Radiohead - In Rainbows

[Fred McGriff]

:shade:

[Guest Aces]

House of cards is awesome! I really like this album. It is just lush. I really like all of it. Although, videotape is the one I like the least although I think it's lyrically beautiful.

[Fred McGriff]

yeah same, aces

[Guest awkward]

reckoner is a great track too. so nude, reckoner, house of cards, weird fishes and all i need are my favorite cuts

[Fred McGriff]

weird fishes would've been a good DSC submission

[Guest awkward]

hows that going btw? been meaning to email you and ask. pretend i did and email me an update

[eugene]

its

 

i love the driftiness of it

 

yea..it just swirls and swirls..with all kinds of weird electronics in the background, and great chorus.

 

lovely..

reckoner is similar..this is new radiohead in a way..they never did those kind of laid back easy listening tracks.

[GORDO]

i gave it a listen like i used to listen OKC: in the night, with headphones, just listening and feeling the music. it gave me the same feeling OKC used to, This is radiohead!

 

but somehow i think this is going to be their last. i dunno why.

[Tessier Ashpool]

Thom's voice more apparent, stronger than it's ever been (high note on Nude no longer an issue apparently). Multilayered and forward in the mix rather than buried or even on equal footing.

 

Flow of album is A+ - sudden cutout of tracks is purposeful, as are the various offbeat singing patterns (production quality is back at OK Computer levels showing an extreme care in choosing how and when sounds are placed in)

 

Years worth of listening material given lush layering - sooo many good things going on at once.

 

All I Need has one of the most inspiring swells on a Radiohead album ever. It's like the counterpart to the middle of Paranoid Android

 

It feels like Radiohead spent all the albums from Kid A on figuring out how to do different sounds, and then put them all together on this album in just the right amount. There are no wasted sounds, it's like the difference between One Word Extinguisher and Extinguished.

 

I've now listened to the album 13 times all the way through with a short stint listening to "Turn on the Bright Lights" as a palate cleanser.

 

And, as with anything, the above is all opinion, but I really hope people will spend the time getting to know this album because there is a LOT there that might not be apparent on first listen.

 

bitches.

[Guest catsonearth]

its kinda interesting to see the mixed reviews on this album. seems like one demographic of people prefer the more proggy, experimental stuff (experimental compared to the rest of the album, at least):

 

15 steps

bodysnatchers

weird fishes/arpeggi

faust arp

jigsaw

 

and the other half prefers the more mellow stuff:

 

nude

all i need

reckoner

house of cards

videotape

 

though i guess you could swap faust arp and reckoner to go with either grouping. interesting though. does it break up into this split for most people or am i just imagining a pattern here? if so, which group do you fall into and which of the other radiohead albums do you enjoy most?

 

videotape is growing on me after i listened to the basement version. the drum sound in the background sounds like they just didn't do it right...would have been cool to hear the song build to something or change in some way though. i love the piano, vocal + ambient noise tracks they've done in the past, but this one doesn't quite live up to the beauty of something like 'how i made my millions' or 'pyramid song'.

[Guest awkward]

15 steps

bodysnatchers

weird fishes/arpeggi

faust arp

jigsaw

 

 

 

nude

all i need

reckoner

house of cards

videotape

 

hmm swap videocraptape for weird fishes and i'm in the second group

[eugene]

15 steps

bodysnatchers

weird fishes/arpeggi

faust arp

jigsaw

 

and the other half prefers the more mellow stuff:

 

nude

all i need

reckoner

house of cards

videotape

 

yep..im definitely in the second group with addition of arpeggi..and maybe 15 step.

[triachus]

I dont mind Videotape, and maybe thats because i never really listened to all those other live versions of that song

I dont think i'm going to do that, because it might ruin the song for me

 

I really like the laid-backness of the album

although i'm really dissapointed that Down Is The New Up and Bangers 'N Mash aren't on it

[Bob Dylan]

Each songs needs 1-2 minutes to them, to open them up a little. Codas instead of abrupt endings during the buildup.

 

Perhaps only House of Cards and Nude has it correctly. Reckoner needed those strings to continue alone instead of a boring 20 second fadeout. Videotape needed something BIG at the end. Arpeggi could have been a modern Paranoid Android had they done something at the end.

 

They are mature enough as a band to go in the 7-8 minute terrictory on a few tracks... I mean I love the album, it just falls short of something a little more grandiose without falling into pompeous.

[brian trageskin]

[Guest olson]

House of Cards has to be the dullest Radiohead song ever! Dull dull dull, it justs drifts along and doesn't warrant it's length, let alone inclusion on the album at all.

 

All I Need, Jigsaw Falling Into Place, Videotape, Bodysnatchers are all up there with their best work... the rest I feel a little 'meh' about. Faust Arp is good in a Beatlesy way I suppose.

 

Replace Videotape with 15 Step and I completely agree.

[kaini]

standouts for me are 15 step, weird fishes/arpeggi, reckoner, house of cards and videotape. i love videotape, i agree it could have had a bigger crescendo thing but i can also see thom retching at the idea of ending an album on a big rockist thing. it's fine as it is really. reckoner is fucking gorgeous, just beautiful music. i also love the beatlesy simplicity of faust arp, i've always liked it when they do that sort of track.

 

i don't dislike any of it really though, there's not a track on it i'm meh about. thom's voice really has never been in better shape. much much better than hail to the thief, i am relieved to say.

 

they've sorta figured out how to integrate all the nice electronic things and avant-garde and that and are now making songs that use their post-okc influences rather than are their post-okc influences.

[Guest Moebius]

positives:

some really gorgeous parts, nice integrations will the strings

thom's voice is quite excellent

 

negatives:

not much flow or unity between the tracks, feels like just a collection of songs

some of endings are a bit abrupt, I would have liked them to keep going

 

general comments:

I agree with what some others have said, it's sounds as if the band is very relaxed and comfortable with themselves and their abilities. it's not trying to push the boundaries as much like some of their previous stuff but is by no means bland. it's very human and approachable, warm, more than any of their other albums I'd say.

 

it's not quite what I was hoping but it wasn't what I feared it might be either. a very good album but not a masterpiece.

[Guest abracadabra]

I like it. Seems like everyone else almost concurs.

 

The song writing for "All I Need" is somewhat bland, imo. but tis good.

[zero]

good, but like others have said - not a masterpiece.

 

plus, wtf happened to the drums? it always seems as though they were trying to incorporate different time signatures into their beats, but the beats on this are pretty standard 4/4 or forgettable. the delayed pattern on videotape gets annoying after a few listens.

[Franciscus]

the delayed pattern on videotape gets annoying after a few listens.

yup.. i think it ruins the song.

[Guest awkward]

nah videotape is boring anyway, if it was any good the terrible drums might ruin it but

[Bob Dylan]

I was listening to boots of the 2006 tour...

 

The arrangements are pretty much the same, they kinda just tweaked a little bit the songs and added some layers of texture. But it was about already all there a year and a half ago!

[Caretstik]

Kaini's last post summed the album up superbly. I wasn't expecting anything groundbreaking, and I think they've gone a good job of consolidating what they've done since Kid A, without resting on any laurels. And they've made a very nice album to boot. 'Weird Fishes/Arpeggi' is worth the effort to download on it's own, whatever you paid for it.

[Guest Rook]

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/genera...n_rainbows.html

 

 

cool. It isn't going to be a "revolution" though. Since only bands like Radiohead could pull this off. Even if NIN did the same thing, for some reason I have a hard time imagining NIN fans paying as much for a free album. But no one will pay for an unknown band.