via//chicago

Radiohead - In Rainbows

I decided that tonight would be a good time to try a little something new here at via//chicago... liveblogging, sort of anyway. I'm going to spend the next forty-five or so minutes listening to the hugely anticipated new album by Radiohead and blogging my thoughts as I go along. I won't be constantly updating it though, so it won't be exactly like a liveblog. But hopefully it will retain that free-form sort of feel as you read it. But enough of that, let's just get right down to it....

1. "15 Step"
Nice little shuffling Radiokraut beat to start this thing off, almost a reggaeton feel to the beat. Thom's vocals seem to be completely contradicting the beat, but wait... here comes some melody. I really like this guitar line snaking through the song, counteracts the rigid beat. Sounds like a really cool amalgamation of the more pop side of Radiohead and the more avant side. Oooh, cool little sample snippets right there... was that children cheering? Beat is becoming a little more insistent and frenzied, swallowing that organ(?) drone. Great start to the album.

2. "Bodysnatchers"
Dirty, grungy guitar and Thom's vocals right up front in the mix. Another rather harried and frenzied track, Thom slowly slides down to the background before piping back up with some tortured wails. Lyrics are a little hard to make out through this middle portion. I like that little breakdown! This must be the guitar-heavy type of thing that some old school fans have been waiting for, but its no retread... thats for sure. The intensity towards the end of the track is really nice, before the quick fade.

3. "Nude"
A classic of sorts that has been floating around the band for years, this will be interesting to hear how a final recorded version sounds. Starts off with some ethereal moaning before some really low-end bass kicks in. Thom's vocals are pushed even further to the forefront here. There's almost a sexy sort of soul to Thom's vocals here, really sort of sultry sound to this dirge-like ballad. This is really unlike anything Radiohead has done in a long, long time. Its atmospheric like "Pyramid Song", but there exists a much more human soul this time around. Really a fantastic vocal performance by Thom this time around. Back to the ethereal moaning. The drums and bass really give this a jazzy kind of vibe.

4. "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi"
Quick count off and away we go... drums set the motorik tempo early on, propelling Thom's lyrics and the side-winding guitar line. "I'd be crazy not to fall / fall when you leap", Thom is singing (I think). Lots of great guitar and vocal performances all over this album so far. "I get eaten by the worms and weird fishes", Thom's paranoia certainly hasn't gone away. This will be a great record to really delve into the lyrics on. Drums continue pushing us on, past the schools of weird fishes that are pulsing and fading around our ears. This feels like a rapid descent into a dark ocean, with a vague sense of all the wonders just around you that you can't see.

5. "All I Need"
Whoa, this is almost a hip-hop beat right here. You know, a hip-hop beat in some alternate universe peopled by Jonny Greenwoods and Thom Yorkes.... but still! Thom sings about being a trapped animal and all the things you choose to ignore over squelchy bass hits and that languid hip-hop beat. Bells and flourishes and keys all over the chorus portion. "You are all I need / you're all I need / I'm in the middle of your picture", a Radiohead love song? Some piano kicks in just before the track kicks into overdrive, like a hundred layers of sound washing over my ears right now - piano, cymbal crashes, keys, bass, Thom. And then, its over, just like that.
6. "Faust Arp"
"Wakey wakey / rise and shine", welcomes Thom. Acoustic guitar and Thom's vocals over a stirring string section. Thom's vocals are rapidly delivered, a neat counter to the swelling strings and acoustic guitar. Some more pretty great guitar playing here. Interesting little interlude, I'm really curious to learn all the lyrics to this one over time.

7. "Reckoner"
Multi-layered percussion here, almost a trip-hop sort of feel to things. Another of those snakey guitar lines weaves its way between the beats. Thom's vocals kick in ever so slightly more high-pitched than usual, a little bit of Yorkian falsetto? "You are not to blame", Thom insists. "Dedicated to all you", he also tells us. Beat drops out, leaving just Thom, an acoustic guitar, and some backing ooohs and ahhhs. Another string section swells to life as Thom continues to croon. The beat drops back in as the strings continue. Again here the drums sound a little jazzy, but this isn't a bad thing at all. Suits the song rather well. Long, slow fade on this one.

8. "House of Cards"
Distinct, washed-out fuzz guitar opens this one up with Thom's disembodied wails floating in the distant background somewhere. "I don't wanna be your friend / I just wanna be your lover", not the expected lyrics from a Radiohead song... but Thom pulls them off quite convincingly. It sounds like Thom is encouraging someone to give up the trapping of an average life and allow themselves to be swept off the table. "The infrastructure will collapse", definitely another Thom against the modern world type of song. Almost sounds like a love song to the disillusioned and disenchanted. Thom wants you to embrace something different. Is this sort of a thematic continuation of the ideas explored in "How to Disappear Completely"? Despite the love song sounding lyrics that kick it off, this quickly takes a haunting detour. Maybe this is an ode to the dying human soul in the 21st Century. Then again, Radiohead is never that easy to figure out at first blush.

9. "Jigsaw Falling Into Place"
A gentle acoustic intro quickly leads to a more insistent beat, leading up to Thom humming his way into our ears. This is also a very rhythmic album, further evidenced here. "They got a Chesire cat grin, blending into one", starts to sound like another Thom paranoia song. But, really, who cares when the music behind him is this damn good? Thom starts to sing very passionately as the song goes on. Another nice example of the balance between Radiohead's pop sensibility and their more avant leaning. Vocally, Thom is all over the place on this album, reminding me a little of his singing on OK Computer. Nice, clean ending to the song.

10. "Videotape"
Lone piano accompanies Thom as he sings about his arrival at the Pearly Gates. Is he singing about reviewing the tape of his life with St. Peter? Interesting turn for this band, but maybe I'm reading the wrong things into these lyrics. Some really cool, minimal rhythmic accompaniment pops up. Another rhythm line pops up to mirror and slightly echo the first, sounding almost like a very short, clipped sample of a train rolling down the tracks. The echo starts to stretch out as the train gathers speed. Then the echo starts to outpace the original drumbeat, leaving it far behind. Some very, very cool percussion and programming work on this one. But really, its this piano that is holding everything together. We are left with just the echoing percussion and piano as we near the end, dropping out to just the piano to finish things off. Terrific way to end the album.

Initial Thoughts:
I am very, very impressed. This is such a focused album, a big improvement on the scattershot approach they took with Hail to the Thief. I'm only one listen in, but I really feel like this is just the strong kind of statement the band needed to make at this point in their career. No giant leaps foward, no misfiring detours, just forty-five minutes or so of great, great music. It reads like the perfect distillation of their career to this point, everything that has gone towards making this band so well-loved seems to be in here. We'll see how this stands up to repeated listens, but as of right now I can see this thing contending strongly for being one of my favorite albums of the year. Kudos Radiohead, you've done it again.

(thanks to Hicks Design for the fan created cover art above)