Radiohead, In Rainbows
and how giving away a near perfect album for free saw the jigsaw falling into place again for Radiohead.
and how giving away a near perfect album for free saw the jigsaw falling into place again for Radiohead.
2007 was a strange old year and writing this retrospectively nearly an adult generation further on in our collective time loop, it’s sobering to think that 14 years ago Facebook and Twitter, those bastions of the all encroaching, all encompassing (and some may argue uncontrollable) social media behemoths of today were mere puppies at 3 and 1 years old respectively. The first generation iPhone was launched in 2007 too and using these three pieces of technology alone, cast a sobering glance over your shoulder at the last 14 years and feel free to wonder why, how and where those years have gone and how ironic it is that I’m commencing a glowing tribute to Radiohead and their iconic album “In Rainbows”, an album they at first gave away as a free/pay what you wish internet download and on the back of their decades long dire warnings of the imposition and creeping dehumanisation the electronic world of machines would cause. Ten years earlier Radiohead had released “OK Computer” which is by turns their masterpiece, the greatest album ever cast to wax and their apocalyptic warning that not all was OK with the computer, or the gadgets or the gizmos or the beeps and incessant “buzz” of the ever creeping shadow of electronics and a muddled Matrix web of digital intrusion that had a sales value promise of connecting us ever more whilst actually having a very detrimental and opposite effect for so many. “Please could you stop the noise, I’m trying to get some rest” pleaded Thom Yorke, the band’s iconic frontman, and ten years later after OK Computer, the noise of the beeps, the whoops, the need for your interaction, your response, your need for a dopamine fix, was growing louder by the day.
2007 was an OK year personally speaking. My young lad was growing and developing his uniquely individual character and a character and unique individual that is sitting across from me as I ramble through and commit these utterances to digital paper 14 years later. I was in the middle of my second stint at a long term corporate career and wowing my new employers with my deft skills at moving debits and credits around a computer screen as well as putting the friendly face forward to customers who detested the company I worked for but liked me, the actual human me. Which is nice to recall all these years later. All style, no substance. Some things never change!
Talking of which, the year of 2007 was unremarkable in as much as things never changed, the time loop kept turning inward on itself and planes crashed, wars were raged, there were political upheavals, a cricket World Cup, a horrendous mass shooting in the USA and the year ended with the assassination of the former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The year itself was also notable for the deaths of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, the American writer Norman Mailer and two more rather closer to home with the mime artist Marcel Marceau (a favourite growing up and how I adored watching this beautifully bizarre man mystify audiences the world over) and of Luciano Pavarotti, my dear old Mum’s hero and singing tenor par excellence. What is remarkable about 2007 and musically speaking, is the dearth of albums or artists from the year making the best selling albums of the decade list (2000–2009). Granted it’s late in the decade, however only three albums make the Top 100 at time of writing: “Spirit” by Leona Lewis, “Good Girl Gone Bad” by Rhianna and “Life in Cartoon Motion” by Mika.
What no Radiohead? Kid A? Kid B? Rambling in Rainbows? Hailing to a Thief? Surely not? Regardless of the critical reception and accumulated sales (free or otherwise) I’m staggered that “In Rainbows” doesn’t make the Top 100. Personally speaking, this album was, until “A Moon Shaped Pool” 9 years later, my second favourite album behind “OK Computer”. As I will hopefully convey below, it’s a beautifully crafted piece of art with ten tracks and no quibbles as to why they included them. It’s perfect, a coherent album and structured far more than perhaps Kids A and B in 2000 and 2001. But above all it’s sonically brilliant at times, a mixture of genres, moods, meditations and thoughts and perhaps again, their most human album of all. Despite the foreboding last track “Videotape”, this album is arguably their happiest, most content and definitely their most human. And this from a band who only really do human albums, despite their love of sampled, hip hop scratched and irregular musical tones that pervade their beautiful music. From a somewhat cryptic message on their own website confirming a new album was ready, to news it was a free/pay what you want honesty box policy, to simply listening to new Radiohead material. And not throwaway pieces or held back (in the main) music that could litter any future “Best Of” or compilation album. No. “In Rainbows” was a fully formed album and after their latest record deal had expired they took a band decision to release it as a digital download, free or for whatever you wished to pay. At first rumours circulated that a physical product would never be available but this was quickly scotched by the band and, as Radiohead are wont to do, they released the album in several formats across the year end of 2007 and beginning of 2008 and I, like many Radiohead fans, bought the CD of the music I had downloaded for an original honesty donation. I have subsequently bought the album on CD a further two times (house moves/car sales) and so the boys from Oxford have enjoyed a good monetary return from this particular fan! As the release of the album past and word of mouth (as well as the band’s iconic videos were broadcast other than just the internet) the album outsold all three previous albums in the decade and remains a firm favourite of mine and until recently, the second Radiohead album I reach for.
Ever the reluctant and recalcitrant promoters, Radiohead went about promoting the album in their own distinctive way with two live webcasts as 2007 drew to a close, an appearance on “Live From the Basement” and later, a release of “In Rainbows Disc 2”, all of which I’ll come to after a brief ramble through the near flawless and beautiful original album.
(1) “15 Step” The album bursts into life with a collision of handclaps and beatbox (is that still a thing?!) style rhythmic beats and with Thom alone with searing vocals and a gentle guitar before the entire band join sporadically in a tune that builds to a rather satisfying crescendo. As my favourite lyric below hopefully highlights, I’ve always interpreted this brilliant album opener and song as a quizzical or even spiteful diagnosis of one’s friends and “what happened” to you? Could even be interpreted as an angry question at oneself, or the frustration of always seemingly going round and around, and ending up where we started. As I’ve outlined in previous Radiohead blogs, these are personal interpretations and one of the many beautiful aspects of being a Radiohead fan is the openness to so many tangential routes of interpretation their songs present.
Another mix of styles and genres, I adored this song from first listen, and still do.
Outstanding Lyric — “You used to be alright. What happened? Did the cat get your tongue? Did your string come undone?”
(2) “Bodysnatchers” Guitar Band Radiohead return! And what a glorious return it is with first Thom on electric guitar and then the entire band with a raucous up tempo, “old school” rock n roll song which also feels like a fusion of two scraps of songs into one glorious one, and deliberately so too. The lyrics feel from two vantage points, of the individual “I” and the collective “You” as with my favourite lyric below, the narrator is confused and has no idea what he is talking about before throwing a mirror to the collective outside world and claiming the same. The song could be construed as a personal exclamation of angst or a political jibe with the barbed assertion that “your mouth moves only with someone’s hand up your arse” before the narrator dissolves into self pity, loss of self and/or claustrophobic angst at his own personal failings but he’s “alive”. A wonderful song and a brilliant throw back to those five young awkwardly shy kids who used to play together “On A Friday” over two decades ago.
Outstanding Lyric — “I have no idea, what I am, talking about”.
(3) Nude Originally titled “Big Ideas”, this song percolated for years in numerous live gigs before making it to the album with the revised song title of “Nude” and is the very epitome of Radiohead for me: A commercially likeable lullaby like love song, with Thom on stupendous form yet, akin to “No Surprises” on “OK Computer”, this beautiful piece of music (Thom otherworldly and angelic lyrically with simple accompaniment from Phil on drums and Colin on bass. Jonny and Ed provide a glorious “symphony” behind the 3 main protagonists) is indeed beautiful, but lyrically so downbeat! Your only escape from a hell on earth (your dreams not coming true, there’s “something missing” and the status quo of an established order is here to stay whatever you may do) is the hell of the afterlife if you try to escape into a virtual reality, fetishised or sexualised dream world. That’s my brief interpretation anyway!
Outstanding Lyric — “You’ll go to hell, for what your dirty mind, is thinking”
(4) “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” “Everybody leaves. If they get the chance” destroys me every time I listen to this superb song. Phil’s irregular drum beats, Colin’s beautiful bass and Thom’s gradual scaling up of higher musical notes on lead guitar predominate a fantastic overall band song as Jonny and Ed add yet more orchestral sounding background to a song I interpret of being lost in oneself as well as grieving at a loss the narrator is thinking of following as he pleads “Why should I stay here?” and the heart breaking wail at being abandoned and left by someone they love.
Outstanding Lyric — “Turn me on to phantoms. I follow to the edge, of the earth”
(5) “All I Need” is the Radiohead I have loved my entire adult existence: that bittersweet love song of unrequited love and the situation being “all wrong” wrapped in Ed and Jonny’s combined orchestral backing (with Jonny returning on glockenspiel — hooray!), Colin’s sublime bass, Thom’s return to otherworldly delivery and capped off with a beautifully loud drum “solo” from Phil over Thom’s ending piano. Adore this song. The crushing realisation of unrequited love this song evokes resonates far too highly with me, and one of the many reasons I adore it so.
Outstanding Lyric — “I am all the days, that you choose to ignore”
(6) “Faust Arp” Well where to start with this 2 minute and 10 second stunner? Ostensibly simply Thom on acoustic guitar and vocals with Jonny on lead guitar but mixed with another of his majestic sounding symphonic backgrounds, we hear a weaved tale of elephants in the living room and everything, everything in “duplicate and triplicate”, to live your life through human feelings and not what is imposed upon us by outside influences before a cautionary tale to end about those who fly too close to the sun. And there’s far, far more imagery in such a short song that conjures up feelings of being trapped or “stuffed” in oneself or more linear wise, an outside love that the protagonist is contracted to and trapped in. One of many, many interpretations for this glorious song. And a song I initially disregarded as a prelude to the remainder of the album rather than the stunning song that it is, and remains so.
Outstanding Lyric — “Exactly where do you get off, is enough, is enough”.
(7) “Reckoner” and one of my numerous all time and forever enduring favourite Radiohead songs. Like track 4 “Weird Fishes”, this is a full on band jam and each member shines with their particular mix in the track, Thom’s angelic singing and never sounding better through to Colin’s sublime bass and Phil’s irregular beats over that rare of event in the world of Radiohead, a pure love song without the bittersweet aftertaste or the cautionary tale. In fact, it implores you to reject the “bittersweet distractors” that “dare not speak it’s name” and rejoice in being human and being part of a greater, universal one.
Outstanding Lyric — “Dedicated to all humans. All human beings”
(8) “House of Cards” I’ve always interpreted this beautiful song on two distinct yet intertwined levels, from the personal and two people being in loveless relationships to the political metaphor of the titular house of cards collapsing under the weight of it’s own perceived power. I also rather enjoy the undertow of my favourite lyric below, of throwing your keys in the bowl of a swingers get together and “kiss your husband goodnight”, an interpretation I enjoy and smile at!
Outstanding Lyric — “Throw your keys in the bowl. Kiss your husband goodnight”.
(9) “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” and another band jam that is a brilliant cousin to “Bodysnatchers” above with it’s building intensity and haunting background claustrophobia as Thom belts out an impassioned plea to “come on and let it out” in a brilliant collision of a guitar led rock song. There is a guitar band in these five boys from Oxford, I’m sure there is! Not a tale of unrequited love but what could come of an incidental meeting or glance at another that gets lost in the mist of time. High in the mix is a spectacular guitar driven song but don’t omit the haunting background hum that accompanies this gem.
Outstanding Lyric — “Before you run away from me. Before you’re lost between the notes”
(10) “Videotape” Where do we start with this truly beautiful song? Before we delve into my interpretations (and as ever, there are many to be had), it’s an incredibly simple arrangement of Thom’s angelic singing set against himself on the piano and Phil’s irregular time beats. It’s beautiful. Haunting. Morose. Uplifting. Depressingly sad. Delete as applicable! It could be viewed as a suicide note or a death bed lament at a lover the subject of the song cannot bear to see again or say goodbye to. It could also be viewed as a videotaped message of love to someone far away. The iconography and lyrical content is fantastic, from the “pearly gates” and “Mephistopheles is just beneath, and he’s reaching up to grab me” but from here the song really takes a more positive vibe (despite the interpretations noted above), it’s a video recording of the “good days” and how the receiver of the tape is the “centre” of their existence, before the incredibly moving final verse as the subject implores the receiver not to be afraid and “today has been the most perfect day I’ve ever seen”. This beautiful song never fails to move me and I don’t want any further interpretations as I have my own, and I hold them dear to me.
Outstanding Lyric — “Mephistopheles is, just beneath. And he’s reaching up, to grab me”.
Like OK Computer in 1997, I can’t pic a hole in this brilliantly uplifting cousin 10 years later. It’s a 10 out of 10 unravelling of the human spirit after many dark nights of the soul and joyful, thoughtful, human centric and positively positive and pun intended. A positive Radiohead? They’re always positive! It just depends on one’s personal interpretations and, when positively not particularly positive, the songs still touch a large piece of the soul. Until the release of “A Moon Shaped Pool” in 2016, this album was my second all time favourite and I hope the above ramble has given you a flavour for why.
Before we depart, some recommendations for you should you be new to all things Radiohead and have stumbled here merely by accident:
“In Rainbows Disk 2” was released in 2009 and in between two pieces of incidental music are six brilliant additions and still firm favourites of mine, from the acidic “Down is the New Up” (and how relevant I see this song currently) “Go Slowly”, “Last Flowers to the Hospital”, “Up on the Ladder”, a return of the acidity earlier with “Bangers and Mash” before concluding with “4 Minute Warning”, a cheery number alluding to the annihilation posed by nuclear fallout! As a fan, and in line with my complete adoration of the original album, I adore these six too. Up on the Ladder is another venomous spit at corporatism whilst “Last Flowers” is for me yet another beautifully mournful love song mixed with Thom’s (our?) feeling of alienation from a real world with “appliances have gone berserk. I cannot keep up” to desperately wanting a loved one to offer him “escape” from his torments.
Radiohead would sign off from 2007 with two rough and home produced webcasts with the second recorded live on New Years Eve and called “Scotch Mist”, a fascinating and trippy hour with the band as songs from the album are intermingled with pieces of poetry and spoken word and by far their greatest “promotion” of the album came when they recorded “In Rainbows — From the Basement” for music channel VH1. Many other bands would come and go in this live format and there are many, many outstanding performances (as a White Stripes fan I highly recommend their appearance) but Radiohead and their live version of this album, and a couple of additional extras is just superb.
My second, now third all time Radiohead album. Links below to my previous blogs on the boys from Oxford and three more will follow on albums The King of Limbs, A Moon Shaped Pool and a secret third one!
Radiohead, Pablo Honey
and how I came to love this early unruly childmedium.com
Radiohead, OK Computer
And how saying no to The Bends saved my life.medium.com
Radiohead, Kid A and Kid B
and do we all have collective amnesia or is Kid B far better than is critically recognised?medium.com
Radiohead and a Hail to a Thief
The “prog rock” album that isn’t really but continues to age like a fine whinemedium.com
