New Music – A Pool Shaped like Desire

Radiohead, the ever-changing, ever-adapting United Kingdom Rock band strikes back after a five-year hiatus from King of Limbs. A Moon Shaped Pool shows a more mellow but still impactful sounding Radiohead and as time progressed, their shifting sound only continues to astound and amazing with each release.

A Moon Shaped Pool has a startling beginning with the first track “Burn The Witch,” this track was also released as a single and it sets a fast paced environment of violins, quick guitar strums, and an electronic hi-hat tap that coincides so well with Yorke’s voice. The track also has these synthesizer chords that have this feeling of being watched, or being superstitious. I loved “Burn The Witch” simply because of how different it feels from the rest of the album, A Moon Shaped Pool is primarily a slowed down, graceful waltz that relies primarily on acoustic instrumentation and piano work.

The second track “Daydreaming” has such a crawling, but beautiful beginning as it starts with piano work then eventually moving into some synth leads and Yorke delivering some sleepy sounding vocals. This was released with “Burn The Witch” in a music video series and while the video is interesting to watch as it compliments the song, the actual track itself feels so daunting at the end as the growls take over the soft piano which then leads into the next track, “Decks Dark.”

“Decks Dark” feels spacious with the keys of a piano echoing over a soft-noise synth, which then leads to some great background vocalization from The London Contemporary Orchestra. There is also a pretty low tuned bass part that hums behind the voices and guitar that creates a great rhythm section along with the drums.

A Moon Shaped Pool feels like such a step in the right direction as every element of the album feels like it has weight and is a drastic puzzle piece to A Moon Shaped Pool. The instrumentation feels so tight, not stiff, but tight in every instrument is mixed and produced so well and the overall tone of the album while dreary and spacious, still has moments that shine.

This is the perfect album to relax to, and it demands to be heard with headphones from all the subtle but important elements. A Moon Shaped Pool also while being primarily acoustic, still has songs like “Ful Stop” that sounds like it belongs in a John Carpenter movie. The bass line along with the drawn out horns create this creeping feeling that could most definitely fit any horror movie. The suspenseful and slowly rising instrumental that A Moon Shaped Pool creates keeps every album feeling like a totally different experience and I feel that the spacious theme of this goes along with the Moon or body of water that the
title suggests.

Space is A Moon Shaped Pool’s biggest ally as it relies on the reverb and space to illustrate a slow moving journey through the world’s biggest area. I just fell in love with the way Radiohead changed up their sound to go for a more halting approach and the experimentation adds something new to A Moon Shaped Pool, it makes listening to it an experience and a journey, something more than just music.