Reviews

Radiohead

In Rainbows

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Review Date: 2007-10-25

While the music industry struggles against its own inbred tendencies to make the business of selling albums lucrative again, there is a band that has decided to avoid the entire process by releasing an album that is essentially “Pay What You Can.” Radiohead has avoided all of the traditional distribution alleys with their release In Rainbows. There is no label; Radiohead split with theirs after Hail To The Thief. There is no cover; unless you are willing to shell out 40 pounds for the limited edition, made to order, version that includes a vinyl version and a second CD with, presumably, re-mixes, b-sides, and apparently some enhanced multimedia content. You cannot buy this album through I-tunes, you cannot buy this album in a store, and you cannot buy this album if you don't have access to the internet. To buy In Rainbows, you click on www.inrainbows.com (or just simply go to Radiohead's site, www.radiohead.com, and it will re-direct you) and go through their on-line billing procedure, and it is literally pay what you can- you may select any value you want, keeping in mind that all prices are in pounds sterling, and that there is a transaction fee you will be asked to confirm, but is menial, and has nothing to do with Radiohead, themselves. Then you get a link to the download. The files are perfectly shareable, not copy-protected, and high-quality.

There are few of you that have not heard this already. The album came out worldwide on October 10th, to the delight of the fans that have waited almost 4 years for what Thom Yorke promised would finally be the music that Radiohead wanted to make. That statement, especially when taking into account what Radiohead has actually released in the last 15 years, is quite a mouthful.

Blah blah blah blah blah. The album, right? The album. We could spend the next 15 years detailing the history and mythology around this band and there would still be one fact:

No band, ever, sounds like Radiohead. No one does what they are doing. Not even themselves, from album to album.

And it is my humble, honest, sincere, jubilant, childish, naive, and bashful opinion that In Rainbows is the best thing that Radiohead has released in at least 10 years. It is a unified thought, it is engagingly beautiful and haunting, and it feels much, much, too short at 10 songs. It includes 2 songs(at least) that hardcore fans may recognize from as far back as Ok, Computer days(“Nude”-Previously entitled “Don't Get Any Big Ideas”) or Amnesiac(Reckoner). But recognize is used loosely here- neither tune sounds anything like the versions I've heard of them. They've both been slotted for release before but they've been held back for various reasons unknown to any of us, but some of us will remember when Kid A was coming out and they promised that it was going to be full of endless guitar solos before apparently the whole thing was scrapped and re-done by a manic-depressive Yorke and co.

This is a band that is never happy with what they've done, and it shows in the meticulous and obsessive methodology and production values on this, their first non-label release.

From the beginning, “15 Step” asserts that this album is going to avoid traditional song structures. With an almost drum n bass back beat, with goddamncatchy opening lines flowing into a major key(Major key??!) guitar line, where Thom changes the melody line dramatically, to the guitar modulates to the minor, and then the bass kicks in oh children and we're off and then the keys warm us up with a beautiful almost Boards of Canada feel, and then Thom brings back the original melody line, and we are saying to ourselves, “where is the chorus?” but then the song is over and we don't care because we didn't notice it was four minutes already.

“Nude” - I was treated to them playing it as an encore when I saw them in Molson Park when they toured Amnesiac, and as I said, it exists on the “Meeting People is Easy” documentary that follows them on tour for Ok, Computer. But here, it is different. The opening is an electronic symphony of Thom voices and strings over a simple little 6/8 shuffling beat. When the bass comes in we are almost bouncing while Thom sings the trademark line “Don't get any big ideas, they're not going to happen.” But it sounds almost happy. His voice is just soaring all over this song. And as the song repeats, and the sweeping guitars mimic the strings, we are overwhelmed by the layers and movement- and as the Thom harmonies come back and he sings “You'll go to hell for what your dirty mind is thinking” and he just drops the bottom out of us all, and the instrumentation... my friends, this is one of the most beautiful parts on the entire album, and I'm listening to it right now, and I'm still getting chills. It ends without recapitulation of the “chorus” but instead another building of voices and strings to lead us out and into “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi.”

The guitar work on this tune is beautiful, and it's everywhere and everyone is playing something beautiful and independent of the next, while the song takes us where it will. The interesting thing, for me, about this album is the guitar work. It's pretty technical, and mostly clean-at least it's still recognizably guitar- and yet we're listening to a pretty electronic album at the same time. Anyways, the four minute mark brings us a crazy modulation of the original theme, chaos ensues, but beautiful chaos, and the chorus of guitars becomes almost a cacophony before it stops us suddenly.

“All I Need” is going to be a lot of people's favorite song on this album. A straight up and minimal electronic grinder, almost reminiscent of “Climbing Up The Walls” but more focused. The Glockenspiel makes this song though, despite it being pretty straight up and good anyways. When the piano takes us out though, it's pretty special- the drums open up and we are once more treated to a sonic feast to end the tune.

Again though, there is no shortage of favorite tunes on this album, perhaps yours might be “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” which is once more a show of guitars and buildup. And we seldom have any idea of where we are going with any of this, but we really don't want to be anywhere else.

“Reckoner” is also nothing like it's original version, which was an out and out rocker with a chorus of “The Reckoner, fa fa fa” which I hear nowhere on this new one which is way more down key and exceptionally beautiful. Thom goes back to soaring here, and so do the strings. And again, with the songs all just constantly building to climaxes, this one is weird because it doesn't feel like it should end. Maybe ever. A beautiful tune, with a catchy beat and no choruses, no verses, only movement from one part to the next. Again, though the beat picks up and it feels like we're moving somewhere else again, and then the song fades out. My roommate thought this song was a minute and a half long the first time he heard it. It clocks at 4:50.

The album ends with a pretty little tune called Videotape that fills us up once more with piano and electronica before we are left, wanting more more and more. There is not a bad song on this album, even though I've left some out for the sake of length. Me, I'm gonna buy the extended release with all the cool little extras, because I need to. But this 10 song download is a beautiful piece of work, and everyone who has any interest at all in this band should pick it up. However, there are songs I will skip in order to hear other one's instead(even though the one's I skip are good too, just that I know others I love are coming up, however, that is the one fault of the album, perhaps- song sequence) so this one gets a

Score: 9.1

- Bobwell Gaines