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6 min read Longform (On Music)

2016

Radiohead | A Moon Shaped Pool (XL Recordings)

Death threw a rager in 2016--a HELL of a rager--and there ain't no party like a Grim Reaper party 'cause a Grim Reaper party is relentless.

The guest list was stacked (Bowie, Prince, Fisher, Reynolds, Michael, Wilder, Rickman, Ali, Gabor, Henderson, Castro, Glenn et. al). The Western World decided that you couldn't show up wearing democracy because, according to US and Brexit tastemakers, it's as dead as disco.  The property damage was off the chainwax (Oakland's warehouse fires, Aleppo, climate change crippling our entire planet…the list goes on) and there were no nerds allowed (Poor Jeb!; Poor Chip Kelly). Paul Ryan invited Vlad Putin and the MAGA Fraternity to David Duke Nukem/Pizzagate the hell out of Hillary Clinton (pronounced "BUT HER EMAILS!") and China (pronounced "Giii-na"), which typically falls under the "beer before liquor" cautionary rule, but who cares about universal healthcare at a time like this? Death sure doesn't. Oh, and 80,000 US citizens thought a living/breathing Aristocrats joke in the Oval (Benedict Donald/Ivanka *and* Steve Bannon/Nazis for the price of 4 years!) would be a good plot choice for the last season of "AMERICA!: The Series."  And after the Cubs made their Faustian bargain, the Westworld hullabaloo, and all the bullshit "Bernie would have won"-ing, the MAGA frat is about to continue the party like it's 1933 (Germany).

When I look back on 2016, when I look back on the suffering that's happening and foresee the suffering that's to come, I'm often left searching for purpose through an endless commercial void that's yet to sell me something meaningful, with Death at my door and in my mentions.  It's terrifying to think that modern life has ceased to provide comfort from the storm, and instead, provides a prison as we watch our heroes, our hopes, and our dreams for the future slowly fade away. The frailty of this world never seems in step with modernity, and in 2016, Death made sure we all got the reminder we so desperately needed.

It's in this state that I kept returning to Radiohead's A Moon Shaped Pool.

Maybe it's not trendy to put Radiohead as your #1 on these things anymore, but I think at a time where the world went nuts, when 2016 blew up in ridiculous fashion, Radiohead provided me with a reminder that decay can be beautiful if you let it--a sort of "journey is the destination" as its own reward.  Moon's 11-song track list is light on mirth and heavy on misery, but so is life, if you do the math.  So was 2016.  With their 6th (!) generation-defining work, Radiohead remind us all that nothing in life is free, so you might as well find bliss in the quiet intimacy of the cosmos before the inevitable heat death of our solar system.

There's a lot going on with Moon, from the strident and searing march of "Burn The Witch," to the gentle, looped piano and warped chimes of "Daydream." Everything feels immersive and orbital, the kind of full, sensory experience that you marvel at while waiting for a comet to crash into your space station--which is usually Thom Yorke's celestial (if sobering) voice.  While the album can feel orchestral at times, the band fuses analog and synthetic in ways that don't feel overworked.  The delicate, acoustic pluck of "Desert Island Disk" gives way to Floydian synths as the song drifts out towards the cold void of the unknown.  Equally impressive is the krautrock throb  of "Ful Stop." When Johnny Greenwood's arpeggios break through the insistent, digitized groove, it's like you're watching Dorothy walk into Oz for the first time.   It's like the whole world opens up.  The colors Duke, the colors.

Nothing feels off limits and everything feels effortless on Moon.  It's almost as if the band is just content to be here, now.  What a treasure in the eye of the storm.  What a helpful reminder--to remember we're all lucky to be alive and experience these wonderful moments together.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Radiohead album without existential dread lurking around every beautiful piano motif, and Moon captures some particularly heartbreaking moments. On "Glass Eyes," Yorke chronicles the suffocation of the modern world over twinkling piano and sighing strings, singing "Buy another ticket/Panic is coming on strong/So cold, from the inside out/No great job, no message coming in…"  He laments that the only high point in this grey world is his partner/friend/confidant, the "Glassy eyed light of day." Love doesn't necessarily conquer all on Moon, but Yorke is clear: Love is the only semblance of meaning we have in an otherwise meaningless existence, so cherish it. Things don't get brighter on the lush, "Rhapsody In Blue"-by-way-of-Hans Zimmer slow burner, "The Numbers."  Built from layers of tense acoustic guitar and jam band percussion, Yorke details the systemic fight against climate change and for a fragile future: "We call upon the people/People have this power/The numbers don't decide/Your system is a lie…"  It's a powerful moment.  In Yorke's eyes, an utter rejection of contemporary control measures and faith in human solidarity present the only path forward for our survival.  There's defiance in his silken call-to-arms, but the enormity of the task is as spectacular as the spirit he espouses.

Like I said above, Death knows the deep cuts.

When it's all said and done, I think  Radiohead did the most to sum up this year in Moon's closing song "True Love Waits."  Built from somber, ethereal piano, spiraling electronics, and Yorke's naked voice, the song captures a sense of longing in the most honest (and pragmatic) ways I've ever heard.  He sings "And true love waits/In haunted attics/And true love lives/On lollipops and crisps/Just don't leave/Don't leave…" Yorke returns to the love-as-foundational idea from "Glass Eyes," but rather than paint it as romantic or obsessive, he casts companionship as the essential element to weather the storm of life.  The world can be a terrible place, but as long as you're not alone, it can be enough.  It can inspire hope for something better.  I'd argue that "True Love Waits" is unsettling, not because it's Radiohead playing with our conceptions of love, but because, for once, we have an earnest portrayal of love as an antidote to the most terrifying thing imaginable: feeling like you don't matter in the face of the unknown.

I think we all matter in our own way.  And maybe it's corny to say Radiohead's A Moon Shaped Pool is a strong reminder of that fact.  Yet in the midst of the void, in the cataclysmic march towards Death (and it's eternal after party), perhaps the bravest thing to do was to write an album that that says "You Matter" in plain English.  If so, I have to remember to thank Radiohead for making 2016, and all 2016-like catastrophes to come, a bit more bearable by being there for me.

In addition to A Moon Shaped Pool, here are my other favorite releases from 2016:

  • The 1975 | I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It (Dirty Hit)
  • Against Me! | Shape Shift With Me (Total Treble Music)
  • Alcest | Kodama (Prophecy Productions)
  • Bon Iver | 22, A Million (Jagjaguwar)
  • Chance The Rapper | Coloring Book (N/A)
  • Childish Gambino | Awaken, My Love! (Glassnote)
  • Danny Brown | Atrocity Exhibition (Fool's Gold / Warp)
  • David Bowie | ★ (Columbia / Sony)
  • DIIV | Is The Is Are (Captured Tracks)
  • Every Time I Die | Low Teens (Epitaph)
  • Frank Ocean | Blonde (BoYs DoN't CrY)
  • Green Day | Revolution Radio (Reprise)
  • The Hotelier | Goodness (Tiny Engines)
  • James Blake | The Colour in Anything (Republic)
  • Jimmy Eat World | Integrity Blues (Exotic Location)
  • Joyce Manor | Cody (Epitaph)
  • Kanye West | The Life of Pablo (GOOD Music)
  • Kevin Devine | Instigator (Procrastinate! / Triple Crown)
  • Metallica | Hardwired...To Self-Destruct (Blackened Recordings)
  • Modern Baseball | Holy Ghost (Run For Cover)
  • Nails | You Will Never Be One of Us (Nuclear Blast)
  • Nothing | Tired Of Tomorrow (Relapse)
  • Radiohead | A Moon Shaped Pool (XL Recordings)
  • Run The Jewels | Run The Jewels 3 (Seeker Music)
  • Tegan & Sara | Love You to Death (Vapor)
  • Touché Amoré | Stage Four (Epitaph)
  • Weezer | Weezer (The White Album) (Crush)
  • The Weeknd | Starboy (Universal Republic)
  • White Lung | Paradise (Domino)
  • Zeal & Ardor | Devil is Fine (MVKA Records)

Originally published January 3, 2017 on Tumblr.