Monday, October 08, 2007

First Proper Review: Radiohead-In Rainbows

Well I got 'In Rainbows' earlier today, Thom Yorke came round on his bike with a copy (all very carbon neutral) I paid him £2.51 for it just to be clever, and what can I say? What an album who would have thought '15 Steps' would see Thom and the boys take their sound in to a sort of country-stomp direction I mean the lyrics "take your partner by the hand/ go 15 steps forward and 3 steps back/ you do it to yourself you fool, you had too much to drink" were entirely unexpected as it saw Radiohead go in a completely new direction but also revisit a lyric from 'Just'. If that wasn't enough 'Bodysnatchers' was simply snippets of audio taken from the 1993 film of the same name, I would call it Radiohead's boldest step since OK Computer. 'Nude' was a very strange track because it wasn't even Radiohead (literally it was actually taken from the 1981 album of the same name by Camel) it really sounded nothing like a bold fusion of Hail To The Thief and all music released since by everybody even The Kooks. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi was undoubtedly the stand out track as Thom Yorke ditched his trademark vocal style and instead opted for a bad Elvis impersonation with lines like "Don't step on my Weird Fishes/ You ain't nothing but a case of Mxamatosis crying all the time" Radiohead decided to make a interesting step into the realm of comedy-rock. Finally 'All I Need/Faust ARP/Reckoner/House Of Cards/Jigsaw Falling Into Place/Videotape" was simply a very long recorded piece of white noise (recorded on a poor quality cassete from what I could tell) an even more experimental sound then we heard on Kid A, at one point you can hear Jonny Greenwood humming to himself in the background which was defnitely the high point. Overall I would say this is Radiohead as you've never heard them before they take the guitar-driven drive of 'The Bends', mix it with electronic noise which may have been on 'OK Computer', it really defies expectations in every sense of the word, so I gave it 9.7 (Best New Music) in my totally original scoring system.

Pre-Order:Radiohead-In Rainbows

9 comments:

The Dude said...

This album will require several listenings to fully enjoy. I was initially disappointed with the version of "Videotape" and the fact "Bangers n Mash" was left off the top 10. I enjoy the live versions most of these songs so much. It is going to take time to adjust to the recorded versions.
Right now, I think its an 8/10.

Anonymous said...

í heard this at a listening party last night and was completely shell shocked...i hope for something good but what i was given was something great...stand out tracks for me at the moment have to be jigsaw and all i need..when the percussion sweetly chimes in ,it damn near kills me evrytime...i fell asleep listening to this album last night and had the best sleep in years and have done nothing but play it on a loop all day...i didnt think anything would beat neon bible this year and then radiohead go an release this..
so much love for this album

BiosynCorp said...

i agree that it's lame that bangers n mash wasn't on it, along with the fact that you can't really hear thom at the end of all i need and the chorus in video tape (which is a given) but those were like 1% of the changes that differentiated this from the live sets, and the other 99% made me literally giggle to myself like a school girl all the while murmering "hoyl shit holy shit" to myself..
this is like the cure to hail to the thief and amnesiac, finally back to emotional instead of psychedelic/political lyrics.
also, i definitely think that once i get used to it i'll prefer the new version of videotape (although i'll always have the live version burnt onto the same cd right after the studio version.)
i think that anytime we complain about any changes to the music we should take into account that they allowed recording devices at bonnaroo for a reason and that we should really think of the bootlegs as releases in themselves, so basicly we at this point have one live album and one studio album which is also kind of a remix album if you consider the live sets to be the original versions of the songs which you could...
I recommend making a CD where your fav live versions of the songs are intermingled with the studio songs, i believe that may be their intention as well when they changed videotape, left of B&M, and messed aroudn with all ineed

Anonymous said...

i enjoy the stupidity.

Anonymous said...

this blog's faux witticisms and useless analysis of Radiohead's new album has absolutely nothing intelligent to offer. try reviewing Britney's new album, eh (more on your level)?

Anonymous said...

let's face it, whatever way you break down a new radiohead album you leave yourself open to criticism and ridicule on all fronts. this is a mildly humorous way of saying "I give up, listen to the album and decide for yourself."

Jim said...

Thanks, I probably should say that I hadn't even heard the album at the point I wrote that, I was kind of reacting against a 'review' based on a few live recordings, as well as just saying listen to it yourself, I think Radiohead are a band that for a lot of people evoke a very personal response.

Anonymous said...

This album is incredible, hands down. You must try to look at Radiohead as something incomparable to other music, and entity of its own. I truly hate when people try to compare old radiohead to this album, try and say its a mix of this album with a touch of that album, but it is none of those. If you have ever heard Thom Yorke speak about how they go about writing their albums, he says that each album has little to no connection to his other works. Yes, emotions or even words may be the same, but within the context of the album, they can mean two totally different things. Incredible album, nothing more needs to be said.

Anonymous said...

yeah, check it out!! all new radiohead video. now this is a band that does their own thing and never looks back. great stuff!! their video's up on iTunes. star 98 in LA has an awesome section setup for all this with more details on this as well. check it out!

http://star987.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=&article=3888400