Radiohead - In Rainbows

i had never seen a shooting star before

Also of interest?...
One of the guys from Portishead speaks about In Rainbows, and its effects on the industry:

"so then.......music for free is it? well fuking great. so if you get our album for nothing or very little , does that mean i can get my boiler fixed for free... --------i could tell the plumber that its all for the love of sharing and its to combat the evil money grabbing corperation that is zanussi. ...............im sure he will understand. also im not having a pop at radiohead they are fuking good and clever with it. anyways im sure it will all become clear at some point"

Couldn't you also argue the opposite? Why should Bono get a million dollars for singing some shitty song and a plumber get much less for hammering away all day long?

Why would a plumber be hammering? Welding, more like.

I'm still not sure where the hell "free jazz" comes in on Kid A or Amnesiac.

lol xpost

HAY GUYS LOOK AT THIS AUCTION

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http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=307&item=230180543839

They've never done anything as pretty effeminate as 'Nude'.

-- the next grozart, Friday, October 12, 2007 1:15 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Link

In Rainbows - is rated number 3 album on rateyourmusic.com for 2007 albums
-- djmartian, Thursday, October 11, 2007 10:14 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

Well to be fair, In Rainbows at #3 on RYM'07 isn't too crazy.
The rest of the top ten, however...

1 Neil Young - Live at Massey Hall 1971
2 CMX - Talvikuningas
3 Radiohead - In Rainbows
4 Between the Buried and Me - Colors
5 Pearl Jam - Live at the Gorge 05/06
6 Wolves in the Throne Room - Two Hunters
7 Ulver - Shadows of the Sun
8 Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet
9 Reverend Bizarre - III: So Long Suckers
10 Moonsorrow - Viides Luku - Hävitetty

WAU

Yeah, "House of cards" is like "Going back" I have to say, but it's still the most catchy tune on there.

Here's what I think of the songs, though. Honestly.

------

Brilliant: 15 Step, All I Need, Reckoner

Enjoyable: Bodysnatchers, Jigsaw Falling Into Place

Boring: Nude, House of Cards, Videotape

Utter crap: Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, Faust Arp

SOMEONE TELL ME JUST WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ILM
-- cutty, Thursday, October 11, 2007 9:24 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

9/11
-- Matt DC, Thursday, October 11, 2007 9:32 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

actual lols

downloading right now...

Best - Reckoner; Worst - Weird Fishes/Arpeggi.

^^^ Yeah.

Bummer, I loved the version of Arpeggi from 2 years ago.

xpost otm

Best - Reckoner; Worst - Weird Fishes/Arpeggi.

-- nate woolls, Friday, October 12, 2007 8:53 AM

^^^

mad rongs

pssh!

what is rite, then?

Don't get me wrong, no doubt they'll grow on me soon and my whole perception of the album will change. Bad songs will become good, good songs will dull slightly, etc. Always the way with Radiohead albums somehow. I hated Let Down and loved Electioneering when I first heard OK Computer.

Ned made this comparison in his review

Can I be the only one to compare the world-unites Radiohead chatter to the simultaneous "Doctor" shouts that freed David Tennant from his cage and made him a God?

Thanks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_WzTXp8Yvs

WAU

I hated Let Down and loved Electioneering when I first heard OK Computer.
-- nate woolls, Friday, October 12, 2007 9:32 AM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

sounds like you had it right the first time, bud.

hmmmmm on first listen this isn't exactly brilliant (or memorable), but doubtless it'll grow!

not related to http://e-design-it.com/avatars/rainbow5.gif but i swear, this cover version of "No Surprises" is more beautiful than anything on the new album:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pbOGNR4VlY

watch the whole thing and tell me i'm wrong.

this is kind of revelatory

Okay now that the album has set in a little bit, I can formulate a little better of a response that's not as much "OMG NEW RADIOHEAD!!! THIS IS AMAZING!!"

'15 step' is really great, even though I really, really don't like how Yorke sings the "how come I end up where I started/how come I end up where I went wrong/won't take my eyes off the ball again' lines.

'Jigsaw' is pretty boring, probably my least favorite song on here. "Beat goes round and round" ughh. I'm also not totally digging the upfront rock stuff of 'Bodysnatchers' either (though the song ends up a lot better than it started, right around the 2-minute mark it gets pretty cool)

I think "Nude" is great and one of the best songs on here, and I'm not sure if that bodes too well as this is an old song, right? It seems this is one a lot of people are ragging on (especially those who think 'Jigsaw' and 'Bodysnatchers' are the best two things on here), but I like the mopey, atmospheric Radiohead stuff. Yorke's voice just sounds fantastic on this, and hits pretty well on what I mentioned upthread about using his voice as just this gorgeous instrument. The snarling rock n' roll Yorke, with few exceptions, is kind of annoying and I don't really get into it. (I HATE 'Electioneering') I like it when his voice is either pretty, mopey, or weirdly processed.

'Weird Fishes/Arpeggi' I also really like, even if it's nothing remarkable. Just a good Radiohead song.

'All I need' won't hold much appeal once the newness of it fades away, I think.

'Faust Arp' is alright, I could take it or leave it.

I dig 'Reckoner' a lot, and I'm very glad they didn't do another rocker one for this as the early versions might have indicated. It does kinda remind me of U2, though, at least the kind of falsetto Bono hits sometimes.

Someone said it right upthread, the dub stuff is what makes 'House of Cards' work, as well as the atmospheric stuff going on in the background. The production on Yorke's voice is wonderful on this, too. I don't like the "I don't wanna be your friend line.' I'm not sure of the main guitar line either.

'Videotape' is alright, but I think they've done much, much better closers.

So all in all, it's a pretty good album with some holes. Doesn't flow as well as I thought it did upon first listen. It's solid enough Radiohead stuff as I mentioned before, but there's nothing on here that's as dynamic or as interesting as the Kid A/Amnesiac stuff.

Also:

I'm still not sure where the hell "free jazz" comes in on Kid A or Amnesiac.
lol xpost
-- BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, 12 October 2007 07:15 (6 hours ago) Link

Yea you're right, it's pretty much just on the last part of "National Anthem" when all those horns start going crazy, and that is all. Sorry. I just wish Radiohead explored that stuff more.

that clip is pretty cool, btw, Melissa.

so pretty much you don't like bodysnatchers, all i need or jigsaw -- which i'd rank as 3 of the top 5 songs on the album (alongside 15 step and reckoner)...go figure.

xpost

ha, yea pretty much. Though like I mentioned "bodysnatchers' ends up working well. I'm glad it's on the album.

Jigsaw is fantastic - part of the reason I like it is that, Thom aside, you could put it on Forever Changes and no one would notice.

Bodysnatchers is simply enjoyable, not too crazy great or anything. Here's how i rate everything:

Brilliant: 15 Step, All I Need, Reckoner
Enjoyable: Bodysnatchers, Jigsaw Falling Into Place
Boring: Nude, House of Cards, Videotape
Utter crap: Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, Faust Arp
-- stephen, Friday, October 12, 2007 3:45 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Link

i guess you could say i don't like quiet/sensitive/emo Radiohead, in general. had the same problem with Hail to the Thief.

Having listened to this something like 10 times now, I can say it's fast becoming my favourite album of theirs since OK Computer.

i don't like it nearly as much as well, anything except Pablo Honey. boo!

Can someone explain what's going on in Melissa's clip? I R at work and I can't listen :-/

It's the first time they've managed to get the rock/electronica balance right. Kid A through HTTF, it's always felt like they're forcing somebody else's sound over their own. The electronic influences were really obvious and compared with this album they stuck out like a sore thumb. In Rainbows is a very guitar-orientated album, although you wouldn't notice it at first. Johnny's guitar works with Thom's voice as one, as if you're strapped to the roof of a cathedral, listening to the band rehearse down below you. I love it. It takes a while for it to sink in, in fact I'm still letting it do that, but on the whole I think it's their greatest achievement.

I think the fact that the album *is* quiet/emo Radiohead is what intrigues me the most. It wasn't what people were expecting, so.

Meantime, now I'm wondering what the second disc will be like.

^^^ yes, I can't wait to hear the second disc.

Though I won't be doing the discbox. Wonder if you'll be able to get a regular release of the second disc, or if it's discbox exclusive?

melissa where did that come from?

It's very guitary driven.

It's not necessarily overdriven though.

Ned I just opened the link to your Om review -- I too nearly forgot about this release in the Radiohead craze, which prior to 10/10 I listened to quite a bit. I think I'll put it on today.

back to Radiohead. from Charlie Wilmoth's Dusted Review:

They've dedicated a lot of their time the past seven years to making bleeps and bloops and space noises, which is fine except, again, that's not what they're good at.

hardy-har-har. ughh.

In any case, I can't shake the feeling that In Rainbows is like watching a great movie on an amazing flat-screen TV that I'm only allowed to watch while wearing glasses with the wrong prescription. (Which almost sounds like a the subject of a Radiohead song, come to think of it.)

I don't understand this at all.

also from the Dusted review:

In Rainbows is pretty much exactly what we'd expect - not quite as strange as Kid A, not quite as rock-based as 2003's Hail to the Thief, and not quite as paranoid as Yorke's 2006 solo album The Eraser.

and highly OTM. this album is missing its identity.

the best parallel i can draw: it's most similar (out of Radiohead's back catalog) to Amnesiac, cause it feels like a handful of good songs scattered among nearly a full album's worth of b-sides.

melissa where did that come from?

It's from the middle of Reckoner with the central channel cut out so that you can hear Thom singing "in rainbows in rainbows in rainbows".

xxpost really? i'd almost HTTT had less of an identity. IR seems to be a lot more cohesive, even if it doesn't flow as well as I thought it did on first listen.

^ exposes Reckoner as the album's thematic centerpiece?

xpost

this album is missing its identity.

I don't sense this at all, honestly. I think it very cleverly suggests one tone at the start with the opening two songs, then shifts into the predominant one from there on in. And I like that.

Mark - for one, i think Nude and Videotape both sound *very* similar, mood-wise to Pyramid Song, like throwaways that were discarded in favor of Pyramid Song at the time, then used for this album later. Nude in particular, maybe there's a reason it's been around for years and never been recorded for an album...

I watched that studio clip on the dvd where they're working on it, it sounds like a totally different song.