Radiohead - In Rainbows

"So don't get any big ideas
They're not gonna happen
You'll go to Hell
For what your
Dirty mind is thinking"

Radiohead are notorious for being a profoundly sad band. It’s a key characteristic of their music that seems to run the whole way through the discography. From the grunge/punk origins of Creep on their debut Pablo Honey, to the ambient, stripped back instrumentation of True Love Waits from their most recent release, A Moon Shaped Pool, they have always managed to capture a sense of sadness and isolation in their music no matter what style they decide to attempt. They have undergone a series of creative transformations, particularly between their third and fourth studio albums, Ok Computer and Kid A. The latter of which found them completely ditching the alternative rock genre that had made them one of the biggest bands on earth at the time, and instead turning towards electronic influences such as Aphex Twin to make an electronic ambient album.

This can be seen as a notable division in their discography: the 1990s Radiohead and the 2000s onward Radiohead; Before Kid A and after Kid A. Their genre had drastically shifted, but it was still clearly the style of Radiohead. Seven years after this shift in style came In Rainbows, which perfectly synthesises all the ideas the band had been experimenting with for the previous two decades.

In Rainbows has one of the band’s most consistent track listings, whilst also displaying a variety of styles; some reminiscent of previous albums and some presenting new ground entirely for the band. The opening track 15 step sounds like it could have made itself pretty comfortable on Kid A stylistically, however from this track alone there is already an evident change in form from their previous work.

Why does this sound kinda happy?

15 Step is a really groovy song, bouncing along to a 5/4 time signature (because this is Radiohead) with a boppy drum loop and some nice warm sounding guitar licks. If you didn’t listen to the lyrics, you could easily pass this off as one of Radiohead’s most light hearted tracks. But just like most of Radiohead’s music, even if it sounds sad aesthetically, the lyrics are probably even sadder.

“One by one
One by one
It comes to us all
It's as soft as your pillow”

A song about death coming for us all! That’s the radiohead I know and love. To think I thought they’d gone soft on us for a second there.

And this is something the album explores the whole way through; a collection of tracks that experiments with a much more upbeat and colourful sound, while still maintaining the “Radiohead” style thematically. Lyrically however, In Rainbows is extremely stripped back; something I didn’t even notice until I bought the vinyl and saw the printed lyrics on the sleeve. Again, the same style remains, but theres something about In Rainbows that I find so poetically simple while at the same time extremely profound. The song All I need is thematically reminiscent of the band’s breakout song creep, but is lyrically superior in it’s execution of simple, yet vivid metaphors throughout the track-

”I'm the next act
Waiting in the wings
I'm an animal
Trapped in your hot car
I am all the days
That you choose to ignore”

Whilst tracks such as 15 Step, Bodysnatchers, and Reckoner, display a more upbeat and lively Radiohead, there are also moments of crippling sadness on the record that perfectly contrast against them, such as one of the saddest but also most beautiful songs Radiohead has released to date- Nude. Previously titled “Big Ideas” and being tossed around by Thom Yorke since before the release of Ok Computer, its great that this track finally saw the light of day on In Rainbows.

Other notable mentions from the album include the complementary tracks Bodysnatchers and Jigsaw Falling Into Place which take the most rock-influenced sound on the album and excellently blend it stylistically with the distinct aesthetic the album is going for. And finally the closing track Videotape, which has an extremely interesting underlying musical choice made by Yorke, explained in detail by Vox in the video below if you’re interested.

In Rainbows feels like a culmination of the various styles Radiohead had been experimenting with in the decade leading up to its release, while at the same time having its own very distinct sound within the Radiohead discography. It presents some of the band’s best work in arguably one of their tightest albums (and my personal favourite Radiohead album), which is not only poetic and beautiful, but at the same time extremely fun and upbeat. If you haven’t heard much Radiohead, this is probably the most accessible of their later albums and is undoubtedly one of their best works.

9/10