Radiohead - In Rainbows (no label)

by Suzanne Baran
21 October 2007

RADIOHEAD has made its seventh studio album, and with it—history. In Rainbows, available on the Internet at any desired price, is the band’s first release since splitting with Capitol Records. Radiohead welcomes fans to pay any amount they think the music is worth. The ensuing excitement and demand brought about technical difficulties (server access issues, delayed downloads, and other glitches), but I managed to get my hands on a copy—I paid $20 as an appreciative gesture.

Even without the pay-as-you-wish download-only album ballyhoo, the release of In Rainbows would be an event. It’s fresh music from one of the most eternally innovative rock bands of the past 15 years.

Since 1997 LP OK Computer, the band has offered its fans new ways to contemplate music, with rhythms beyond anything most modern bands can conjure—it seems to live in the distant future. The song “15 Step” opens the album and sets the overall tone. It’s suffused with backbeats and a gushing commotion.

Radiohead’s music is highly visceral, too. At times, it’s hypnotic in its consistent patterns; at others, surprising and unexpected twists and turns greet listeners who may have been lulled into a hypnotic state, sometimes by a mere simple chord change. Orchestral instruments and guitar variances fuel “Bodysnatchers.” I can almost visualize the sounds; to me, they resemble abstract expressionist paintings. The track “Jigsaw Falling into Place” is more centered – more in the vein of most of the record. It has a unified feel. Their last release, Hail to the Thief was certainly not as streamlined.

The band continues to make use of unusual musical techniques/ instruments, such as a specially fabricated electro-acoustic brass and obscure woodwind instruments such as Midi Serpent (medieval brass), a Six-axis contrabass saxophone, and the Jarvik 7 cardio-ocarina.

With a band like Radiohead, first impressions rarely stick. I’ve listened to this multi-layered release over seven times and it remains insufficient to detemine absolute statements about the brilliance and insight woven into this album. While I can’t yet hail In Rainbows as a ‘masterpiece,’ I know it sure as heck comes close.

Filed under art-rock experimental