radiohead, in rainbows, a review of sorts
As I’m writing I recall walking into the bar of a restaurant in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles the day I first heard Radiohead’s OK Computer. It was roughly August 1997 and I ran straight into the radio promotions rep of Capitol Records [who shall remain nameless.] I grabbed his hand and shook it vigorously as I congratulated him on being associated with what I considered a serious work of art, an album that I thought could help determine rock music’s future for many years to come. [Seriously, OK Computer hit me like the proverbial bolt of lightning and I spent many hours soaking it up.] He looked me in the eye and rather acidly said “You’re kidding right? I’m looking for another “Creep” [a Radiohead hit single] and they’ve turned in fucking Dark Side of The Moon Part 2…!”
10 years later after many triumphs facing down the cookie cutter, cloistered fuck fest that is the music industry, having delivered genius recordings such as Amnesiac and Kid A, they take things into their own hands and deliver In Rainbows. And here’s where things take a turn. The recording industry as we know it is surely staring oblivion in the face if it does not quickly and efficiently make amends with it’s customers. We no longer require the shiny plastic discs, we want access with value.
With that in mind it’s fair to say that Radiohead have delivered access and value for sure. In Rainbows is not the ground-breaking existential, fuck-with-our-heads records that Amnesiac or Kid A were. It doesn’t take me on that helter skelter ride that OK Computer took me; it doesn’t even take me down the dark paths that Thom Yorke’s Eraser explored. Yet still it’s the most enthralling rock album that you’ll hear before the year is out. Let’s remember, in the early years rock music was all about sticking it to the man; Elvis, Chuck Berry, James Brown, think about it. And the list goes on - Iggy And The Stooges, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Sly and the Family Stone - and later The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Public Enemy, Patti Smith; they all spat in the face of conformity, of suburban comforts, of conservative mores. In Rainbows doesn’t reach the heights that some of those artists’ recordings attained, yet it’s an album delivered in a moment in time when those of us here, now, today, can feel things shifting beneath our feet - the end of an era - to live through this is, for me at least, enthralling; I don’t want to sound overly hyperbolic but In Rainbows could just be the soundtrack to the end of _________________ .
Radiohead - Bodysnatchers [MP3]
Related Post: The end of the CD
October 10th, 2007 at 12:53 am
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October 10th, 2007 at 8:27 am
It looks like Oasis and Jamiroquai are following suit with their next releases.
Great “review of sorts,” Dave. I can’t wait to hear the record.
October 10th, 2007 at 8:48 am
Chris Dahlen has some good points about the record labels vs the gaming industry over here Get that out of your mouth
October 10th, 2007 at 8:59 am
its called “in rainbows” dumbass
October 10th, 2007 at 9:20 am
oh, thanks for that gentle nudge anonymous person…
October 10th, 2007 at 10:12 am
lol
October 10th, 2007 at 10:38 am
oh shit. this is a great album.
October 10th, 2007 at 10:46 am
Dave - Agreed about the impact of OK Computer. Experiencing Meeting People Is Easy solidified that passion and appreciation for their work. And while In Rainbows is brief, and may not hit me like other Radiohead albums, I think it’s a valid and well put together piece to add to their discog. Maybe Radiohead are also setting a precedent for the direction that I think some released works should be returning to: short albums, single track releases and EPs. Full LPs shouldn’t be the norm or the standard, but rather one style of work.
btw, I love how forgiving readers like asdfasdf can be. asdfasdf’s parents must have seriously been bored and preoccupied when naming him/her. :)
October 10th, 2007 at 11:59 am
Dave… We need to talk.
October 10th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Roy, call me….
October 10th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
The problem, I think, is that since OK Computer people just set their expectations WAY too high when it comes to Radiohead. If any other band put out a record this good we’d all be shtting ourselves, but since the bar has been set so high none of us (me included) can appreciate In Rainbows for what it really is… a kick-ass rock record… The first one that I can think of in years.
Personally, I’m having trouble letting go of what I thought this record was going to be, and just appreciate it as is…
October 10th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
I promise you Dane, by the 3rd full listen it will dawn on you how great an album this is…
October 10th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
hahah, Dave - interesting that you say that…I’m currently on my third full listen and I know exactly what you mean!
Dane - I totally agree with you…but as noted above, I’m getting past the letting go part. :)
October 10th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Dane won’t share his Radiohead with me. He’s a Radioheadhoarder.
It’s fine though. I’ve still got 300 years worth of Robert Pollard side projects to get through first anyway.
October 10th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
lol kiala you are hilarious. I heard robert pollard has worse body order than robin williams…whoooooooaaa…post tangent..need to get back…OK!
Radiohead In Rainbows, sorry “in rainbows”, is Great! Its a very solid album. cant get enough of Reckoner its just beautiful.
October 11th, 2007 at 6:09 am
thats odor
October 11th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Great review Dave, it’s a gem of a album, the best so far of 2007. I gave it a 10/10 :D.
October 11th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Hello Dave, I just read your review, and I just finished my first “look” at In Rainbows Live and my first impression is that is flat, all the songs don’t seem to reach their peak or climax, almost none of the songs caught my attention in that special way that made Ok, Computer, Kid A and earlier works albums to really appreaciate.
I still need to listen to it several times, Radiohead always needs a little time to digest.
October 11th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
I belive once digested you will feel sated….
October 11th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
@tibi, thanks for the props…definitely the best rock album so far this year.
October 11th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
[...] In the wake of this week’s Radiohead fracas I believe it’s worth taking a step back and taking a look at what precipitated the global fascination in a major rock band’s decision to go it alone via the internet, coupled with the music industry’s flagging music sales. My belief is that the industry’s collective decision to scrap the cd single was a pivotal moment that sent sales into a massive downward spiral. I have posted here before that I have read enough research papers and essays that disprove the music industry’s mantra that internet music piracy has caused the decline, to be able to reiterate that I think access to free music online serves to help promote music sales not the reverse - ending the CD single reduced the music consumer’s affordable access to their favorite songs by their favorite artists, more than likely the songs they heard on the radio. The single, which has historically been called a 45, as in 45rpm, a 7″ or 12″ single and finally a CD single, had been around since the early days of popular music (as in pop music); Sam Phillips’ Sun Records Studios in Memphis, TN was where artists such as Elvis Presley first cut their music to wax which was then released to the public and radio as the bands toured, usually in a revue, around the USA. These 45s were an easy and affordable way to get the music into the fans hands and were of course the most popular song in the artists’ repertoire. Now they have disappeared music fans have flocked online to get the tracks they want either legally or otherwise, and although people point to the iTunes model as a saviour to boost sales it appears that music fans are still buying singles, not full albums, therefore denying the music industry its ability to make up for lost revenues. The chart below shows the decline in physical single sales from 77.8 million in 1997 to 13.9 million in 2006 with digital single sales selling 53 million in 2006. [Download sales include single album tracks so do not reflect a rise in singles sales.] [...]
October 12th, 2007 at 8:48 am
The free thing is good because it is definitely better than selling albums today and being behind in sales. Now we can have websites debut albums and pay the costs of the recording process and in return get a million hits in a day. It really could be great. Plus, there is no decrease in quality. The album is great. There’s a great review in http://www.imposemagazine.com on the whole thing. It is good for the record industry and the band and esp. the fans.
October 12th, 2007 at 8:48 am
looks like some people don’t like the bitrate of the downloads…
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1571737/20071011/radiohead.jhtml
my take is that… hey, fans got to pick the price.. now fans are complaining about the quality?
please.
October 12th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
This comment is not about “In Rainbows” specifically, which I have just downloaded and am listening to for the first time as I write. This comment is about Radiohead, who are and always have been something more than a band to me.
When you first listen to OK Computer, you probably don’t like all of the songs. A couple stand out - Paranoid Android, Karma Police - but the rest is unfathomable, distant, a bit wierd. But then, you listen again, alone, in your room, and those wierd, jagged songs start to individualise, as each one fastens onto a particular time in your life, like a thought, a mood, a view out the window. Until after a while you listen to the album and there are no filler tracks, just powerful emotional echoes, which have somehow come to be part of you.
I saw Radiohead live a while ago at a festival. I didn’t know what to expect - I love them with a passion, but listening to their music has always been such a private thing. But it was amazing. All around me people stood singing the words to even the most obscure of the songs that I love, singing them like they loved them like I do. And so I found that thousands of others have been sitting in their rooms, on their own, listening and thinking, and defining themselves with this music just like I have. And that is an incredible feeling.
October 12th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Lis, yes - I totally agree. There is something magical about people’s connections to the band. I saw them live in 2001 at The Gorge in Washington State which is built into a natural amphitheatre. It was truly amazing
October 22nd, 2007 at 2:25 am
yawn fest. IMO
October 27th, 2007 at 8:55 am
[...] I enjoy reading John Winsor’s posts. They are concise and get quickly to the point, such as this one about influencers and the Lululemon yoga clothing company. Last week he turned his attention to Radiohead and made another good point, although it’s one we musicians have known for a while, “Radiohead is proving that the value that middlemen bring to the market is quickly vanishing. Where there is currently a middleman there is disruption or soon will be.” Interestingly in his piece he misspelt the Radiohead album title as ‘In Rainbow’ as I originally did in my post and his post’s picture is the same one too. Quite a coincidence given the size of the blogosphere….. [...]
November 4th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
[...] 01. We need to make a cheap quick recording of no more than 6 songs. The days of spending forever in a studio are over. 02. It can’t be called an album, that format is over - case in point - after downloading the Radiohead In Rainbows album I found various remixes of songs from that album and so I deleted the originals as the new mixes were preferable to me. I then built my own running order. Goodbye to having an album formatted in advance. 03. As we write and record in rehearsal we should post the demos, as rough as they are, to our website and also to Amiestreet so that fans can download them. Comments would be offered and that way we could gauge response. Also word of mouth will get the message far and wide that these demos are available and that we are working on the new recordings - no PR required. 04. Understanding the data which will then help us understand our fans’ behaviour. 05. It’s imperative that we give away MP3s. 06. Enroll our most rabid fans to help us market and promote the band. 07. We must partner only with an indie label for any physical good that we release. 08. We must take meetings with people like Kevin Arnold at IODA and Shane Tobin at iMeem whose companies offer very distinct ways to reach music fans. [...]
November 13th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
[...] Related Post: In Rainbows, a review of sorts Share this Post: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
November 30th, 2007 at 10:22 am
[...] Related Post: In Rainbows, a review of sorts Share this Post: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
December 11th, 2007 at 11:24 am
[...] Another year, another list. It’s always an interesting time of year for me as I get the chance to peruse other blogs’ top album choices and on that note Large Hearted Boy has started to compile everyone’s year end lists - check them out here. And there’s a twist in the tale today - I’m actually going to make this a top 11 as I have 2 titles vying for the number 1 spot and they are there for different reasons. So I decided to give Burial and Radiohead a joint number 1, here’s why. Burial dropped ‘Untrue’ late this year and in my mind (and others too it seems) it’s as close to an electronic masterpiece that we’ve had in some time. I came late to the dub step movement late but I caught up fast following the blogger/blog Blackstep. Meanwhile as a Pitchfork review put it - Burial says - “Underground music should have its back turned, it needs to be gone, untrackable, unreadable, just a distant light.” Untrue is just that. It quivers like a hissing lightbulb, one that illuminates the tracks scattered around it– garage, dubstep, soul– and in doing so smears them into unique shapes. Untrue is a remarkable piece of work. Meanwhile, unless you’ve been living under a rock this year, you could not have missed the brouhaha that surrounded the Radiohead ‘In Rainbows’ album release. The publicity white noise and the resulting coverage focused on the delivery system the band used to get the music across to its fans, which was understandable, but the music itself was a strong return to form for a band that at times seemed to take their fans for granted as they dabbled in histrionic electronic squawks, scrobbles and beats on prior recordings. ‘In Rainbows’ lives up to all of the hyperbole surrounding its release, another solid piece of work from a band that continues to mature musically and strategically. In any other year, Modeselektor’s ‘Happy Birthday’ would have taken the pole position. [...]
December 18th, 2007 at 10:49 am
[...] Moose contributor, Josh K, sent me a link to a cool blog called Motel De Moka where he’d discovered a great MP3 list of dubstep cuts posted up - Deep Night Dubstep (2:45AM), there’s some very good cuts there. And digging deeper Josh found another post that was a rather fascinating side-by-side comparison of tracks from Radiohead’s In Rainbows that sound uncannily like each other. I’ve posted an example below for you all to listen to and compare for yourselves. [...]
December 19th, 2007 at 7:50 am
[...] My In Rainbows discbox arrived almost in time for my birthday, and it’s a big, beautiful slab of music and packaging. Though I’ve been listening to the record for months now thanks to the download that came with my pre-order, writing about it has eluded me. It seems that “a review of sorts” (thanks, Dave) is all that is possible. [...]
December 19th, 2007 at 8:32 am
@roy, yes mine came too and I marvel at the packaging. I also like that the vinly records of the album are pressed at 45rpm, a nice touch. And the outtakes CD is a ‘value’ as well, some great songs on there..
December 19th, 2007 at 9:57 am
Co-signed. Nothing worse than getting shitty-sounding vinyl. Props due to Radiohead (again).
January 10th, 2008 at 2:31 am
[...] Related Post: Radiohead, In Rainbows, a review of sorts Share this Post: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
January 31st, 2008 at 12:52 pm
[...] “The recording industry as we know it is surely staring oblivion in the face if it does not quickly and efficiently make amends with it’s customers. We no longer require the shiny plastic discs, we want access with value.” (Dave Allen, pambelmoose ) [...]
January 31st, 2008 at 6:59 pm
[...] Life During Wartime. The rock bands I like I can count on the fingers of one hand. Therefore The Duke Spirit should be glad that I care about their music. Perhaps I like the spunk of Liela Moss their lead singer. Perhaps I’m giving them a chance to worm their way into my head in the hope that other bands will follow and rock music can gain a foothold in popular music rankings again. Maybe. I haven’t tired of my In Rainbows package yet nor the Burial album. Both not rock. [...]
March 29th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
[...] Related Posts: The Notwist, a new album after six years, Radiohead, In Rainbows, a review of sorts Share this Post: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
June 25th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
[...] tea coseys. The news today is that we can now purchase, via iTunes, a slew of videos from the In Rainbows sessions brought to us by Nigel Godrich, the producer who works with the band and has his own web [...]
August 15th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
[...] a leaf out of the book of the rock stars. The biggest story last year in the music world was how Radiohead bucked the recording industry’s distribution and marketing system and gave away their new album. The short story is that they simply told their fans that they could [...]
November 3rd, 2008 at 9:50 pm
It’s not OK Computer. That said, it’s like “He’s done it again.” Then oen thinks: “Well, actually, THEY’VE done it again.” The album has Thom stamped all over it, and, at first, one thinks the rest of the boys are background. Then reality creeps in like a good creeper weed, and one begins to slowly realize howseemless these guys really are–they’re a unit, and they just roll along.
In Rainbows isn’t the best album Radiohead has ever released. I agree with one of the above fellows who said they set the bar so high with OK Computer, they can’t out-do themselves. Orson Welles had that problem with Citizen Kane. The difference is that this album, expecially its more intricate tracks, such as Reckoner, Nude, All I Need and House of Cards are virtually flawless for their time.