Album Review: Radiohead, "In Rainbows"

Given the sycophantic nature of so many of Radiohead's fans, I'll be up front: while having listened to the band since my early teens (Pablo Honey being the second CD I ever bought), I thought they were just sort of going through the motions on Hail to the Thief. It's not that I thought they didn't try - I just thought the album fell flat. Radiohead hadn't lost their willingness to experiment, to try things; they just had reached the point where their experiments, their sound, wasn't as interesting. That's not to say Hail to the Thief was bad - some songs ("Where I End and You Begin", "There, There") were absolutely killer. I just thought the album had fallen flat. That was it. The Bends, OK Computer, and Kid A were remarkable artistic feats that couldn't be repeated, and I was OK with that. Radiohead had just arrived to the point where their music was good, interesting, but not captivating.

I was wrong.

In Rainbows is as beautiful, unique, and daring as anything Radiohead has done. That becomes clear from the first 3 seconds. Every Radiohead album in the last 10 years has laid out, manifesto-style, how it is different from its predecessors on the first track (see: "Airbag", "Everything in its Right Place", "Packt Like Sardines", and "2+2=5"). In Rainbows is no exception. Immediately, the sole driving drum beat of "15 Step" lets you know that things have changed, before Yorke's voice and the soft, enchanting guitars come in. It isn't a "return to rock" (the stupidest phrase of those who ignorantly complain about each album not being The Bends). Radiohead never eschewed their guitars, even on Kid A. But that isn't the point. What is great here is how they are using their guitars. Where on their earlier material, they were as interested in having accoustic and electric clash and smash into each other ("Just", "Paranoid Android"), now they are interested in creating lilting melodies of electric/accoustic interplay ("Reckoner," "Jigsaw Falling into Place") as well as driving, fast (by Radiohead standards) tunes ("Bodysnatchers") that don't just fit together perfectly; they make you nod your head and want to dance around. The songs don't rock in the traditional sense, but that doesn't matter - they make you want to move, and that's as new and exciting and daring as anything Radiohead has done before.

But they haven't ignored the beauty, either. "All I need" is driven by a calming piano line and atmospherics, with the song developing to a loud-yet-beautiful "trip-through-space" type tone, while Yorke's voice comes in and out. And the strings (which aren't totally new to Radiohead's recent work - just see "How to Completely Disappear") give that beauty a dimension their songs never had before, making the otherwise OK "Faust Arp" (the weakest song on the album, though by no means a throwaway) better than maybe it should have been, weaving in and out with the accoustic guitar; "House of Cards" perfectly joins atmospherics, strings, guitars, and Yorke's falsetto at the end to enter into realms of sonic tranquility and beauty Radiohead hasn't achieved before; yes, "Fake Plastic Trees" and "Pyramid Song" were also examples of this, but they displayed a fragility and fear that is totally absent here. Yorke has never sounded more sure of himself, and the music of the Greenwoods, O'Brien, and Selway back that up.

On top of this, Yorke's voice has never been more beautiful ("Reckoner" and album-closer "Videotape" being just two examples). As the sunny album-title indicates, there simply isn't as much bitterness and anger as there was on Hail to the Thief, nor the isolation and alienation of Kid A and Amnesiac. That's not to say Yorke has totally lost touch with his at-times paranoid disposition; while the first verse of "House of Cards" starts off with Yorke delicately declaring, "I don't want to be your friend, I just want to be your lover", the second starts, "Infrastructure will fall" - a great line that has some political doomsday tones to it even as he simply uses it to describe a love built like said house of cards.

And make no mistake - Radiohead's willingness to explore and experiment with their sound hasn't disappeared. While there may be no "Treefingers" here, they do something just as radical: they actually play with folk conventions, on the amazing "Jigsaw Falling Into Place". And elements of ambient-electronics still fade in and out of the songs; they just don't dominate it anymore. Indeed, In Rainbows smoothly and perfectly melds that electronic sound with their guitars in exactly the way Hail to the Thief didn't.

For those waiting for another OK Computer (or for the hipsters too cool to admit that OK Computer is their best album, another Bends): please stop. It won't happen, nor should it - those albums were great, but repetition would be disappointing, especially from a band that sticks to trying new things like Radiohead does. In Rainbows is as good as anything they've done, offering a blend of song styles they haven't had since Bends. It is not hard to see how their previous work has led up to this point, nor is it difficult to see how In Rainbows is different, and that's what makes it so great: it's both of their earlier work, and something new. And that puts it up there with their best work.

5.5/6 Square Glasses