3. RadioheadA Moon Shaped Pool
I struggled with choosing a Radiohead album. In Rainbows completely blew me away when it first came out and cut a path through my life at that time. Still, when I listen now I’m back then, revelling in its singularity. So when A Moon Shaped Pool emerged it had a lot to live up to for me. It did, however, what all great art does: rather than harking back to anything before, it broke new and unexpected ground. This is probably the most timeless record these guys have ever made. It digs ever deeper the more you listen and the strings are breathtaking. Standout tracks for me: ‘Desert Island Disk’, with its up-close acoustic guitar intro and intimate vocal; ‘Glass Eyes’ for Thom Yorke’s fearless, bare-bones expression of the human ache; and ‘The Numbers’ for its journey into ’70s modal psych-jazz in a way only they could do.
