Colin Greenwood on James Acaster's Perfect Sounds

James Acaster talks to Colin Greenwood about A Moon Shaped Pool five years after it came out, in a bonus episode of his podcast. Its premise is that 2016 was the greatest year for music ever made, a conviction Acaster arrived at by buying several hundred albums from it after a breakdown, and he is happy to admit he came to Radiohead late, having found the back catalogue too intimidating to start on.

It was recorded in Greenwood's living room during torrential rain, with a fly joining in, and both of them decide the noise suits the subject. A double bass had been delivered that morning, so the episode opens with Greenwood giving his interviewer a lesson.

On his own role he is modest. Drums, he says, are a world of pain to record because everything spills into everything else, whereas bass can simply be punched in, which he calls the easy duffer's route. His account of making the record is plain: he sat at the desk with Nigel Godrich, played, and if Godrich liked something they kept it.