**** Have you been waiting for Radiohead to quit being so goddamn weird and rock out with the unbridled fury of their younger years? Well...you'd better grab a Snickers and get comfy. Hail to the Thief isn't the return to gritty guitar-rock basics you hoped for, but it's pretyy great nonetheless, as the brooding Brits work their experimentation al jones into songs that brood, stomp, and soar--often all at the same time. The occasional guitar does popup, crashing into a symphony of fierce riffs and slamming drumbeats on "2+2=5", dancing aroung a quiet piano refrain on "Sail to the Moon", and strumming through the spacey, buzzing rocker "Go to Sleep." The effect is a large wash of sound that includes skittering electronic beats, a smattering of etherereal keyboards, and, of course, Thom Yorke's ghostly, tortured wails. The sense of oppressive dread that made 1997's OK Computer so throttling also returns here in spades. As Yorke and mates fret about the current state of the world, their gloom is clearly our boon.--David Peisner. 4 out of 5. © Maxim USA 2003