More Hail To The Thief Notes

* Is Thom Yorke chanting “it should be Reagan” on “The Gloaming”? If he isn’t, what the hell is he saying?

* I am genuinely puzzled by the inclusion of “I Will”. It’s such a dull neither-here-nor-there kind of song, and I can’t see what this song adds to the record. They rejected “Lift” and “Big Ideas” and “Big Boots” to revive this dud? Did they really feel that the album really needed one more lulling quiet song? I don’t get it. I’m blaming Ed O’Brien for this. I’m blaming all of the mediocre parts of this album on him. He’s been lobbying for this since 1997, after all.

Silence Is A Rhythm Too!

More MP3s for you:

“Bearings” – The “lost” Best Show skit! Tom takes a call from someone who thinks that they are a leaving a message on a co-worker’s answering machine.

James Brown “Cottage For Sale”

The Moving Sidewalks “I Want To Hold Your Hand”

The Slits “In The Beginning There Was Rhythm” – for Joe.

Can “Oh Yeah” – I wish that contemporary “jam bands” sounded more like this and less like Smooth Jazz Lite FM. I was listening to this late last night, and it never occured to me just how essential the keyboards are to this song. It’s the least obvious thing about the arrangement, particularly given the virtuoso performances by Michael Karoli and Jaki Liebezeit on guitar and drums, but just try to imagine the song without Irmin Schmidt’s drones. It’s that extra bit that puts the song over the top, I think.