Four years after their last LP, 2003’s swiftly recorded ‘Hail to the Thief’ (a “shiny pop record”), Radiohead are back with ‘In Rainbows’. It’s a title most likely conceived to dupe those expecting the band’s trademark gloom mongering – a.k.a. their knack for investing those mundane, chaotic and desolate facets of modern life into oddly beautiful and comforting urban hymns (to coin a phrase). The truth is, this album often sounds escapist, and fantastical; gone are the veiled political commentaries on Bush’s stolen election and the war on Iraq, and gone is much of the urgent, paranoid neurosis that has defined Thom Yorke’s lyrics in the past.
I could linger on the circumstances in which this album emerged, but the media have already made much of Radiohead’s innovative “honesty box” approach – pay as much or as little as you like for the MP3s. A gimmick? Of course, but also a bold marketing move that only a band in Radiohead’s lofty position could make; not to mention a brave one destined to polarise opinions on the digital music revolution, and to force record companies to rethink their marketing strategies. Plus Radiohead WILL make their fortune, via touring without a label, and flogging a ?40 "discbox" containing a bonus CD of additional tracks debuted live last year. There are no worries on that front. So, on to the songs…
A few squelching, jittery electronic clicks give way to ’15 Step’s refreshingly funky rhythm, which satisfyingly replicates the addictive hooks and nuances that made this song a live favourite. Radiohead have never recorded a track like this before, with Jonny Greenwood’s guitar melodies emulating the sound of a live jam, picked out above some of Yorke’s most confident vocals. The track is punctuated several times by samples of childrens' voices exclaiming “Hey!” and “Yeah!”, and waves of vocal reverb rise and fall as the song nears its conclusion, evoking ‘Hail to the Thief’s subtle ballad ‘Scatterbrain’.
Lively and unconventional rocker, ‘Bodysnatchers’, improves upon all known live renditions. The lead guitar is crunchier, and the breakdown is a perfectly executed kink in the song’s natural momentum. The energy of the “old Radiohead’s” three-guitar-assault (which was so prominent on ‘The Bends’) is also finally restored, in ways that ‘Hail to the Thief’s ‘2+2=5’ fell frustratingly short of.
Many of these songs debuted live in skeletal form some time ago, with ‘Nude’ taking shape over ten years prior as a keyboard heavy, unconventional ballad, premiering on the band’s ‘Meeting People is Easy’ tour film. Its lyrics suggest a midlife crisis of sinful temptations, and this studio version is minimalist, soulful, and when the strings and harmonies work their magic – glorious. Radiohead have finally grown into their most mature song. ‘Weird Fishes/Arpeggi’ exceeds all (high) expectations already cemented by the live guitar version – an adaptation of Jonny Greenwood’s original orchestral score, with lyrics describing a lonely wanderer on the ocean’s floor. Yorke’s dreamy vocals delve the resident flora and fauna (including the "weird fishes" of the title), and themes of love and loss (“your eyes/they turn me”). The song seems reminiscent of ‘Amnesiac’s ‘Pyramid Song’, whose protagonist instead encountered “black-eyed angels”, and reached for the heavens rather than “the edge of the earth”. ‘All I Need’ is equally magnificent in its raucous climax, featuring a glockenspiel picking out delicate notes over a climbing, chaotic din of piano and distorted guitar. It is a love song of sorts, with a simplistic melody made complex by odd time signatures. The lyrics seem initially affectionate, but transpire to be as dark and dubious as R.E.M.’s ‘The One I Love’ – “I only stick with you because there are no others/You are all I need […] It’s all right/It’s wrong.” Further lyrics, likening the first person protagonist to an insect or a moth, are downright parasitical.
‘Faust Arp’ is Beatles-esque, with Yorke’s vocals recalling John Lennon in particular, and an acoustic riff reminiscent of ‘Blackbird’. The strings return, but here they sound a little like producer Nigel Godrich was shooting for “posh”, and dare I say that they seem unnecessary? ‘Reckoner’ is a grower, and interesting primarily for the fact that it sounds nothing like the fan favourite rarity of the same name. (I personally miss the dirty riff of the older track.) ‘House of Cards’ carries its original reverb-soaked, palm-muted chords reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Albatross’. Its lyrics suggest the pleas of a desperate man to his illegitimate lover, begging her to abandon the fragile charade that her marriage has become: the eponymous “house of cards”, in a typically tainted Radiohead love song. The track is fundamentally beautiful, although it would perhaps have benefited from a little less reverb on the vocals. ‘Jigsaw Falling Into Place’ is the song toured heavily last year as ‘Open Pick’, although presented here in busked-out acoustic form. Although the despondent riffs and cryptic lyrics relating nightclub shenanigans are intriguing, the “jigsaw” of the lyrics’ various meanings is actually, quite possibly, just a bunch of random gibberish. Not to mention, the lyrics in general possess a degree of indie posturing that Yorke just doesn’t wear all that well: “Just as the drinks arrive/just as you write my number down […] Just as you take my hand/just as you dance, dance, dance.”
For me, the biggest let down of the album is ‘Videotape’. When the band premiered the piano-lead ballad at the Hammersmith Apollo last year, they were very possibly playing it by the seat of their pants; but it sounded urgent, majestic, sad, and achingly beautiful. Here it sounds lifeless and flat. The drum lashes and guitar crunches are gone, replaced by some bizarre off-kilter drum loops (a lot of them). Yorke’s vocals sound half-arsed; even the piano tone lacks the grand, bass-heavy timbre that made the “From the Basement” web-cast sound so great. Consequently, the song is robbed of its climax. In an effort not to retread their steps (‘Fake Plastic Trees’, ‘How to Disappear Completely’ et al), Radiohead have sabotaged what could have been their most undeniable and immediate song – by robbing it of its ending.
Overall, ‘In Rainbows’ is as cohesive as ‘KID A’ or ‘OK Computer’, and boasts equally lavish production values as those albums, already placing it above ‘The Bends’, ‘Amnesiac’, and ‘Hail to the Thief’ in that regard. It does, however, significantly lack some of the highpoints it could have (or should have) had. ‘All I Need’, ’15 Step’, ‘Nude’ and ‘Bodysnatchers’ are all potential classics, but whether or not they will secure the legacy of this slightly brief, perhaps oddly realised album, remains to be seen. Undeniably a landmark experiment, but more relevantly a cohesive, lush sounding, flawed masterpiece.
-Ryan Daff
