Radiohead - In Rainbows
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Free Music Notes for In Rainbows
Free Music Review: Jigsaw falling into place
Hit: 5 Stars
I've never quite gotten the whole Radiohead hype. I always felt they were a solid band when then veered off into electro-land five years after everyone else did but that they had a sense of melody and arrangement that saved them from being trite.
But kudos to Radiohead for their 'pay what you please' arrangement with this album. I certainly wouldn't have paid any mind to the fact they had a new album out but if you could download for free, well why not! Surprise! RH have created an incredibly mature, progressive, and listenable album.
Most of what has made this a heavy-rotation disc (yes I bought the CD eventually) has to do with their keen sense of arrangement and production. From updated DNB sounds on the first track to taught rockers the band knows how to capture your attention, hold it, then change direction right before you get bored. There's plenty of ear candy thanks to their extensive synth collection and producer Nigel Godrich and I have to give credit - it doesn't get stale or gimmicky on repeated listens. But their well-honed sense of melody married to seemingly oblique vocal lines and lyrics is probbaly the clincher.
Vocalists get heaps (too much?) praise but in case of Yorke, he really gives a great band depth and dimension. I really love the tension between longing and alienation that permeates virtually every track. Even in the seductive "House of Cards" there is a sense of cherishing the relationship in all it's impermanent beauty. We feel like voyeurs, compelled to watch the drama from start to finish.
I went back and checked out other RH albums and in context this makes sense. Moving out of the electro-experimentation of KidA/Amnesiac to the more straight-ahead Hail to the Thief, this album pulls together the exploration of earlier works into a cohesive whole with nothing to prove, save creating another great albums.
Free Music Review: "Rainbow" is a worthy description
Hit: 5 Stars
Perhaps this album is not the monumental statement that was OK Computer, but it is a collection of songs that definitely rewards repeated listens. The songs seem simply constructed, but there is a complexity that unravels over time.
The sound effects and lush soundscapes are still there, but they are not the focus. Instead they provide the background for a band that seems more willing to get a little personal with the listener. "You're All I Need" features Thom admiring a woman, even though from a distance. "House Of Cards" is about an affair with a married woman. Quite a switch from the paranoid voice we are used to. You can hear a little of the anger we know Thom can generate in track 2, "Bodysnatchers", which also features a pulsing beat with grinding guitar chords. There are a lot of hard rock bands that are glad Radiohead doesnt do more songs like this, because this is a song that really exposes how weak many rock bands are.
Some have commented that the track, "Reckoner", is a bit on the dull side, but I happen to really admire this one. It has a lamenting melody that really seems to stick in my head. I havent really had a chance to really take apart the lyrics to this song yet, so Im not really sure what I am supposed to take from it. It sounds like in the chorus (if you can call it a chorus) he is singing "Dedicated to all human beings, because we seperate, like ripples on a blank shore." So perhaps this is a lament on our chosen loneliness. Im not postive, but I love the song.
The final track "Videotape" is well known by fans and sounds like it could have been on Thom's solo effort. It has quirky percussion effects over a piano and is a haunting close to a fine album. The lyrics seem to question what exactly our lives are going to be remembered for. Classic weird, but ingenious, Radiohead.
Free Music Review: Wonderous, Ethereal, and Beautiful
Hit: 5 Stars
I should preface this review by admitting that I was never (until now) a Radiohead fan, beyond hearing Creep on the radio, I had no interest.
I am 50 years old and Radiohead is just not my era, not my thing right?
Fortunately, even at my advanced age, I am still passionate about music, (I still play drums in a cover band) and have been, for years, looking for a band on radio or video not from "my era" that could give me goosebumps,(Green Day came close for me with "American Idiot") "In Rainbows" is that record.
The album was first brought to my attention by professional drummer Billy Ward, Billy has played with Joan Osborne, Robbie Robertson, and Yoko Ono live and in the studio, I was skeptical, and frankly, puzzled that Billy jumped on this record.(Now he says I have "swallowed the blue pill" because it is hard for me to contain my enthusiasm and stop nattering about Radiohead on Billy's site and in e mail.)
Many times, listening to todays bands, I felt certain that I would never find a connection to any band from this century, but that ended when I saw the Scotch Mist television broadcast on Current TV.
To me, the greatness and stark beauty of classic albums like "Dark Side Of The Moon, Abbey Road" and Chris Whitley's "Living With The Law" real masterpieces, is all over this album. The IT that makes a masterpiece consists of so many layers that it is impossible to pinpoint, but I really believe Radiohead have achieved this.
Radiohead are a band that deserve your time and attention, the songs, musicianship, production, are fluid like lava and shimmer like diamonds, these songs will soak into your DNA.
Free Music Review: Radiohead go back to earth, and it's a beautiful sight to behold...
Hit: 5 Stars
After three albums ("Kid A", "Amnesiac", "Hail to the Thief") of restless and extensive experimentation, Radiohead go back to their roots (or not) on the gorgeous and delightful "In Rainbows". It's probably Radiohead's most accessible album since "The Bends", but instead of being a retreat, the band still manages to come up with something new. Thom Yorke recently said that this could be labeled as the band's "classic album" and this seems like a good assertion. "In Rainbows" is at once Radiohead at its poppiest ("House of Cards" may be the band's "cutest" song) yet retaining their edge and sonic complexity (listen to the layers and reverberating bass in that very same song). The album shows a warmer, looser side of the band, the polar ice caps of "Kid A" have melted and the bitterness of "Hail to the Thief" has tempered and the result is a more approachable, personal experience. This time around they've let influences such as Soul, R&B and Funk (listen to the beats of "15 Step") permeate their work. There isn't a single less-than-stellar song, even the short-ish "Faust Arp" is a beautiful nod to The Beatles' "Blackbird", and the album contains some of the most achingly beautiful songs the band has ever concocted ("Nude" and "Reckoning" are simply stunning).
It's as if Radiohead realized that they don't need to keep proving they're the most innovative band in the world and they just focused on making some damn great music and in doing so, still coming up with something original and wonderful.
"In Rainbows" is a great album, and it stands strongly as one of Radiohead's best.
Free Music Review: Kid A with a heart!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
"In rainbows" is the seventh studio album from UK rockers Radiohead and much like Prince's "Planet earth", caused a storm more from the way it was released (practically free on the internet initially) than for its music. Musically, it's still their progressive distorted sound perfected on "Kid A", but where that release sounded rather robotic and aloof, this is a bit more organic and sensitive with more guitars; rather like "Kid A" with a heart.
At just 10 tracks, it cuts right to the chase, opening with the skittery, initially sparse "15 step" progressing into a guitar driven pseudo jazz sound. The upbeat "Bodysnatchers" features fuzzy guitars, while the haunting ballad "Nude" features Thom's delicate falsetto.
Raising the tempo again is the sunny, guitar drenched "Weird fishes/Arpeggi" (yes, the lyrics are still as vague as ever), followed by the brooding but catchy "All I need" which has what is closest to a regular song structure. "Faust arp" is a tender acoustic string filled ballad which goes back to being musically obtuse.
My favourite is "Reckoner" with gently rolling guitars, live sounding percussion, and Thom in ghostly falsetto mode. Brilliant! "House of cards" (with ghostly effects) reminds me a bit of REM, the upbeat "Jigsaw falling into place" made the UK top 30, and closing is the piano ballad "Videotape" (gentle percussion and harmonies creep in - it does remind me somewhat of Arcade Fire's "Neon bible").
While not topping either release, in my opinion anyway, "In rainbows" is up there with "Ok computer" and "Kid A".