Radiohead – “In Rainbows”There can’t be anyone alive today that hasn’t heard that Radiohead have released an album in 2007 … “In Rainbows” hit the headlines big time thanks to the unique way that the band initially released it via download only and asked those downloading to decide how much they were willing to pay. For the record, I paid £3.50 for my download !!! When you analyse what the band did, it was genius … traditionally a band will release early copies of their recordings to journalists etc to review in order to generate publicity.
In recent years however this has provided the opportunity for people to “leak” the recordings on the internet therefore negatively affecting sales on release. Radiohead appear to have cut out the middle man by generating the publicity in other ways and, by all accounts, generate significant revenue by officially leaking the recording … brilliant! Add to that the fact that “In Rainbows” has also been released in a collectors edition and will hit the shops as a traditional CD around the 1st of January 2008.
It appears though that the publicity of the release mechanism has overshadowed the content of “In Rainbows” … which is a great pity as this is a phenomenal album. Not since “OK Computer” have Radiohead released such an accomplished piece of work. This isn’t to say that the intervening years have been crap, nothing could be further from the truth , however “Kid A”, “Amnesiac” and “Hail to the Thief” have not been quite up to the standard that “OK Computer” set … nothing much since has mind you!
“In Rainbows” kicks off with “15 Steps” which is leads you to believe this may be another freaked out electronica show … but once the guitars kick in its 100% old school. “Bodysnatchers” is just brilliant and has that classic change of direction half way through that even hits you after dozens of listens.
“Nude” is the first of the beautiful tracks here … if your not chilled after listening to this then you need to cut down on the coffee (or equivalent!!). I’m sure the band have been listening to Mogwai’s “Black Spider”, the subtle guitar backing here has the same undertones.
“Weird Fishes / Arpeggi” is classic head Thom Yorke head shaking material, follwed by the down beat but haunting “All I Need”.
For me, “Faust Arp” is a tad weak but works well to set up the stunning classic that is “Reckoner”. Thom’s voice reaches Anthony & the Johnsons levels here and to great effect.
“House of Cards” slows things down a bit and then “Jigsaw Falling into Place” hits you as the stand out track on first listen … its has legs too, it won’t always be your stand out track but you’ll never tire of listening to it.
“Videotape” is a sedate closer but in context works just fine … and then you listen to it all over again!
Those with the second disc from the box set will also know just how good tracks like “Down is the New Up”, “Go Slowly”, “Up on the Ladder” and “4 Minute Warning” are and admittedly all in the same vein as the first and main disc. The problem child in this bonus set is “Bangers & Mash” which stands out in all the right ways.
“In Rainbows” deserves to be listened to time and again, each time you do your view of it changes … never in a bad way … this is classic stuff, I just hope the release hype dies down and the world wakes up to the fact be have a seminal album here.
Hail to the ‘head !!!
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