Radiohead announce new ‘Hail to the Thief’ live album
Radiohead have confirmed plans to release a new live album, Hail to the Thief Live Recordings 2003 – 2009.
This is the first collection of live songs they have released since their live album I Might Be Wrong in 2001. The Oxfordshire band have also today released a video for the new record, featuring a live rendition of the song ‘There, There’ from Buenos Aires.
Upon revisiting the material, frontman Thom Yorke said he was taken aback by the quality of the recordings, saying, “I was shocked by the kind of energy behind the way we played. I barely recognised us, and it helped me find a way forward. We decided to get these live recordings mixed and released (it would have been insane to keep them for ourselves).”
In conjunction with the live album, Yorke has also been working on a stage production of the same album, which combined the music with Williams Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The catalyst for the live album came when Yorke revisited some of the earlier tracks to “help build the arrangements.”
Although the album is highly regarded among fans, Yorke did leave the record with a slightly sour taste upon its initial release, explaining, “Making this record was really good fun, but finishing it was a fucking nightmare. It was horrible. Everything was spontaneous, and mixing it, everything just went wrong.” However, the frontman eventually admitted that some album cuts like ‘Myxomatosis’ grew on him over time.
This continues the many different reimaginings that the band have made to their albums over the past few years. After releasing the special edition of 1997’s OK Computer, entitled OKNOTOK, the band have also overseen a re-evaluation of both Kid A and Amnesiac entitled Kid Amnesia, which includes both albums as well as odds and ends from that era of their career.
After witnessing the shows from Buenos Aires, London, Amsterdam, and Dublin, Yorke said that the process has felt “cathartic” for the band and helped them re-evaluate their relationship with the album over time. While the album is out now digitally, the band are also making a one-off pressing of the album, which is set to be released on October 31st.
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