Why is it so underrated?

It's a top 3 effort by the band and every single song on it is a banger; I really miss the aggressive energy they had on this album, everything since has been quiet weepy noodling. Is it because of the percevied Iraq-Bush connection? Because out of the 14 songs on the record only one comes remotely close to talking about this and even then it's a general statement about totalitarianism that remains relevant today. The discourse around this album blows these connections way out of proportion.

yeah amnesiac and httt both suffer from middle child syndrome, they're very underrated

I like There, There but Wolf and Punch Up, Myxomatosis are good 2.

Even the weepy noodling on this is the best they've done it. Sail to the Moon and Scatterbrain are so good. My newest favorite from this one is Where I End and You Begin, it has an awesome bassline. The album as a whole does a lot and it does it all extremely well

I think it has a lot to do with their reputation for being meticulous and perfectionist, which this album very proudly isn't. They literally hashed each of these songs out a day for 2 weeks just to see how it goes and yes, it did result in a more spontaneous, energetic soumd. That isn't what people think of when they think of Radiohead though, it doesn't "fit the narrative" when sat next to records like OK Computer, Kid A and In Rainbows.

dumb boomers saw the cover and saw what they wanted to see. it's literally a bunch of random words.

The drum throughline on There There hits so fucking hard

They literally hashed each of these songs out a day for 2 weeks just to see how it goes and yes, it did result in a more spontaneous, energetic soumd

I didn't know this, it explains a lot

It’s a good album but I think it’s true that there’s a lot of fat that could’ve been cut off. It’s a mix of great, good, and okay songs, whereas Kid A or OK Computer are only great songs. If they cut out the okay songs and some of the good songs, that’d leave an album of 8 or 10 great songs.

It's my favorite radiohead album. People hated it because it was stuck in the middle of Kid A and OK computer sound wise while those two types of fans were very diverged.

I like every song on HTTT. I think it's funny when people talk about WSYB because I have the opposite opinion of everyone - I love the dirgey part and think the break is kind of unnecessary. I think Punchup's the worst song but the bassline keeps it above water.

It's great but not as good as TKOL

I noticed recently that this and amnesiac are my most revisited

Knives Out and There There are two of their absolute best songs. Easily top 5 IMO.

it is a few reasons
the album is too long. there are just too many songs that aren't fully developed or fleshed out and worthy of being put on a radiohead album. thom later released a revised tracklist with some songs moved around and some cut. give this version a listen sometime. it's not perfect but it helps the flow of the album a bit.
another is that this record came together quickly and they weren't as precious about quality control as they previously had been.

Radiohead have criticised Hail to the Thief. In 2006, Yorke said: "I'd maybe change the playlist. I think we had a meltdown when we put it together ... We wanted to do things quickly, and I think the songs suffered."[95]

O'Brien said Radiohead should have cut the album to ten tracks and that its length had alienated some listeners; Colin Greenwood said several songs were unfinished and that the album was "a holding process".[96] Jonny agreed that it was too long, and said: "We were trying to do what people said we were good at ... But it was good for our heads. It was good for us to be doing a record that came out of playing live."[96]

Radiohead recorded most of Hail to the Thief in two weeks,[10] with additional recording and mixing at their studio in Oxfordshire, England, in late 2002 and early 2003.[3][20] The guitarist Ed O'Brien told Rolling Stone that Hail to the Thief was the first Radiohead album "where, at the end of making it, we haven't wanted to kill each other".[18]

In 2013, Godrich said: "I think there's some great moments on there – but too many songs ... As a whole I think it's charming because of the lack of editing. But personally it's probably my least favourite of all the albums ... It didn't really have its own direction. It was almost like a homogeny of previous work. Maybe that's its strength."[6]

they wanted to make an album emulating their live sound, without being so picky in editing. and the result was good but not as good as most of the rest of their work.

It's interesting that in the moment they knew it was unrefined but released it anyway. Maybe there was label pressure.

Weakest songs for me: Sit Down Stand Up, We Suck Young Blood, The Gloaming, Myxomatosis, I Will

Na, it's bloated and too many different ideas going on at once. It also has some of their worst songs up to that point (Backdrifts, We Suck Young Blood, I Will and Scatterbrain and The Gloaming. Even the album's best songs (2 + 2 = 5, Go to Sleep, There, There, Myxomatosis and A Wolf at the Door just aren't as impressive or long lasting as previous Radiohead songs like Paranoid Android, Let Down, How to Disappear Completely or Pyramid Song for example.
Myxomatosis and Sit Down Stand Up are great the others are def the worst songs though.

Myxomatosis

Good live. Not good on HTTT.

Sit Down Stand Up

Thom Yorke on his bullshit. If you asked AI to generate a Radiohead song it would sound like this.

Backdrifts

I like Backdrifts in retrospect. It's the first time Radiohead tried a dance-y groove thing.

There, There

There, There is an all-timer dude.

It’s a mix of great, good, and okay songs, whereas Kid A or OK Computer are only great songs

Pretty much this. I always felt HTTT had S, A, B, and D tier songs mixed together. Given that it's also a long album, they could've easily dropped the B and D tier songs and been left with an OKC level masterpiece

i like i will, i think of it as a sort of intermission song, it's not the best song but there's way worse on here. myxomatosis, everyone thinks is like an underrated gem but i've listened to it dozens of times and it just never clicked, i don't get it. and sit down stand up is an all timer, one of the highlights of this album.
the gloaming is by far the weakest song on the album for me, even among some of the other stinkers (go to sleep, we suck young blood, punchup at a wedding).
it's weird, that song is so clearly unfinished, but it's also a key song on this album; it's still included on the second tracklisting, and the album was even going to be called the gloaming before they switched it to HTTT. it's the most political song on the album. they clearly saw it as a focal point, standout song. and yet, it's so obviously unfinished.
the version on the album isn't even played live, they debuted a reworked, better version with prominent live bass basically as soon as the album released and when they play the song live, they play that.
youtube.com/watch?v=G5SZ44pGf9Y

I have always loved Backdrifts for painting such a vivid picture of oppressed people and I have never understood what people have against it. Scatterbrain is also great, that shit sounds like a breezy autumn day in spite of its cataclysmic lyrics.

Myxomatosis is more tone than tune to me. I would never put it out as a single but the synths, accenting guitars and lyrics all go in on this really anxious, delerious tilt. It's noisy and off-kilter in a way that stands out, and though it's quite a few years earlier I could see it being on something like The Flaming Lips' Embryonic. Definitely a top 5 track on the album IMO.

I just realized that the songs that I don't care for would work as a soundtrack. Sit Down Stand Up doesn't really have enough to sink my teeth into as a song, but it works great as a background texture for something else.

Backdrifts grew on me over the years. When it first came out it was one of my least favorites because I thought it was some silly electro pop but it is really catchy and has a unique sound for them
People have different ideas of what the weaker tracks are but it's usually not the ones people name for me. We suck Young Blood is fine because it's a creepy slightly unhinged sound that doesn't sound like other RH songs. I like unique stuff like that. Punch Up has a fine groove and could have been developed better but it's fine. Maybe just a bit long or repetitive. Needed a bit more experimentation like saxes or something

I like Sit down Stand Up for it's slow building crescendo into a weird climax at the end. Doesn't totally 100% work maybe but for being rushed it's pretty damn good

I will is weak but it's still really pretty

Maybe there isn't a bad song on the album. It's just varied and some songs are too similar and it's not as interesting as past albums

Wolf at the Door is great, one of the more distinct Radiohead songs in the entire line up. There is something classy about it and it's lines are very memorable. I do not consider it inferior Pyramid Song.

We Suck Young Blood might actually be the worst Radiohead song outside of Pablo Honey, but The Gloaming really isn't that bad. I've seen it mentioned several times in this thread as weak and I honestly can't fathom why this is.

Also I Will? Bad?

Both of the worst songs are just creepy and weird. The gloaming has some beautiful Thom vocals

Now that Anon Babble has moved on from Radiohead, we can agree that all of their albums are overrated, not underrated.

Gave this ordering a try. It was alright, it flowed better than I thought. I can't bring myself to love The Gloaming though. I know Thom wanted to name the album after it, but that song is just dreadful

short answer

it’s not OK Computer

longer answer

There’s no Creep/Karma Police level poppy stuff for the superficial crowd to latch onto.
There’s no mental breakdown-esque le weird musique in comparison to Kid A and it’s not as arguably weird as The King of Limbs so the le experimental crowd doesn’t latch onto it.
The only interesting rock track is Go to Sleep imo.
This album doesn’t please any of the obnoxious stereotypical RH fans, if anything they’re far more interested in the whole album leak and the mythical “LA versions” of the album. The fact that barely anyone remembers its B-sides should be enough proof of how neglected HTTT is.

Paperback writer is a banger that should be more well known

I must be a much more indiscriminate listener than most of Anon Babble because there's not a single song on this album that I dislike or skip during a listen

I thought it was like billboards.

People here - just like everyone else that has gone too far up their own ass - don't listen to music, they just sit there and judge it.

The most judgey people are usually the most full of shit

Scatterbrain is one of their best songs, and has a melody that always stuck with me. There, There is also great.

2 + 2 = 5, There There, and A Wolf at the Door are all in the upper tier of Radiohead songs for me. Not the absolute cream of the crop but songs that hold their own against some of the tracks on their more renowned albums.

this shit cant compete with In Rainbows, dont be silly

yes

In rainbows is weak. Such an overrated record. A few songs were leftovers that aren't even as good as the original (reckoner, and nude). Best songs are first 2 songs, Faust arp and weird fishes. The rest is generic or weak

I like Jigsaw :)