Radiohead 'In Rainbows'

Tracks and Gigs have been bothered by the postal strike. My copy of the new Beirut album has yet to arrive, despite being posted last Wednesday. Which makes it all the more pleasant that 'In Rainbows' arrived approximately 3 minutes after I ordered it.

I'm not fond of download releases. I like to buy a record or a cd and peruse the sleevenotes whilst listening to it for the first time on my stereo at home. Call me old-fashioned. So, I will buying 'In Rainbows' in a physical format in December and therefore paid 'very little' for this download.

I am also old-fashioned in that I was a huge Radiohead fan up to the point when 'Kid A' was released. Just couldn't get my head around it, where are the songs?? I liked 'Amnesiac' a bit more and 'Hail To The Thief' a bit more still but I basically never stopped hoping they would come back with a 'guitar album'.

I saw them live in 2003 at Earls Court, which is a horrible venue. I'm used to seeing gigs in small venues, not sitting in an aircraft hanger while requiring binoculars to even see the video screen of the band. Possibly the least intimate gig I have ever attended. I also found Radioheard to be awkward. Every time they played a 'Paranoid Android', a 'Let Down' or a 'Just' they would always follow it up with a 'Gloaming' or a 'Scatterbrain'. I can understand why they did it, it just annoyed me.

I have played 'In Rainbows' four or five times so far and it is my favourite Radiohead album since 'OK Computer'. Its not a return to guitar based music or an album of songs with choruses that you can sing along to, but something about it just sounds and feels like a step forward and a raising of the game. '15 Step' and 'Bodysnatchers' open the album in a surprisingly upbeat way, the latter even sounds positively punky. After that a more sedate pace takes hold, but the album is never less than enthralling.

'Nude' is a quite beautiful ballad, 'Weird Fishes' is fast and entertaining and at one point reminds me of 'Planet Telex', 'Faust Arp' is a poppy Beatles-ish number and 'Reckoner' is the best track here, a sublime, woozy thing of great beauty.

For an album released as a download which arrives as separate mp3s, this is a remarkably complete album. Its an album you'll want to play all the way through, because it creates a mood of its own. This sounded great on Friday evening, at the end of a very stressful week and on Sunday morning, in the middle of a relaxing weekend. Its just a great album to listen to.

8.8