Radiohead
In Rainbows
4.2/5

Who It’s For: The disenchanted. The meek. The unworthy. The gloaming. Etc etc...
Sounds Like: Still those sparse arrangements, but like Radiohead have been listening to some James Brown or Isaac Hayes recently

After Hail To The Thief I would have preferred, to paraphrase Lewis Black, to listen to donkeys fucking. The lack of imagination, pseudo-intellectual barrel-scraping initiatives that Thom Yorke and co. had engaged in during those sessions made me ill - where were the squeals, squawks and psychosis that had made them, from The Bends to Amnesiac, the most compelling band on the planet?

And out of the blue we get an announcement that Radiohead’s new album is complete, and there’s that flutter of excitement, no doubt in part prompted by Yorke’s The Eraser solo album from last year which, shock horror, was actually pretty good.
So what is In Rainbows? An ugly journey through guitar-charged histrionics? Or bleak electro-paranoia? Slightly more importantly, is it actually any good?

No, no, and yes, in that order. In Rainbows feels a lot like mop-up sessions of songs Radiohead have had kicking around the cutting room floor for awhile. “Nude” is many moons old, whilst plenty of the ten songs on offer here were showcased nearly a year ago on tour. But maybe it’s the familiarity of the material that has given In Rainbows the space it needs for these songs to work. “Reckoner,” “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi,” and the simply brilliant “House Of Cards” are nailed to the board as if they were indie-soul classics pulled out for a Christmas special. For the first time in a long time the desire to break sonic ground has been transcended by the passion to write a song, a structure, a lyrical path that engages rather than has the listener scratching their head. The first time round the songs sound samey, the third time is when you’re hitting the repeat button on because those ten songs are getting to you. Some of it, shock horror again, is even hummable.

More immediate than The Eraser, infinitely superior to Hail To The Thief (some reckon it’s the album that should have followed OK Computer), In Rainbows is a record that will be remembered for its flawless closet-space production, its sumptuous songs, but also for being the first in Radiohead’s history would sound better in Lee’s than the Air Canada Centre. None of which is to be complained about.


Track Listing :

1. 15 Step
2. Bodysnatchers
3. Nude
4. Weird Fishes / Arpeggi
5. All I Need
6. Faust Arp
7. Reckoner
8 House Of Cards
9. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
10. Videotape

- Kid Lupin