A Moon Shaped Pool
A Moon Shaped Pool is the ninth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was released digitally on 8 May 2016, with a retail release on 17 June 2016 through XL Recordings. It was produced by Radiohead's longtime collaborator Nigel Godrich.
A Moon Shaped Pool
8 May 2016
September 2014–2016
- La Fabrique, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France
- RAK, London
- Radiohead studio, Oxfordshire
52:31
Radiohead recorded A Moon Shaped Pool in RAK Studios in London, their studio in Oxford, and the La Fabrique studio in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France. It features strings and choral vocals arranged by the guitarist Jonny Greenwood and performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra. Several songs, such as "True Love Waits" and "Burn the Witch", were written years earlier. The lyrics address climate change, groupthink and heartbreak. Many critics saw them as a response to the split of the singer, Thom Yorke, from his wife, Rachel Owen. Radiohead's longtime collaborator Stanley Donwood created the abstract cover by exposing his paintings to weather.
Radiohead promoted A Moon Shaped Pool with singles and videos for "Burn the Witch" and "Daydreaming", a viral campaign of postcards and social media posts, and a series of video vignettes. Radiohead toured in 2016, 2017 and 2018, with headline performances at festivals including Glastonbury and Coachella. The tour included a performance in Tel Aviv, which drew criticism from supporters of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, a campaign for an international cultural boycott of Israel.
A Moon Shaped Pool was named one of the best albums of the year and decade by many publications. It was the fifth Radiohead album nominated for the Mercury Prize, and was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Rock Song (for "Burn the Witch") at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards. It topped the charts in several countries, becoming Radiohead's sixth number one on the UK Album Charts, and was a bestseller on vinyl. It is certified gold in the UK, US, Australia, France and Italy, and platinum in Canada.
Background[edit]
Several songs on A Moon Shaped Pool were written years before the recording. Radiohead first performed "True Love Waits" in 1995, and attempted to record it several times, but could not settle on an arrangement. Over the years, it became one of their best-known unreleased songs.[1] Radiohead first worked on "Burn the Witch" in the sessions for Kid A (2000) and again in subsequent album sessions.[2] The songwriter, Thom Yorke, first performed "Present Tense" in a solo set at the UK Latitude Festival in 2009.[3][4]
During the tour for their eighth album, The King of Limbs (2011), Radiohead performed new material, including the future Moon Shaped Pool tracks "Identikit" and "Ful Stop".[3] On tour in 2012, they recorded two songs at the Third Man Records studio in Nashville, Tennessee, including a version of "Identikit",[5] but discarded the recordings as substandard.[6] After the tour ended that year, Radiohead entered hiatus and the members worked on side projects.[7]
Artwork[edit]
The artwork for A Moon Shaped Pool was created by Yorke with the longtime Radiohead collaborator Stanley Donwood.[54] Donwood worked in a barn with speakers connected to the La Fabrique studio where they recorded nearby, allowing their music to influence his art.[14] Wanting to move away from figurative art and create work that was more a product of chance, Donwood initially conceived a "painting Dalek" that would squirt paint at canvases, but this proved technically difficult. Instead, he experimented with weather, leaving canvases outdoors to allow the elements to affect the paint. Donwood continued the weathering process in Oxfordshire during the band's winter break, with "completely different results", before photographing the works and editing them in Photoshop with Yorke.[55]
Sales[edit]
A Moon Shaped Pool was Radiohead's sixth number one on the UK Albums Chart.[95] It also reached number one in Ireland, Norway and Switzerland, and the top ten in several other countries. It was certified gold in the UK on 24 June 2016 for sales of over 100,000 copies.[96] Following the retail release in June, A Moon Shaped Pool returned to the top of the UK chart with sales of 44,000. Of these, 39,000 were retail copies, including 10,500 vinyl, making it the week's bestselling vinyl record.[97] It was the UK's fourth-bestselling vinyl album of 2016, behind Blackstar by David Bowie, Back to Black by Amy Winehouse and the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack.[98] "Burn the Witch" was the year's 26th-bestselling UK vinyl single.[98]
In the US, A Moon Shaped Pool sold 181,000 copies in its first week, reaching number three on the Billboard 200, the week's highest debut.[99] It was Radiohead's best American sales week since the release of their 2003 album Hail to the Thief.[99] With the release of the special edition a few months later, A Moon Shaped Pool climbed to number 11 on the Billboard 200 and number one on the vinyl album chart, selling 21,000 vinyl copies in one week.[100][101] It was certified gold in the US on 9 November 2018, for sales of over 500,000 copies.[102] The bonus track "Ill Wind", added to streaming services in 2019, reached number eight on the Billboard Alternative Digital Songs chart[103] and number 24 on the Hot Rock Songs chart.[104]