + 2 = 5" is an allusion to George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
's Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
. Yorke described his songwriting process on Hail to the Thief as only unintentionally political, saying that he did not seek to make a statement but could not help being influenced by current events. Yorke said he had been listening to the radio frequently in late 2001, after the 11 September attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
, the War on Terrorism
War on Terrorism
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
and the war in Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
, and noting down common phrases he heard, which went into his lyrics: "I was cutting these things out, and deliberately taking them out of context, so they're like wallpaper. Then, when I needed words for songs I'd be taking them out of this wallpaper, and they were out of any political context at all." Yorke said the song "Sail to the Moon" was written for his son Noah, born in 2001; the song ends with the lyrics, "maybe you'll be president, but know right from wrong / or in the flood you'll build an ark / and sail us to the moon." Yorke said having children increased his responsibility and commitment to speaking out against what he viewed as injustices that could affect the lives of future generations.
Reception
Hail to the Thief received universal acclaim from professional critics upon release, based on a MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
score of 85/100, or 85%. Neil McCormick, writing in The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, 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. Allmusic, in a positive review, opined that "Radiohead have entered a second decade of record-making with a surplus of momentum." It was the fifth straight Radiohead release to be nominated for a Grammy for Best Alternative Album
Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album
The Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums in the alternative rock genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...
. Unswayed, the NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
s James Oldham saw it as "a good rather than great record" and Alexis Petridis
Alexis Petridis
Alexis Petridis is a British journalist, head rock and pop critic for UK newspaper The Guardian, as well as a regular and contributor to the magazine GQ.Petridis began his career writing for Varsity whilst a student at the University of Cambridge...
of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
opined that "you could never describe Hail to the Thief as a bad record", but that it was "neither startlingly different and fresh nor packed with the sort of anthem
Anthem
The term anthem means either a specific form of Anglican church music , or more generally, a song of celebration, usually acting as a symbol for a distinct group of people, as in the term "national anthem" or "sports anthem".-Etymology:The word is derived from the Greek via Old English , a word...
ic songs that once made them the world's biggest band." In 2004, coproducer Nigel Godrich and engineer Darrell Thorp were honoured with Grammy Awards
Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
The Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical has been awarded since 1959. The award had several minor name changes:*In 1959 the award was known as Best Engineered Record - Non-Classical...
for their work on Hail to the Thief. In 2010, Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
ranked Hail to the Thief as the 89th best album of the decade 2000-2009.
Retrospective opinions of band members
Members of Radiohead have admitted regrets about the album in retrospect. In a 2006 interview with SpinSpin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
, Thom Yorke said, "Of all the records we did, I'd maybe change the playlist. I think we had a meltdown when we put it together. 'There There' is amazing, and '2+2=5' is good, but as Nigel says, I wish I had another go at [Hail to the Thief]. We wanted to do things quickly, and I think the songs suffered. It was part of the experiment. Every record is part of the experiment." In 2008, Ed O'Brien told Mojo
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
, "We should have pruned it down to 10 songs, then it would have been a really good record. I think we lost people on a couple of tracks and it broke the spell of the record." In the same interview, Colin Greenwood said, "I didn't want three or four songs on there, because I thought some of the ideas we were trying out weren't completely finished [...] For me, Hail To The Thief was more of a holding process, really."
Track listing
All songs written by Radiohead.- "2 + 2 = 52 + 2 = 5 (song)"2 + 2 = 5" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released as the third and final single from their sixth album Hail to the Thief in 2003. The song reached number 15 on the United Kingdom singles chart.-Lyrics and background:...
(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 SleepGo to Sleep"Go to Sleep" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released as the second single from their sixth album Hail to the Thief in 2003. The song has an initial time signature of 4/4, which alternates with 6/8 time throughout the duration of the song. The alternate title for the song as listed...
(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 ThereThere there"There there." is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, featured on their album Hail to the Thief and released prior to the album as its first single. "There There" reached number four in the UK Singles Chart and number one in Canada...
(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
Personnel
- Colin GreenwoodColin GreenwoodColin Charles Greenwood , is an English musician and composer, best known as the bassist of the rock band Radiohead. Apart from bass, Colin plays keyboards, synthesizers and works on sampling on the electronic side of Radiohead...
– bass guitar, double bass, keyboards, synthesizer, sampler, programming - Jonny GreenwoodJonny GreenwoodJonathan Richard Guy "Jonny" Greenwood is an English musician and composer, best known as a member of the English rock band Radiohead. Greenwood is a multi-instrumentalist, but serves mainly as lead guitarist and keyboard player. In addition to guitar and keyboard, he plays viola, harmonica,...
– guitar, keyboards, Ondes Martenot, piano, synthesizer, sampler, programming, toms, glockenspiel - Ed O'BrienEd O'BrienEdward John O'Brien is an English musician, songwriter and guitarist for the rock band Radiohead. He is also responsible for harmony vocals during live concerts and on many tracks from the band's albums...
– guitar, effects, toms, backing vocals, drums - Phil SelwayPhil SelwayPhilip James "Phil" "The Graf" Selway is an English musician and songwriter, best known as the drummer of English rock group Radiohead. He also drums and provides backing vocals, along with occasional guitar and lead vocals, for 7 Worlds Collide...
– drums, percussion, backing vocals - Thom YorkeThom YorkeThomas "Thom" Edward Yorke is an English musician who is the lead vocalist and principal songwriter for Radiohead. He mainly plays guitar and piano, but he has also played drums and bass guitar...
– vocals, guitar, piano, synthesizer, sampler, sequencer, laptop, bass guitar