hail to the thief
How completely cliched, a post about Radiohead, but I just have to note this somewhere. Hail to the Thief is their first record since The Bends where the second half of the album is just as strong – stronger even – than the first half. OK Computer, Kid A & Amnesiac all suffered from second-half syndrome, where after the first five tracks or so you had absorbed the “gist” of the record, and could pretty much just tune out all the nearly pointless frippery that would follow. This ain’t the case with the new one, where the record really just starts getting going around track 8.