Radiohead: In Rainbows (self-released)

Ever since Radiohead secured its fanbase with the searing guitar rock of The Bends and OK Computer, the band has fled rockist trappings at all costs. But after indulging its experimental urges on Kid A and Amnesiac, Radiohead thought it might be safe for Jonny Greenwood to set aside his ondes Martenot and amplified transistor radio to sling his Telecaster over his shoulder once more. Unfortunately, the resulting album, Hail to the Thief, revealed the band to be too conflicted to reconcile with that blue-collar instrument, the guitar, thereby splitting the difference between soporific electronic excursions and equally benign rock. It was the band’s first misstep since Pablo Honey’s false start. For those expecting Radiohead to slip into a “no alarms and no surprises” phase of steady downward trajectory, In Rainbows, its first new album in four years, is a gorgeous, if understated return to form.

If Radiohead once again denies listeners the catharsis of Greenwood’s sumptuous guitar squalls, the band conspicuously teases such climaxes throughout the album. Numerous songs are propelled by Phil Selway’s insistent 4/4 drumming. The swift, quasi-krautrock clips on “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” and “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” simmer with the promise of an eruption, but instead evaporate into silence. Only “Bodysnatchers” approaches an explosive finale, as Greenwood’s fragmentary stabs punctuate the gnarling crunch of Ed O’Brien’s guitar. But what these songs lack in exhilarating dynamics is made up for in salient drama.

As ever, the band sinks its teeth deepest into the material that showcases Thom Yorke’s mournful vocals. “Nude,” a hypothermic soul song the band has been trying to perfect for nearly a decade, is its most emotionally leveling ballad since Kid A’s “How to Disappear Completely.” Yorke’s icicle-cool vocals float airily through textured guitar, slow motion strings, and Selway’s precisely understated drumming. “Reckoner,” another older, road-tested song, builds a foundation of echoing rhythms over which Yorke tests the upper ranges of his falsetto to stunning effect. And while Radiohead can always be trusted for a last song that haunts long after the music ends, the repetitive piano dirge, “Videotape,” is among its best. As Yorke sings, “You are my center when I spin away,” the stark piano chord progression pushes on without wavering, even as stuttering rhythms, electronic treatments, and layered harmonies send it into unpredictable spiraling.

Radiohead has reached a point of superlative democracy: Each band member contributes restrained parts that tastefully compliment the whole, rather than usurp the spotlight. While it will undoubtedly disappoint fans still pining for OK Computer’s flashes of unhinged chaos, it is a mature statement that shows the band as capable of penning lush and affecting music as ever. It’s a shame, though, that this record could not have followed the Kid A/Amnesiac dynamo. Its similar arc and atmosphere would have made for a more logical sequel than the overlong, scattershot Hail to the Thief. Void of experimental filler, tautly constructed, and consistent in its cool tone, In Rainbows would have completed a nearly flawless post-rock trilogy for the band. (www.radiohead.com)

By John Motley

Radiohead: In Rainbows (self-released)

Radiohead may very well change the music industry with their decision to allow anyone to download In Rainbows for as much as they feel the music is worth. But before that, lest we forget, Radiohead already changed music. That In Rainbows seemed to appear out of nowhere and was available seemingly moments later might lead some to believe that the album is a rush job or that the quality will somehow suffer. But again, it’s worth remembering that it’s been over four years since Hail to the Thief, and Radiohead has never done anything halfway.

As a band, this attention to detail and inability to let go of anything that’s less than perfect has driven them to be watched with the same fascination that seismologists study the San Andreas fault: at some point, all that stored-up energy’s got to blow. Being on the verge of break-up seemed to be one of the band’s driving forces, leading them to release masterpieces that were not steps ahead of the rest of the world, but leaps. So it’s strange to hear a Radiohead on In Rainbows that is comfortable in its own skin and—gasp—relaxed.

Never has Radiohead sounded so effortless. It appears as though the band is letting the music come to them, as opposed to squeezing it out with all the effort and pain of birth. Perhaps because of that, In Rainbows doesn’t take the same leaps as OK Computer or Kid A. The opener, a jittery thumping number called “15 Step,” would have felt at home on Hail to the Thief, and this is the probably the most shocking fact about In Rainbows: it’s the only record Radiohead has made that isn’t a quantum leap forward.

Radiohead have returned to their instruments. “It’s the 21st century,” Thom Yorke sings on “Bodysnatchers,” and the band seems to be living in the moment for once instead of providing an aural crystal ball for where music will end up. In fact, after the bombastic fury of the first couple of songs, which are filled with the paranoia and panic of OK Computer, In Rainbow’s closest emotional and instrumental comparison would be The Bends.

The jazzy groove of “House of Cards” opens with the surprisingly frank and romantic lyric, “I don’t want to be your friend/I just want to be your lover.” Of course, it is Radiohead, so there are electronic shades that swoop through the song, a times sounding like either a yapping dog or a bird, it’s hard to say which. “All I Need” also contains a simplicity the band has shied away from, almost to the point of disdain, but the relatively minor emotional swing of the song, a build-up accentuated by the simplicity of some plinking chimes. “Faust Arp” also contains strummed acoustic guitars and elegant strings, and the expectation would be for the song to explode, like “Paranoid Android” to site an early precedent, but it never does, and ends up feeling tighter, more contained for it.

Thom Yorke hasn’t allowed himself to appear as stripped of distortion and reverb since The Bends. As a band, in fact, Radiohead has shed their digital counterparts. It’s like Dorothy waking back in Kansas and seeing all the people she met in Oz as their normal, human selves. Here’s Jonny Greenwood, playing the guitar, with gorgeous effect. Here’s Colin Greenwood, often forgotten, laying back for the most part, but every now and then letting his bass lead the band. Here’s Ed O’Brien, whose shading provides a lot of the band’s tone, which is one of the things that sets them apart. And Phil Selway, we missed you most of all. Selway’s drums set the tone for what the band actually wants to say. He can provide comfort—and does so much more often on In Rainbows—with a steady beat. Those tense moments are often made more so by his off-kilter, frenetic drumming.

In Rainbows returns to that caffeinated, jittery tension again towards the end of In Rainbows, on “Jigsaw Falling Into Place.” But the song is merely a decoy, and the album ends up in the same place it spends most of its time—in a comforting lull of a band that has returned to the moment where they stopped being a regular band and became the band, the only band that matters.

Maybe Radiohead is settling into their own place, a comfort zone. One can look at the band’s emotional development as one would a human. If Pablo Honey is their elementary school years, where they’re comfortable doing what others are doing; The Bends their pre-teen years where they begin to understand that they’re an individual; OK Computer their pubescent years, full of more growth and change and mood swings than at any other time; Kid A and Amnesiac are their experimental college years; and Hail to the Thief is their mid-twenties, where they’re trying to figure out where they are in the world; then maybe In Rainbows is their life—settling into things, creating permanence. If so, we may grow to miss the anger and the striving and the discovery that comes as a result. But for now, we can enjoy the beauty of Radiohead understanding their identity and the craftsmanship that lies in comfort. (www.radiohead.com)

By Jim Scott