It's funny, I'm so familiar with this album, yet have never sat to listen to it before. I've definitely heard tracks here and there on TV or playlists or whatever. I even remember dear PoYB contributor Walter being excited about it dropping years and years ago, the pay what you will model for a major band being very exciting, etc.
In Rainbows is basically what I'd expect from a Radiohead album post all the classic Kid A and OK Computer output. Right out of the gate is the high tempo nonsense à la one of my favorite tracks, "Idioteque," in "15 Step." From there, it's playing around with the their different modes and styles, while and also keeping Thom Yorke's whiny spacy voice as an always constant. Different parts of the album are real spikes for me, like the opening piano machine (?) of "All I Need" and the guitar melody of "Reckoner." The Arpeggi part of "Arpeggi" is pretty good. These are stray observations.
"All I Need" is enough to make me like the slower tracks too, though ultimately my favorite parts are the quicker songs, since you also have "Nude" being kinda boring. The album earns its keep through and through, but it starts and ends strongly. "Videotape" is the closeout you'd want slash expect, overdrawn and fully indulgent.
I was at least double digit years old before I saw a rainbow in real life, but had seen and read about them in books dozens and dozens of times before then. I find that odd, in retrospect, and I'm reminded of that even now when I see a rainbow, common enough with all the rain we're getting. There is something viscerally more brilliant, more bright and colorful, about even the faintest in-sky rainbow above and beyond productions placed on the page, especially placed on pages for children. I don't know what Radiohead is going for in this album, it's not always off the page, but there are moments of really tasting color.
No comments:
Post a Comment