A Moon Shaped Pool (2016) - Album Review

Even considering what Radiohead has done before, this is a drastic change in sound from their previous albums. Even with the rock-leaning In Rainbows and almost-fully-electronic The King of Limbs, it manages to be completely different. It doesn’t feel like rock music, nor the electronic music they had done with Kid A and Amnesiac. It’s like it’s its own identity: I would consider the sound of A Moon Shaped Pool to be more ethereal, spacey, and serene.

The music itself is still melancholic, barring the opener Burn The Witch. But even in that track, you can hear the orchestral parts that will carry on through the rest of the album, with the staccato strings. It transitions into a melancholic piano with Daydreaming, an ethereal choir in Decks Dark, and something in Glass Eyes. I can’t describe that sound, but it’s amazing.

Some rock elements still come through, like the drumming in Identikit and Ful Stop, with the latter including some guitar arpeggios. But you also have Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief, which feels more in line with their electronic music, like in Kid A or Amnesiac. This album feels like a culmination of everything they have done so far, embracing their old style of music while ushering in something new that we didn’t see much of back then.

The combination of these tracks forms an album that wraps you and envelopes you with its sound, with how ethereal and spacey it can be. It simultaneously calms you, and makes you disturbed with some of the tracks: Burn The Witch with its staccato strings and lyrics about a paranoia-filled witch hunt being the easiest to point out, but the repeated line “truth will mess you up” with the droning in Ful Stop and the otherworldly choir in Decks Dark as Thom Yorke sings about an apparent end of the world. Fitting for a song describing what appears to be an alien invasion.

And the natural conclusion of those two emotions this album imparts to you is True Love Waits: primarily performed on piano with little to nothing but Thom’s vocals singing about a lost love. It’s no wonder many consider this to be the saddest, most depressing song Radiohead has ever made. A sense of calm through the piano is cut out by the hopelessness and heartbreak done through Thom’s vocals, which combine to make you calm, but depressed, like you can’t do anything about it. It’s time to let go.

Fitting for a conclusion, and considering that Radiohead, barring their OK Computer and Kid A + Amnesiac rerelases, haven’t made anything new since A Moon Shaped Pool, which came out in 2016, I would be sad, but also accepting of the fact that this could very well be Radiohead’s last album they give to us. I’m hoping that’s not the case, but it very well could be, considering how it’s designed.

This is my second favorite Radiohead album, behind OK Computer. I rate it a 9/10, and my favorite track on this album is Decks Dark.