Radiohead - In Rainbows

Has there been any artwork released with the download yet?

Will everyone stop fucking fooling themselves? This is typical Radiohead - ie: a load of boring old shit. Anyone who can compare this to Talk Talk is a really stupid cunt who needs to educate themselves on how to fucking listen asap.

Correct, this is much better.

Thanks King Boy Pato, i've now seen the error of my ways and am going to destroy all my Radiohead records as i'm clearly a stupid cunt for having them.

Melissa, please listen to the Ulver new track Funebre and compare it to Radiohead - Videotape - there are some similarities, both are slow paced piano tracks

myspace - Ulver
http://www.myspace.com/ulver1

I am really digging this album right now. Style is very much in the vein of HTTT but it's much much more cohesive. It's very successful at merging the two sides of their sound (rock/ambient, pop/avant, whatever you want to call it), rather than their last album which was kind of both and neither at the same time.

Just woke up, had the mail in my inbox and the download went like a charm in two, three minutes. *NICE.* Will listen to it once I'm in at work.

Apparently, people who order it now are getting a "you are in a queue" message.

So they DID have some load balancing mail system going on. Roz' "it cut off after 30 Mb" is the only complaint I've read about the download so far, really impressive.

Got it, listening to it, it is NOICE. Oddly upbeat for York & company- first track "15 Step" even has a repeated sample of what sounds like a crowd of children cheering.

And for the record, the 160kbps files sound fine, surprisingly so in fact. The only thing I'm annoyed about is a lack of embedded cover art in the file or a .jpg of it in the zip archive as I like to use Coverflow.

I'm printing one from www.rainbowpuke.com

Yeah, it actually is a crowd of children cheering. :D

x-post

I wrote these note on my semi-private site, but I may as well share with the group:

It seems rather appropriate that I hear In Rainbows for the first time in the early morning, after the rain. After "15 Step" and "Bodysnatchers," the record feels like the calm after a storm. It feels extremely light and airy -- lots of empty space, little to no strumming or heavy chords. The band are obsessed with arpeggiation, enough so that "arp" ends up part of the titles of two cuts. (I was kinda hoping that the Arp in "Faust Arp" would be a reference to Arp synthesizers, but no such luck.) It's funny, I think this album is a lot more accessible to people who listen to a lot of melancholy guitar music, but anyone who might call this easy or straightforward or wants to say that this is much of anything like pre-Kid A Radiohead has no idea what they are talking about.

I totally get why "Bangers N Mash" and "Down Is The New Up" were cut, though. They are both better than some of the songs that made the cut, but they would've radically altered the character of the album. This is a beautifully composed album, but I think a few of these songs wouldn't quite work outside of its context.

The band's discography continues to roughly mirror that of David Byrne/Talking Heads. If you count Amnesiac along with Kid A as the parallel to Remain In Light, Thom Yorke's The Eraser was his The Catherine Wheel, and In Rainbows is Radiohead's Little Creatures. I mean, it's not at all peppy, but in both cases it is a deliberate move towards simple yet very sophisticated songwriting.

I thought that Faust Arp would be a krautrockesque analogue synth wig out, how wrong i was...

comparing this to little creatures does not bode well for me, but i'm sure i'll like it anyway

ha! i was wondering where the kids were!

akm, I want to stress that I don't think it SOUNDS like Little Creatures, I just think it follows a rough parallel of the two bands' career arcs.

i'm getting the talk talk vibe on some of it too. nude especially.

Style is very much in the vein of HTTT but it's much much more cohesive. It's very successful at merging the two sides of their sound (rock/ambient, pop/avant, whatever you want to call it), rather than their last album which was kind of both and neither at the same time.

This pretty much hits it as far as my first impression goes. HTTT sounded kind of sloppy in that regard, a mish-mash of stuff that never cohesed (is that even a word?), but this one really works better as an album. All the tracks sit well next to each other, it has enough variation to address the various sounds the band has used over the years.

Other things: a lot of these tracks are surprisingly upbeat. Very little vocal processing, too. Like the Eraser, Thom's voice is pretty upfront and clear. Sometimes I like that, sometimes I don't.

This may have been covered upthread, but am I right in assuming this record won't chart?

Yes, doesn't meet chart criteria.

On Last FM, '15 Step', 48,632 plays. 'Weird Fish/Arpeggi', 104 plays. Are people abandoning it so quickly? Sounds like their most accessible work since OKC.

yea that BBC article was pretty dumb

sorry wrong thread maybe? it may have been on the other radiohead thread

billy are you serious?!

The guitar riff on "Bodysnatchers" sounds like Wire circa Read And Burn. Me likey.

Loving "House of Cards."

Billy, I suspect it's an issue with the tagging?

The sound feels really un-labored over. They've still got all their tricks, but it's almost all live drums and it feels like there aren't as many layers as on the last couple. It reminds me the most of Amnesiac, except with way less electronics?

lol @ Radiodread on "House of Cards"

billy are you serious?!

I presume you mean about Lastfm? Yes.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2363/1532701141_adeb06ae7d.jpg?v=0

Weird, tags comes up ok on my page overview (unterwasser, if anyone's interested).

10 song albums are the best

OTM mike a. House of Cards is a fucking tune. First time through I was suffering a bit of fatigue by that point, but on a second listen it really stood out. Also really really liking 15 Step and All I Need. The situation remains fluid though--may end up liking one of the others more.

someone do a poll!

I missed the kids cheering on the first track, where is it?

it's a bit too early for a poll, i think. this album has barely sunk in.

Blimey, Petridish has given it five stars http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/10/radioheads_in_rainbows_is_it_a.html

http://www.nme.com/news/radiohead/31706

The Kids aren't happy.

Very good indeed. Like it a lot. Must relisten.

The kids need to get a life.

Anyone who can compare this to Talk Talk is a really stupid cunt who needs to educate themselves on how to fucking listen asap.

The ironing is delicious. Because no one would ever accuse Talk Talk of being boring. Or old. Or shit.

(For the record, I like Talk Talk; but would never defend them on the grounds of not being boring)

Ned - you mean you haven't blogged it already? Fucking amateur.

i like that this album has ushered in the return of the release date. everyone excitedly listening at once instead of the scattered mess that leaks have made major releases in the past 6 years. it's great listening knowing everyone else is absorbing the album at once.

"Reckoner" is nice, "House of Cards" and the "Jigsaw" song VERY nice.

Didn't like Jigsaw.

i like that this album has ushered in the return of the release date. everyone excitedly listening at once instead of the scattered mess that leaks have made major releases in the past 6 years. it's great listening knowing everyone else is absorbing the album at once.

abso-fucking-lutely.
its this kind of mass excitement thats missing with album releases cos of the world of leaks.

has this leaked yet

yes.

The album ends really strongly, great second half. I'm listening again to get a better feeling for the beginning.

Gah! I want to be home so I can listen to this! I checked my e-mail before I left for work, but neither had come yet. They're both there now though.

Radiohead have never been particularly good at doing chilly.
-- Matt DC, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 10:47 (4 hours ago) Link

*cough* IDIOTEQUE

billy "15 step"s plays are all the live versions! whereas "arpeggi" has only been subtitled "weird fishes" for the studio version.

it is NOICE.

lolol

it's great listening knowing everyone else is absorbing the album at once.

Agreed. Being up late last night for the dl and following along with everyone as we absorb is the most fun I've had on ILM in ages.