Rating: 9.2 (Very Good)

What is there left to say about Radiohead that already hasn’t been said? Explanation is irrelevant anymore to anyone who has heard their music to explain that they are the best band of the past ten, fifteen, twenty….ever years. One needs only to throw in their new album, In Rainbows, if they are inexperienced in this field. Driven by four years of waiting, Radiohead seems to have found a new energy…a more human energy if anything. They haven’t sounded so alive since Pablo Honey; or at least 2+2=5, but even that was detached and cold, albeit rocking.

Sonically, this album is closest to Amnesiac, but not near as depressing. It sounds like the album Radiohead should have made right after Amnesiac, and then spent four years on the expansive Hail to the Thief.

In Rainbows has Radiohead being almost vunerable, though it doesn’t start out that way. “15 Step” sounds like O Brother Where Art Though? Set in 2525. It’s a different way for Radiohead of opening an album; it doesn’t explode (Planet Telex, 2+2=5), or slowly seethe (Everything In It’s Right Place), it’s most similar to Airbag, as in its just…awesome.

“All I Need” is a beautiful unconditional love song, which may seem strange for Radiohead, but there are No Surpises that they could pull this off and make it so real, “I only stick with you because there are no others.”

There are quite a number of upbeat tracks here, Bodysnatchers, Jigsaw Falling into Place, and Weird Fishes_Arpeggi. Jigsaw is livid, feeling like a faster version of A Wolf at the Door. Weird Fishes_Arpeggi blends the band’s early days with their latter experimental days. Bodysnatchers is beyond words, it just simply rocks. Closer “Videotape” is implausibly sad, and is a perfect ending to In Rainbows.

Truth is, if Radiohead turns into the new Tool (one album every five so years), it will always be worth the wait. There has been no band (save, possibly, The Beatles), that have been this consistent in everything they do. But more importantly, no band that at the same time can be so coldly detached from human emotion, that they understand it better than those that revel in it.

wow:

Later with Jools Holland - Radiohead - House of Cards

Comus and enemyatthesix have some explaining to do!

They're being "controversial" and "different."

I don't think you'll be bashed for it, this is probably my third or fourth favorite Radiohead album. It's tied with Hail to the Thief.

its my first time to listen to Radiohead but this album is a very great album.

I've never really been a fan, should I give this a listen? Would it turn me around?

****, that took like ten minutes to come up, but I suppose it was worth it, for that was a beatiful performance.

Yes

^^ I believe so as well.