So maybe you've heard of these guys, Radiohead. But if you were on vacation for the last couple of weeks, you might not have heard that the biggest band on the planet have released their first new album in four years with virtually no buildup. In perhaps the most understated, huge music announcement ever, Jonny Greenwood left a message on the Radiohead Web site recently that said simply, "Well, the new album is finished, and it's coming out in 10 days; We've called it 'In Rainbows.' Love from us all."
Radiohead is no stranger to unconventional moves. After all, this is a band that was heading towards U2-stratosphere arena rock after OK Computer, with every Travis and Muse imitating their sound. So they decided to make a record that was influenced by non-instrument IDM performers such as Boards of Canada and Autechre. And it worked. However, the curveball that was Kid A (which was not really that drastic of a curveball, in retrospect) pales in comparison to what Radiohead are doing now: dragging the record industry into the 21st century kicking and screaming. By self-recording and releasing their seventh album, In Rainbows, via the Internet—for a suggested donation—Radiohead are rewriting the rules of how new music can be marketed and distributed (there will also be a lavish, and pricey, deluxe version of In Rainbows with a second disc of material shipping in December. Start your Xmas lists!). Most young consumers of music already get the majority of their music online despite the record companies and the RIAA making that as damn hard as possible. This move by Radiohead is significant, not because they are ahead of their time, but because they are clearly much more in touch with their time compared to the Luddite practices of the record companies. The funny thing is that you get the sense that Radiohead couldn’t care less about revolutionizing the distribution of music. Instead, they have just always wanted to be in control of the flow of information about the band, and this is the logical conclusion of that goal. They are hardly the first band to release new music online (Prince and Chuck D have already experimented with this), but they are the first band of this stature with a rabid, fanatical base that will flock to this album with virtually no official publicity. Move over, J.J. Abrams, Radiohead is giving a lesson on viral marketing.
Okay, but enough about the implications of this album. What about the album itself? Like, is it good? Being Radiohead, the easy answer is "yes, quite." Perhaps even more anticipated by fans was the question of what exactly this album would sound like. That’s where it becomes tricky, because it sounds, as a whole, like nothing so much as Radiohead, in other words, like a rock band that doesn't play rock songs. For an album that is so radical in its release, the album itself is relatively restrained. There's nothing extraordinarily experimental or shocking here. Many people will already be familiar with some of the tracks here through live shows or bootlegs, but that's only half the equation, as Radiohead have become experts at making the recording process part of the songwriting itself. As such, this is a gorgeous-sounding album. Part of the treat is in hearing instruments drift in halfway through a song, or in Thom Yorke's trademarked chorus of falsetto vocals in the sublime "Reckoner," for example. Initially, it might feel a bit less exhilarating than some of their earlier material, but that's due to the mellower, even melancholy, mood spanning the album. Album closer "Videotape" is a quiet vocal-and-piano number, in the mode of I Might Be Wrong’s "True Love Waits." The beginning of "Nude," with its orchestral flourishes and backwards vocals, sounds like a lovely Björk number before shifting into a spooky ballad with shifting echoes reminiscent of "Exit Music (For A Film)." "Faust Arp" is based around a complicated acoustic guitar figure as Yorke's vocals double and a string section augments the melody.
It's not all down-tempo, though. "Bodysnatcher" highlights the dirty guitar sound used in unorthodox manners that has always been in Radiohead's arsenal (complete with some wicked Jonny Greenwood licks). Album opener "15 Step" offers a false premise, starting the album with beats and vocals à la "Idioteque" before properly nestling around an infectious, jazzy guitar line. It also seems that Radiohead have been paying attention to contemporary indie-rock, as "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" sounds like the best Broken Social Scene unreleased track you've never heard. "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" centers around guitar arpeggios that recall an old …Trail of the Dead track but quickly subvert the explosive release of that track into trance-like oceanic waves.
Some will paint this album as a return to the Radiohead of old, but really, there is no going back to The Bends. Yet I can see why this idea will occur. These songs are normal rock song length, with Yorke's vocals clear and prominently featured, the lyrics seemingly more personal and less stridently political ("All I Need" being the most noticeable example). At the same time, Radiohead have always been superior at the subtle craft of putting a song together. So their simple songs, such as "House of Cards," sound incredibly complex, and their unconventionally structured songs like "Bodysnatchers" sound totally straightforward. In Rainbows can be viewed as the successor to Hail to the Thief in that Radiohead have again grafted the Kid A experimental approaches to songwriting, instrumentation, and song structure onto more “normal” songs. However, whereas the main flaw of Hail to the Thief was that it was a bit bloated and inconsistent as a whole listen, In Rainbows is, by contrast, a taut and coherent album. These songs leave you wanting more. They are also dense and well formed, so that when you go back for more, there's plenty to sink your teeth into. In Rainbows is an album that rewards, and maybe even requires, repeated listens. It's built for the long haul. What emerges is an album of great songs that lives up to the remarkable manner in which it was released.
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