Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This wants to be your lover, 1 Jan 2009
I read a quote on "In Rainbows" that stated Radiohead had finally met expectations by reaching them. I can certainly echo this statement, and perhaps even stake the claim that this may well be Radiohead's best album. Certainly a huge claim, but "In Rainbows" is a wondrous album.
I will keep things short as many reviewers have picked apart and detailed individual songs and themes. So, most importantly for me, "In Rainbows" treads that impossibly difficult line of being mostly accessible yet surprisingly lasting. It simply does not tire. Months and months of sporadic listens and I still become totally involved and immersed, a feat that separates truly great albums from good ones. The overall sound of the album perfectly blends the sombre electronic tones of "Kid A" and "Amnesiac" with the guitar-driven rock of "Ok Computer" and "The Bends". It's satisfyingly experimental when need be, yet equally sparse and simplistic. It's cold and desolate at times, warm and genial at others. It is everything I can want from a Radiohead album. Beautiful, consistent, cutting-edge music.
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124 of 146 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Peerless (as usual), 19 Nov 2007
After a protracted stint out of the limelight, Radiohead have appeared, as if out of nowhere, with their seventh record In Rainbows.
Radiohead's last offering, Hail to the Thief, was, if anything, a slightly bloated record. Although it satiated the pro-guitar lobby, it felt too long and lacked the eccentricity and creativity of Kid A and Amnesiac. The comparatively short In Rainbows, while certainly not an exercise in regression, recalls the eerie, otherworldly atmosphere that so characterised those two triumphs of experimentation and abandonment. However, never has Radiohead's experimentation been so accessible, so tender and so achingly beautiful.
The album opens as expected. 15 Step could have been a track on Thom Yorke's recent Eraser project. It utilises Yorke's obvious appetite for creepy, disjointed, discombobulated electronica hinged by Johnny Greenwood's fretwork and Yorke's melodious sarcasm and wit. Yet amid the computerised confusion, In Rainbows radiates with longing, regret and a deep sadness. These are emotions not approached with much regularity by Radiohead.
Unlike The Bends or OK Computer, which openly portray a mood of coarse resignation, In Rainbows insinuates and implies through its sometime sardonic yet often tender lyrics and soothes and stirs through its shimmering and resonant melodies. This is Radiohead at their absolute finest. Nude (Big Ideas) is a perfect illustration of Radiohead as they are today. The song is about infidelity and is racked with guilt: 'So don't get any big ideas / They're not gonna happen / You'll go to hell for what your dirty mind is thinking'. Similarly, House of Cards touches on the same subject matter. Infidelity? This is Radiohead. Radiohead make songs (if one will allow me to criminally paraphrase) about escaping death, inadequacy, paranoia and corrupt governments. Not this time. Radiohead have approached their vulnerabilities and by facing inner frailties, they have managed to create frighteningly personal musical expositions.
Reckoner, perhaps the highlight amid an album of highlights, starts with cycles of simple guitar riffs over a soft tambourine rhythm. Soon the guitar pattern swells into a mellifluous melody that circles, butterfly-like, into a hypnotising and then rousing string-laden ascension. Contrast this with the opening eeriness of All I Need. Yorke mumbles: 'I'm an animal trapped in your hot car / I'm all the days that you choose to ignore' while a lazy marching baseline plods drunkenly along. The song deals with the desperate nature of infatuation, over-dependency and isolationism: 'I'm gonna stick with you / Because there are no others'. However, this saturnine mood soon transforms and escalates into a thickly layered release of jolting piano chords, crashing cymbals and the breathtaking, unnerving anguish of Yorke at his majestic pinnacle. This is a song truly intimidating in its beauty, and while many still feel Radiohead to be too challenging and too abstract it is always worth scratching away at that indurate surface.
Faust Arp is a clear nod to the genial qualities of Elliot Smith and is a clear reminder that Radiohead, the great innovators, are also open to influence without ever stepping into the murky territory of imitation or smugly satisfied rendition. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi exhibits a sincerity and longing that we have seldom witnessed before: 'In the deepest ocean / The bottom of the sea / Your eyes / They turn me'. Never before has Thom Yorke sung of such longing and blind love and affection. Johnny Greenwood's unusual use of special effects allows his riffs and melodies to shine as always as he creates an arcane underwater graveyard landscape in which Thom's nervous moanings fester.
Videotape, the album's climax, is so tender in its sentiment as to be almost unapproachable. The tape in question is a posthumous memento for children left behind. Yorke reflects this achingly sad sentiment with some of his innermost outpourings: 'This is my way of saying goodbye / Because I can't do it face to face'. The song fades out as chiming piano chords soften the overhanging electronic death march.
In Rainbows is flush with subtle melody, truncated crescendos and abrupt endings. It is the better for it and make no mistake, this is still Radiohead alright. There is gloominess and introspection. But this is a band that is getting on a bit in years now and perhaps finally, they are opening up and revealing their true colours.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Those who have scored this low, 1 April 2008
Music is undoubtedly a subjective and personal appreciation. There have always been and always will be, bands that people either love or hate. Even Radiohead will have their detractors but I honestly believe that if you are a true fan of music that continually evolves and progresses, then you must surely admire this band. I think "In Rainbows" is fantastic and it just keeps growing on me. The compositional skills and structuring of the songs for a band of Radiohead's long standing, demonstrate a remarkable level of freshness and inspiration. There are some low scores and absurdly negative comments in the review section and even some high scores where reviewers have indicated great music but suggested it is nothing new compared to the band's previous releases. I do not expect everyone to automatically love Radiohead but let's face it "In Rainbows" is a great achievement and in the years to come will be regarded as a classic.
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