IN RAINBOWS

Radiohead's new album is a good one, but the most fascinating part about it was the marketing scheme. Originally available on the internet for what ever price one would want to pay, Radiohead clearly wanted to show the world that profit could still be made on an internet market. However, old styled dudes such as myself simply waited patiently until new years day 2008 to buy the album on CD for the first time. The cd version of the album was well packaged in a cardboard sleeve, including stickers and inserts to put onto a jewel case if one desired.

So was it worth the wait?

Well yeah, as said before, this is a good album. Unfortunately, avid fans wouldn't get anything like previous masterpieces Kid A or OK Computer, but they would get a good, more rock-ish album with a lot of emotion behind it. That being said, while this album is closer in style to something like Ok Computer, it's still a whole other beast. The heavy beat and distorted basses opening 15 STEP make one wonder if the disc in the case was actually a Radiohead album or an album from a random hip-hop artist misplaced during shipping. Luckily, Thom Yorke's voice soon comes in and brings method to the madness, followed by some truly magnificent guitars that make this a very interesting Radiohead track -- and following this one there will be more.

Really, on this album theres two kinds of tracks: The super heavy rockers and the super slow tear-jerkers.

Heavy is the case for the second track, Bodysnatchers. Opening with a killer riff this, the band's choice for a single, is a good strait forward rocker that doesn't let up. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi is another one of the faster songs, this one being somewhat in the middle of the road in terms of sound on the album. Heavy in a slow way.

After those songs however, it's time for the emotion that's normally put forward by the band.

The remainder of the songs on the album are definitely not for the weak of heart. Starting with the soft, melodic Nude the album takes a turn in the reflective direction. Other standouts of these types of songs include the dark-keys driven All I Need and the incredibly sad-sounding coda - Videotape - which could be one of the best songs that the band has ever recorded.

All in all this is a good album that should appeal to a wide audience. Not quite up to the caliber of something like their earlier albums (as commented on previously) but this albums still hosts a variety of good and great tracks, none of which disappoint. 3 stars, great for the fans but really only good for people who are indifferent to the band. People who don't like Radiohead in general won't find any reason to start liking them. Recommended for the fans and for people who like post-rock.

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