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Radiohead - In Rainbows CD (album) cover

IN RAINBOWS

Radiohead

 

Crossover Prog

3.83 | 640 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Treasure
4 stars Radiohead back again with a brilliantly intricate piece of music. Yet again, completely ravishing the bonds of music singularity and creating entirely new sounds out of thin air.

15 Step starts out very simple. I was even shocked to hear what I was hearing. "This, is Radiohead?" The song, however, slowly and slowly progresses and develops its unique sound. The soft serenading guitars, the drums and beats, the groovy bass. Oh god, THE BASS. I think the focal point of this song is the singing though. Midway through the song REALLY begins to turn into something. All the past points and peaks of the individual instruments come together and create this overwhelming funky song with an eerie glow over it. Brilliant. This song, reels me out, then cuts the string. (10/10)

Bodysnatchers returns some of that old school Radiohead sound. The fuzzy guitar and constant steady drumming keep a fine pace to the song. What really impresses me is how the band can return to earlier themes in the song, but still improve them with different sounds and foreign noise. The middle break towards the song really kills me. "Has the light gone out for you? Because the lights gone out for me." The whole song kind of builds in noise to this point too. It's a great buildup, meriting a great rating. (10/10)

Nude. A gentle slow goer. This tune is so relaxing and mellow, truly and utterly in every sense of the word. It helped me through some tough times last summer. This song is really a thing of beauty. It drags you to an incredible place in the back of your mind. It is the voice of depression and grace. The vocals make my spine shiver and the guitar gently rocks my every thought. This song, is amazing. Bar none. Best Radiohead ballad. (10/10)

Weird Fishes/Arpeggi is the most controlled Radiohead song ever. It's VERY Neu!. The constant drumming and guitar heading the song into a vocally driven aura of psychedelia and content. As depressing as the song is, it's still absolutely beautiful. Every verse takes it a step higher. It's a very euphoric song. Then, a slow stop. I get eaten by the worms...and weird fishes. Brilliant. The ending is like a whispering voice in the back of your head. "Hit the bottom and ESCAPE." How much more can Radiohead dish out? Lots. (10/10)

All I Need is another slow ballad. This one, however, is not quite as good as the previous four. Don't get me wrong, this song still means a lot to me, which I will explain later. But if I am to review an album, I have to be honest and unmerciful. So, apart from the lyrics and second half, it really isn't all that great. It develops a little towards the second half, but the beginning didn't quite take me in as much as the other songs. The ending though, is absolutely beautiful. Definitely not meriting the skip button. (8.5/10)

Faust Arp is a sudden dabble of Speed in an almost Opiate like album. This song kind of brings the album back to life. And off again and on again. Really short sweet catchy tune. There really isn't much to be said here, just a gentle guitar song with some lovely orchestral background. (9/10)

Reckoner. Woah, drums? What? This is definitely not Radiohead. I must have the wrong CD. But wait, IT IS RADIOHEAD. This is what I mean by changing their style. I've never heard Radiohead do a song like this. With other "mainstream" artists out there, all their songs sound the same and you definitively name them just by hearing them. Radiohead, on the other hand, is always a puzzle. I'm always trying to define them. More on that later. But this song is incredibly and unequivocally BEAUTIFUL. The singing just takes hold of my heart and wretches it like a stress reliever. The guitar playing is just as, if not more beautiful than the singing. Then, the beautiful vocal break in the middle, this song is definitely Radiohead at its best. And what's even better, is this is a generally very tolerable song. I've shown it to many who call Paranoid Android, "Weird". Which puzzles me even more than me wondering why I bother showing these people music. But who will? Anyways, this song is absolutely stunning and deserving of a 10 out of 10. (10/10)

House of Cards builds like one. Although the build is extremely slow and steady and the final product is necessarily and huge bang. Instead, more of a mellow wail from Thom Yorke's vocal chords. This song is absolutely perfectly serene. The guitars slowly caressing the beautiful singing. And the constant drumming is still a good thing to hear. The song just keeps adding more and more beautifully constructed music and noise to it. It builds gently like a House of Cards. (9/10)

Jigsaw Falling Into Place is definitely an amazing comeback in speed and versatility for the band. This album is generally not very complex, in terms of instruments. Musically though, it's absolutely killer. This song however, breaks that unspoken rule. The song comes in with a beautiful beat and acoustic guitar line. The lyrics are absolutely beautiful too. This song is almost like the funeral of the album. The album is getting buried in the groovy, catchy guitar and drums of the song. The Beat Goes Round and Round! When Thom Yorke begins yelling the lyrics, the song gets really REALLY good. I'm in a cold sweat just listening to it. This song really just completes the album as whole. Definitely, not a disappointment. (10/10)

Videotape serves as more of a dedication for the album. It's the end of the album and we all know it. Doesn't change the fact that this song portrays, that unique depressing beauty that only Radiohead can portray. The only thing that bothers me is that people don't like this song. I can't understand why? I mean, this song stands for everything this album says. It's like the teeth of the shark. The final, 21 gun salute to In Rainbows. This song is incomparable and the only ending I can picture for this album. (10/10)

All in all, I can certainly says the band has done it again. They've managed to release an entirely new, albeit shorter batch of songs and within these songs, lies an entirely different sounding band. The only thing connecting this album musically to other Radiohead albums, is the voice of Thom Yorke. The album has this constant Neu! esque drumming to it. The drumming in most of the songs stays the absolute same throughout. That gies the album a very good steady thorough quality to it. This album didn't cease to amaze me, from when I first heard it last summer. Let's just say, I was having girl troubles. I didn't know who to talk to. So I discovered Radiohead. I listened to this and Kid A, almost every night of last summer in my park, while smoking cigarettes and wondering WHY SHE DIDN'T LIKE ME. The albums lyrics also feature that sort of, Frank Sinatra, She Shot Me Down kind of feel. And this made me realise that music is really the only mediator between the constant battle between reality and the imagination. And Radiohead is leading the charge. The only reason why I'm giving this album 4 stars, is because I'm being unmerciful as a reviewer. It's really the only way to get ahead. And although the album has a lot of meaning for me emotionally, that's not reason for me to give it any leeway. To those of you who want to listen to Radiohead, pick this up as soon as possible, along with OK and Kid A.

Treasure | 4/5 |

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