Radiohead releases Hail to the Thief live

Radiohead revisits Hail to the Thief with a kinetic live set that sharpens the album's uneasy edge for today.

Radiohead Reframes Hail to the Thief Through Live Recordings 2003 2009

Radiohead releases Hail to the Thief Live Recordings 2003 2009, capturing most tracks from the band's 2003 studio record in a rapid two week write and record phase. The set presents a raw, immediate interpretation of the album and arrives amid ongoing political debate around the Israeli Palestinian conflict and the Iraq War. The band faced public questions after an Australian Thom Yorke solo show last year, when he walked off after a protester urged him to condemn the Israeli genocide of Gaza. Yorke later posted on social media that the situation was a humanitarian catastrophe, a message that sparked mixed reactions and highlighted the challenge of separating art from politics.

The live set invites a reexamination of protest music. It shows how a band can reflect a political moment without delivering a clear call to action, and it reminds us that art can endure as mood and momentum rather than a single slogan. The timing adds complexity: the work was written and performed before the Iraq invasion, yet its energy resonates with the era of widening global conflict. The press note that Yorke barely recognized the band on the live recordings underscores the immediacy at play and invites readers to hear this as a raw record of a moment rather than a polished statement. In short, the release captures ambition through instinct, not argument.

Highlights

The record endures as a snapshot of both a band and a time when art pressed against hard questions.