In Rainbows
Love and melody return as Radiohead hit a fine balance between adventure and warmth. With no label to please and a pay-what-you-want purchase model planned, *In Rainbows* was free to be wilfully avant garde. Instead, amid plenty of rhythmic and electronic flourishes, the band re-engage with tunes and guitars, framing emotional intensity within straightforward rock (“Bodysnatchers”) and gently burning love songs that are artful without being oblique (“All I Need”, “House of Cards”). Of course, the love Thom Yorke sings of is darkly complicated but it’s satisfying to hear his aching falsetto at the fore again.
But if the past few weeks have taught us anything, it's that Radiohead revel, above all else, in playing against type.
Any new Radiohead album pointedly raises an age-old question: Does it make sense to judge a band by what it’s done in the past, or should each release be viewed in a cultural vacuum? For a band in Radiohead’s situation—though there are virtually none—it’s borderline unfair to place recent discs next to the glowing…
albums are those rare beasts – an event anticipated by almost everyone with a passing interest in music, from the fervent indie kids to those who pick up a CD with their groceries. I bet though the bloke who works in the record shop round the corner from…
These wily boys may have a secret album-title exchange program with Kelly Clarkson, but everything else about In Rainbows is typically hard-rocking Radiohead.
Exactly what you'd expect from Radiohead; intelligent, satisfyingly thought-provoking and sure to be lauded by all who appreciate the less conventional.
This is a new Radiohead, one that subtly melds synths, loops, trips and beats into mid-tempo indie rock, instead of clustering disparate styles.
As with almost every Radiohead album, there are moments of brilliance, inventiveness, and surprise.
<p>The new album may represent the strongest collection of songs the band has assembled for a decade.</p>
Radiohead - In Rainbows review: With the addition of a second disc, In Rainbows loses some flow but maintains the original atmosphere and quality of the first disc.