Yours for a fiver
(Pictured above: what the new Radiohead album, In Rainbows, actually looks like.)
So, I've been listening to the Radiohead album pretty much non-stop since I downloaded it using my special log-in (price: five of your English pounds) at 11 minutes past 11 this morning. I was at the gym when it became available at 10am, which is a bit lax for a so-called fan. On first listen, it sounded like more of the same, a natural follow-on from Hail To The Thief with a bit of Kid A thrown in (the first track, 15 Step sounds a lot like Idioteque), but subsequent spins (ha!) reveal it to be a much more mature work than its predecessors, with lots of proper songs that rely on melody and riff rather than memorable clanking soundtracks, and even some upbeat moments. And Thom's voice is either improved, or he's using it for different jobs, singing so sweetly on tracks like Weird Fishes/Arpeggi and the string-supported Nude (are they real strings, or synthesised ones? I must check the credits on the sleeve ... let's see ... oh yeah). There's plenty of electronic invention, and strange effects, and jacknifing time-changes, and shifts in tone, mid-song, and House Of Cards is almost dub. Jigsaw Falling Into Place is a proper rock band playing together, and my favourite track thus far, All I Need gives me Blue Nile thrills. As for content, without lyrics to consult, it's difficult to say what he's singing about, as his voice is often buried under special effects, or fuzzy guitar. I must go off now and write my actual, considered, 700-word review for Word (which will hit the streets in about a month's time!), but I'm keen to hear others' thoughts.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 4:18 PM
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You can make your own cover by chopping a square out of the website background image.
I've made my own by printing out the tracks from iTunes. Quite minimal, it looks. If anyone wants to buy a copy, I'm charging 1p.
Is that a set price of 1p or are we free to pay as we choose? The minimal look will definitely suit the sparse arrangements of the songs...
Reverted from elsewhere; Now on 9th listen!
15 Step
Like all Radiohead albums we start with a song that both sets the tone but not actually giving us too much of an inkling to what the rest of the album might sound like. Instantly bringing to mind Amnesiac opener "Pakt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box" with it's Warp Records sounding electronic glitches it's simple pitter-patter drumming reminding me of Can (not for the last time either, the drumming throughout is very Phill). It also sounds a lot like Yorke's work on The Eraser and feels like the songs on the first half of that record. It doesn't feel like an attempt to make a 'Radiohead greatest hit' of all their electronic leaning songs, "How come I end up where I started" indeed. Despite this Yorke's vocal does retain an element of soulfulness that can be heard on live versions. The guitar parts are very simple below the bubbling electronics and despite taking me by surprise first time the children's interjection works well despite sounded more like the ones used on The Go! Teams's "Ladyflash" than say a Boards of Canada record.
7.5/10
Bodysnatchers
Not only the most metronomic and tight drumming on the record, and by way of that sounding the closest to Can by way of the rhythm doing the same. I think of all the songs on the record this is the one nearest to the sound of Hail To The Thief but with nods to the Amnesiac b-side "Cuttooth". The first appearance of Yorke's falsetto croon which he seemed to almost reluctantly return to on his solo album accompanied by mewling guitars. One of the other common threads in the songs on the album is that they tend to make dynamic shifts towards the end so when you are hearing them four or five times you are anxious for that shift to come, this track contains one of the best ones on the record, akin to that on "2+2=5" as the end of the song races away with the loud abrasive guitars, needs a listen at a higher bitrate to determine how punishing the decompression has been on the mix but I would say it's probably minimal, A potential opening single, if Radiohead are going to bother with those on this record at all. Also contains the line most likely to be in a YTMND ("It is the 21st Century") of Yorke dancing with a pirate hat on or something
8.5/10
Nude
Well finally. One of the biggest fears I had going into this is that they would get this wrong in some way and I'd be constantly going back to live versions. Well they didn't thankfully as they manage to invoke the 1998 version with the ghostly opening sample and although the orchestra is quite a Disney syrupy one it's not overused and the mood of the track and the breathy, echoey conversational opening style of the vocals is much like a personal favourite of mine "You and Whose Army", nothing flash around the rest of it, simple drumming (Like the Mingus style flourishes on "Pyramid Song" this time), simple guitar parts. Does slightly border on crooner territory at times but just pulls back when the rest swells behind Yorke's swooning "oohs" at the end. Very reminiscent of the work Godrich did on Sea Change in terms of the mood of the strings. Great to hear Thom sing this without any treatment as such on his voice.
8.5/10
"Weird Fishes / Arpeggi"
That same tight pitter-patter style of drumming high up in the mix from Phil again and this is the only track where it starts to distract slightly. Even if before the 10 second mark you were thinking of PB&J's "Young Folks" a chiming Marr-esque running guitar line throughout begins to grip your attention and before you know it the drums go quiet in the over-long middle section before returning at the end. Overall feeling of a guitar band covering a track from the Richard D. James album or Radiohead playing a Kid A / Amnesiac track (a)live on their instruments. Drumming at the end sounded like a slightly lethargic Reni from the Stone Roses. Does overstay it's welcome slightly but not really a bad song.
6.5/10
All I Need
A simple love song on surface but so much more complex then the kind of Snow Patrol wetness I've seen inferred to by some on here. Very evocative of the kind of backing track that Boards of Canada use or the incidental music played on a Moog that you might find in British films from the early seventies supplemented by a cello. Lyrically a relative of earlier songs "How Can You Be Sure" and "A Reminder" and the most improved song in the studio from the live versions for my money. Another waiting for the build up which does come very late in the track heralded by a whooshing noise that was quite like the ones found on "The Private Psychedelic Reel" as well as some drawn out rumbling cymbals rush (lol) that reminded me of the ones that Xenomania put on Girls Aloud records. One of the strongest on the record and
you'd hope this would be a single too if they were doing that kind of thing, maybe the third one though.
9/10
"Faust ARP"
Wasn't expecting any lyrics here so "Wakey wakey" did just that to me I was another who expected this to be a instrumental track instead of the simple little nu-folk ditty it is. Finger picking guitar which brings to mind The Beatles Esher demos from 1968 with it's riff that plays on the same pattern as as "No Surprises" and it's lighter tone (compared to the rest of the record) is offset by the darker strings, almost like the ones Robert Kirby arranged for Nick Drake and the one he didn't ("River Man"). Don't know what this had to do with Faust but it did remind of Lennon's "#9 Dream" as well. A song like this is hard to review individually but in the context of the album it's good to see Raidohead stand their ground and go all out to create a piece of work and not allow Apple to sell songs from their previous albums.
8/10
"Reckoner"
Another unexpected song in that it sounds nothing like the version from 2001 on YouTube, whereas that sounds a lot like "Electioneering" or other rockier songs from that era it now a much less intense, delicate track. Looping guitar and rippling vocals on their own wouldn't be out of place as a Bends-era track but the rest of it meaning it wouldn't have gone amiss on The Eraser. Also brought to mind shades of "I Will" and via the backing vocals at the end "In Limbo". Once again the strings at the end on it invoking Drake or at least the ones that Godrich did for Beck in 2002 along side some more of that tight drumming, I don't think that anyone could say that Selway was an anonymous drummer and really comes to his own on this record (solo album anyone?)
7.5/10
"House of Cards"
The track that had wormed it's way into my head the most from re-listening to the live versions from last year and it's relaxed, introspective nature will probably see it compared to the bands rat children that followed the Pied Piper's of Yorke and Buckley over the last few years. However it's a lot more interesting than those inferior artists pop-songs despite it's poppy nature (and I'm pretty sure it's far too obtuse and foreboding to get daytime play on the commercial radio network. "Infrastructure will collapse" anybody?) The key track on the record for the mood it invokes of this being an minimal, intimate, lush and relaxed record; not true on all the tracks but the impression I've come away with each time. Another reference to adultery / love life in the keys in the bowl line (a practice from swinging in the seventies, in the UK at least, where the men would put their car keys in a bowl and the women would pick them out.) Again backed up with strings but this time filtered through the sinister machine to bring a chilly mood to the Young Americans vibe that the vocals give it, reminded me of "Bullet Proof" as well. Maybe one day someone on American Idol will do it. It made me (spin with a) grin.
9/10
"Jigsaw Falling Into Place"
If they want a second single it's here. Starts off with a guitar line that brought to mind "Everlong" with the Spanish guitar and the sumptuous warm vocal chant which continues throughout the record, The highest in the mix I've heard Thom's voice on an up-tempo rockier song since maybe The Bends, those trends we saw on The Eraser were right. maybe the closest thing they have done to work on OK Computer for a decade as it builds to a near-frenzy accompanied by that beat going round and round. Sounds like it was rehearsed forever with spidery guitar parts, chasing the rising cadence of Yorke's voice around the halfway point without ever going into a "My Iron Lung" wig out, the band has well outgrown songs that sound like that being on albums. Like I've mentioned before you are prepared for the end of the song after hearing it a few times and the build up to the end is genuinely gripping in the way it is on say "There There" when the guitar lines crunch in like giant icicles.
9/10
"Videotape"
As Paul McCartney says at the end of the demo of "Penny Lane" with all that extra stuff on "A suitable ending" and I feel the same way about this. Having heard the versions of this from live shows you do get the feeling that, as Yorke sings elsewhere there's "something missing" nevertheless I'm glad the recorded version isn't quite as orchestral and bordering on sickly as the, in my opinion, bodged job of "Sail To The Moon" the piano is played with a harder edge than other songs like it the band have done and that punctuates Yorke's plaintive voacl quite well. One that I found to be quite affecting in it's delivery of the lines like “Shouldn’t be afraid because I know today has been the most perfect day I’ve ever seen” I really like what they've done with the drumming on it and the backwards delivery sounds like life being sucked out of the song (and Yorke) as well as the titular video tape going round.
8.5/10
On my fifth lesson it becomes clear that they didn't need to worry about pushing back the boundaries of music on this record as they are giving us exactly what we want with this album by recording a handful of great songs in the Radiohead mode and constructing them into an album.
Is this a truly collosal, ground-breaking record? No. Is it a very good one. Yes. 8.7 for now, better then HTTT and almost as good as Amnesiac for me.
it's quite good
Can't see why everyone's getting worked up over this, they've been poor since OK Computer haven't they?
Mitchell - 9 listens in one day?
Jings! I'm surprised your ears haven't fallen off.
whatever you do Andrew, please don't attempt a "review" like Paul Morley's over on the Guardian Website
What the hell is that all about?
What do I think of the album? After a few listens, it seems *quite* good. I paid £0, incidentally. I feel a bit guilty about it, but I paid over £30 to see them at the Nottingham Arena a while back, and they clearly hated being there and did NOTHING to engage the crowd and basically played with impenetrable electronic music with their backs to us all night and without a word. It's their right to make the music that they want, of course, but if they don't want to play Arenas, don't book'em. THEY OWE ME. Debt paid, I would say.
ST
BBC review isn't a whole lot better.
Best album Pablo Honey? What a twonk.
I think Kid A is the best Radiohead album. Anyone agree?
Kid A is my favourite Radiohead album, but I wouldn't be without the others.
I'm kind of glad that Radiohead exist but to be honest their music leaves me cold. I seemed to keep hearing the same track today (not an attempt at a joke - it was the same song). I think it was Bodysnatchers, which sounded like a broken version of Pleasant Valley Sunday to me. They're hardly the Monkees though, are they? (Right there, that was the joke.)
I can't see the sleeve of Kid A without mentally placing the words Never and Kidder in the space around the title. Was this the intention?
I wasn't the biggest fan of HTTT, it had it's moments and it had a few top draw Radiohead songs ("There, There" and "Where You End And I Begin") and I was nervous about this sounding too much like that album (unfocused and rush, ideas drawn out over too many minutes) or The Eraser (Liked that album but glad Yorke cleansed his palette of that much wonky electronica.)
So I had a little trepidation of them narking this up at all but after a few spins it grabbed me probably as much as any of their records this decade. I don't remember the last time I listened to a record that many times in one day, certainly not HTTT maybe it was Kid A when it came out? I'm very glad to see the overwhelmingly popular response to it on the internet amongst which has made me not feel like a super-fan, Everyone getting the record on the same day and hearing it has been like a large global community event, when was the last time a record wasn't heard by anyone (leaks, critics) until it's release date.
The BBC and Morley reviews are awful. Andrew is more then welcome to steal any of my witterings on the album if he wants! the "All I Need" sounding like BoC's "Roygbiv" is now sounding even more apt hearing again, almost the same backing.
It really has felt like Radiohead day on the internet!
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The cover maybe!
I don't know why so many people seem to be whining about Paul Morley's review. If you have read much of him at all you know what to expect. Actually it's extremely funny and witty, with lots of typical Morley paradoxes and puns. There will about a million average and dull worthy Radiohead reviews which I won't bother reading. But Morley is always entertaining and sharp. What's wrong with people - lack of imagination, or do they just want a standard rock review (lots of these dullards will appear very soon....)
Still waiting for mine!! And don't get me started on it being 160kps...
Swisstoni - did they play 2 nights at Nottingham Arena because I don't recognise your description at all!? Maybe you should have been down the front mate...
It's interesting that an album is available for free (more or less), yet people want to criticise it for not being a work of mind-bending genius. Seems a bit churlish to me. It's a Radiohead album, always worth having in your collection, whether it's a misfire or a classic.
I quite liked the Paul Morley review. It made me chuckle. Am I a bad person for this?
Not sure what's so wrong about the Paul Morley review. He's put a bit of effort into it at least.
That BBC guy though....Pablo Honey????
Radiohead (and Thom Yorke) are becoming less and less immediate. I didn't feel much on the first listens of the most recent albums, but I ended up listening to them over and over, and I appreciate them more and more as I grow to understand them.
Anyone Can Play Guitar is Radiohead's best song so I can see the Pablo Honey angle.
I didn't type that to court controversy, it is my genuine opinion.
I didn't think much of Morley's review because I didn't find it funny nor was it a good 'review'. It doesn't help of course he kept referring to Radiohead's 2001 album as Amnesia on Newsnight review when they were talking about HTTT.
It was pointed out to me that "Jigsaw" sounds like Broken Social Scene, confirming how good it is.
For those of you that can't afford 1p
http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/cover-art-for-in-rainbows
kitchen cynic - I was at the front! And for what it's worth, I've seen radiohead many times, in venues of all sizes, and apart from that gig I've always found them to be fantastic. That Nottingham gig really seems to polarise people though, as I've spoken to other people who will argue passionately on both sides.
hey ho.
Some more listens of this album, and my considered opinion is that it's still "quite good". Nothing on here as good as "Where I End and You Begin" (the best one of HTTT in my opinion) and it doesn't seem quite up there with their best work (and I actually had "The Bends" on again last night, just to check).
Having said that, I thought "OK Computer" was "alright" until I first listened to it through a really good pair of headphones, so it's possible I'm talking out of my arse.
Again.
ST
Fair dos SwissToni - I thought they were a bit by-numbers at V last year. Actually now I think about it I'm pretty sure there were 2 nights at Nottingham, which as a rock venue makes a pretty good ice rink.
Which reminds me, whatever happened to the tent? I thought they'd bought that so as to not have to play soulless sheds like Nottingham Arena ever again?
Gigwise is reporting that 1.2 million copies have been processed by the band. This would make the band around £800-900 thousand if they were all sold on iTunes for just under $10. If 3% of those figures were for the discbox and everyone else paid nothing for the album they'd top the 900k figure. This is fairly scratchy on my part but a fairly accurate guess I think, If 5% got the discbox the hypothetical 95% of people who ordered just the download only averaged a pound each 'the band' will make around £3.5 million before costs of the discbox etc.
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