Radiohead - In Rainbows

it sounds like a trompe l'oeil of radiohead which is really pretty cool.

Radiohead - In Rainbows [Started by Melissa W, last updated 3 minutes ago] 420 new answers

Stoners, all of you.

Other thoughts:

- It's a really organic album, more so than any of the others. What's missing is the trademark Radiohead modernist sheen. Electronics are used sparingly (and when they are they sound like ancient instruments) and there are virtually no OK Computer style spacey effects pedals.

- Conversely the song it reminds me most of is In Limbo from Kid A. It also, strangely, reminds me of the Gravenhurst album from earlier this year, but I can't quite put my finger on why.

- It's more cohesive in sound than any of their records since Kid A. I take this as a sign that second disc will be full of really great stuff that just didn't fit - Amnesiac style. I expect screaming guitars and electronics in abundance.

- Thom Yorke isn't supposed to write lyrics like "I don't wanna be your friend, I just wanna be your lover" these days, is he?

- For all these reasons, it doesn't sound anywhere near as much like 'a Radiohead record' as people are claiming. Hail To The Thief felt like 'Radiohead doing what Radiohead do now' - this doesn't.

The amount of love / lack of backlash on this thread warms my soul.

Yeah, I can't wait to hear the bonus tracks now. I expect the 52 ilxors who shelled out to YSI!!

It does sound like a band who maybe don't want to spend as much time in the studio now, who just want to get it on tape and go home.

Anyone hear about them using a Serpent on this?

http://www.guitarshop.net/GuitarImagesESPCustomShop/glserpent1.jpg

?

listened to it one and a half times. there is something alarmingly proggy about it. songs often start in an interesting way but then go off to nowhere. considered deleting the mp3s. didn't yet. will give it another try tomorrow.

This record is tight, 10 songs--bish bash bosh. I also love the light touch they've shown in laying these songs down. It feels like delicate ensemble playing in lots of places, although it probably isn't.

Thom Yorke isn't supposed to write lyrics like "I don't wanna be your friend, I just wanna be your lover" these days, is he?

Like I mentioned earlier, when I heard that line I half-expected "I don't wanna vote for your President..." to follow.

One wonders how much success the band could have on the maintream radio if Thom started signing really lucid and quasi-romantic lyrics on one of their more ballad-like songs.

man, I hope this record is better than the live preview.

yeah that kind of bummed me out to, but i think it's way better.

and it better not be flowery

after listeing through it 5 times. this will definately being going down as one of my favorite (if not my favorite) radiohead albums.

everything about it is great

its also a big "wake the fuck up" the the recording industry

one thing no one has really talked about though.....this is probably really hurting local music stores.

Seriously - have they done something to these MP3s so they sound completely different each time I play them?

One thing I must say is that none of these are songs you could sing in a traditional way. Not like anything off the Bends, or OK Computer or even "Optimistic" or "Scatterbrain" or "You And Whose Army". That doesn't mean it's not enjoyable, it's just a lot more organic and less hooky. Songs flow, they don't stay rigidly to a structure.

They nicked the "kids cheering" idea from Boards of Canada's "Orange Romeda" I reckon.

It's definitely not as scarey and cold as the last three records. Whoever said it's their warmest one yet is absolutely correct. It's nice seeing pictures of Radiohead having a giggle on their website too.

xpost-Plus, the bass line from All I Need is 100% BoC.

http://img.waffleimages.com/d6e005c8e222393e5c67291d290d358e7baa740a/inrainbowscoversx3.jpg

It's definitely not as scarey and cold as the last three records.

Here's where I say that one of the biggest and most ridiculous myths around Radiohead is the perception that they haven't always been 'warm' -- because they have. VERY much so.

Amnesiac is pretty cold in a lot of places.

Ok. Predict the Pitchfork score.
-- Mister Craig, Wednesday, October 10, 2007 6:56 AM (14 hours ago) Bookmark Link

9.5

Thom Yorke isn't supposed to write lyrics like "I don't wanna be your friend, I just wanna be your lover" these days, is he?

My feelings exactly whilst listenign to the album on the bus and car ride home. I've listened to the thing three times; am most struck now by "Faust Arp" and "Jigsaw...," both of whose titles are the only nods towarsd their penchant for preciousness.

Thoom's been listening to Sarah Records again.

I always characterized Kid A, among other things, as being pretty 'warm.'

OK, time to actually DL this album, as I'm obviously the last person on earth who hasn't.

I was pretty startled to hear Thom at his most twinkly say "Wakey, wakey!" at the beginning of "Faust Arp."

"15 Step" = best use of "Etcetera, etcetera" in a lyric since "Sweet and Tender Hooligan" (perhaps).

HTTT > In Rainbows

sorry guys

I think so as well TBH. In Rainbows is more consistent but if you chopped HTTT down to its ten best tracks it'd be pretty unstoppable.

exactly!

a 10-track "best of" HTTT would put In Rainbows to shame

What would you remove? (I'd be perfectly fine without "Go to Sleep," honestly.)

I'd get rid of "We Suck Young Blood," "Where I End and You Begin," "Myxomatosis," and "Scatterbrain," methinks. I love "Go To Sleep."

sail to the moon
where i end & you begin
i will
we suck young blood (kinda cool but i never listen to it)

xpost

Go to Sleep is great

HTTT, at it could have been:

1. 2 + 2 = 5
2. Sit Down, Stand Up
3. Backdrifts
4. Go to Sleep
5. Where I End and You Begin
6. The Gloaming
7. There There
8. A Punchup at a Wedding
9. Myxomatosis
10. A Wolf at the Door

(Removed: Sail to the Moon, We Suck Young Blood, I Will, Scatterbrain)

Come on guys, tell me that's not a better album than In Rainbows.

I just think it's a different album, not better. And I like the difference.

(Keeping "Go to Sleep" and ditching "We Suck Young Blood" = madness, but anyway.)

"There There" = Radiohead's best song. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

sail to the moon
where i end & you begin
i will
we suck young blood (kinda cool but i never listen to it)
-- Jordan, Wednesday, October 10, 2007 9:56 PM (31 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

I almost completely agreed with this! and didn't even look at your post when creating my 10-track version, believe it or not. I do think Where I End... is quality, and I'd remove Scatterbrain instead -- get rid of the sappy/cute/emo Radiohead tracks (Sail to the Moon, I Will, Scatterbrain) and the failed experimental track (We Suck Young Blood) and it's a great fucking album.

Ned, I think Go to Sleep works as the obligatory "pop" track from the album, esp. sitting inside that depressing Backdrifts-WhereIEnd-Gloaming sequence. Varies the pace a bit.

There's probably another thread for this - this one's going to be long enough without us compiling fantasy tracklistings for an album that came out four years ago.

My opinion my change, In Rainbows is less bombastic, far more subtle than any other Radiohead album. HTTT was pretty blunt in the way it approached you.

(Still, anyone removing I Will = mentalism. But that might be because it still sends shivers down my spine thinking about Thom playing it solo, at the start of the Earl's Court encore, in the week Bush was in London).

Go to Sleep is a groove, We Suck Young Blood has cool claps but it just makes me want to listen to "Freedom", and the out-of-nowhere heavy part is kinda silly.

Anyway I love HTTT and I think it's probably going to stick with me more, but In Rainbows is new!

xpost

who cares which is better

^^

Wow, on the fifth listen to "15 Step" today, I heard the kids cheering for the first time; my own kids have been making so much noise around the house today that I mistook the sound on the record for my kids each time so far.

I think many of us have our own versions of HTTT that would make it a much stronger, shorter, and altogether more consistent album. I've been meaning to cut it down and make another copy since 2003. But as was said, let's leave it to another thread.

I know I like IR, as I like just about all Radiohead minus PH. But I can't help but wish that they really went "out there", and maybe did more of the Mingus-Eno-free jazz-New Orleans funeral-mixed with Warp-stuff of Kid A/Amnesiac. It seems like a stupid criticism, because what they did was just give us a really strong "solid Radiohead album" but something inside me wishes that they gave us an album that we really had to sit with, and take a long time to get into it and see what they're doing. Oh well, I guess Radiohead has never been the place to go to for the really weird challenging stuff, even if they've flirted with experimentation with much success before. I guess I'll just be the stereotype that wishes they'd do more Kid A/Amnesiac stuff. But this one will maybe grow on me a lot more.

Also, I'm glad someone posted this, as I thought the same thing (or at least I think it's the same, as I don't have my tracklist handy and
I don't yet know the song number):

Plus, the bass line from All I Need is 100% BoC

Another thing: anyone remember that Sasha Frere-Jones New Yorker article he did on Radiohead a while back? I happened to just read it recently, and hearing the new album made me think about some of his comments. One thing he mentioned (I think he did, at least, if my memory's right) is that Yorke's voice works best when it's used as just another instrument in the band, and I think that's true. I find his lyrics a little silly sometimes (and this is coming from someone who normally doesn't care much about lyrics), and I think the crystal clear production of his vocals on IR (as well as the Eraser) kind of reveal the not-so-great lyrics, to some detriment. Which is another reason I like Kid A/Amnesiac so much, the vocal processing 1.) sounds really fuckin cool and 2.) obscures Yorke's silly lyrics and 3.) really does the effect SFJ was talking about in terms of making Yorke's voice another instrument in the band rather than the upfront focus.

people seem to remember Kid A and Amnesiac as being a lot weirder than they really are...i hadn't listened to Kid A in years and i did recently and was struck by how much of a regular record it sounded like to me...a good one, but not this crazed ass noisey clatter i'd built it up to be in my head.

people seem to remember Kid A and Amnesiac as being a lot weirder than they really are

i'm probably guilty of this, especially since I first heard it in high school and, apart from some Aphex Twin, hadn't really heard any of the weirder influences that Radiohead took from in making those two records.

also, someone upthread said how proggy IR seems at times, I def. agree on that one. though I don't think it's a bad thing at all. it's pretty cool how a lot of these songs start in one place and totally change course and wind up in this atmospheric gloop.

i think his lyrics are top notch

i'm kinda glad i didn't pay for this. 'warm' Radiohead isn't doing it for me.

people seem to remember Kid A and Amnesiac as being a lot weirder than they really are

in relation to what they were doing prior, they're still pretty damn weird.