Hail to the Thief

Hail to the Thief (subtitled The Gloaming) is the sixth studio album by English rock band Radiohead, released on 9 June 2003 in the United Kingdom and 10 June 2003, in the United States. It debuted at number one in the UK and at number three in the United States.

After two Radiohead albums that featured heavily processed vocals, less guitar, and strong influence from experimental electronica and jazz, Hail to the Thief was seen as a return to alternative rock, drawing its sound from every era of the band’s existence. Preceded by the single “There There”, the album reached number one on the UK charts, and met with modest but worldwide commercial success, selling 994,000 units in the United States.

Band members described the album as having a more “swaggering” sound and a relaxed recording process, in contrast to the tense Kid A/Amnesiac sessions. At nearly an hour in length, Hail to the Thief is the band’s longest album, although many of its songs are within the three- and even two-minute range, shorter than the band’s average. Thom Yorke said he was inspired by Beatles songs of that length which he thought felt much longer. This album has been released with the Copy Control protection system in some regions.

The album received universal acclaim from professional critics upon release, based on a Metacritic score of 85/100, or 85%. Neil McCormick, writing in The Daily Telegraph, called it “Radiohead firing on all cylinders, a major work by major artists at the height of their powers”, and the record performed typically well in magazines’ end-of-year lists, especially in the United States.