Pitchfork give the Hail to the Thief live album 8.1

Pitchfork have given Hail to the Thief (Live Recordings 2003-2009) 8.1, short of Best New Music, two days after Radiohead put it out without warning. Molly Mary O'Brien's score sits below the 9.3 Chris Ott gave the studio album in June 2003.

The album has live versions of 12 of the 14 songs on Hail to the Thief, from shows in London, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires and Dublin, and O'Brien counts it as the band's second official live album, after I Might Be Wrong in 2001. Thom Yorke went back to these recordings while arranging the songs for the stage Hamlet Hail to the Thief, and was shocked, he said, by the energy in the playing.

For the most part, O'Brien says, the band keep to the studio arrangements. She finds “Myxomatosis”, one of Ott's high points in 2003, far more powerful live. “Go to Sleep” builds to a glitchy guitar freak-out from Jonny Greenwood,. She calls Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway a rhythm section made for dancing.

Her highlight is “There, There”, with the crowd yelling through the whole song, as it clapped along to “We Suck Young Blood” earlier on.