radiohead by zack

A Week With Radiohead's "In Rainbows": Day 1

5 December 2007
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Words by Hannah Clemens // Illustration by Zack Sultan

Many bands drift in and out of relevance over the course of a long career, but few can gain it back as quickly and utterly as Radiohead have. Regrettably, the groundbreaking method of distributing In Rainbows seems to have overshadowed the album itself, which isn’t really all that groundbreaking at all.

Oh, it’s good all right. In Rainbows contains at least three songs that could be included among the top ten or fifteen Radiohead tracks of time, if one were inclined to make such a list. It’s a solid, fairly coherent piece of work that showcases a group of musicians in their prime. But that’s nothing new for Radiohead. If it were made by any other band, In Rainbows would be a triumph, the zenith of their existence. Coming from Radiohead, it sounds more like an afterthought.

“15 Step” and “Bodysnatchers” start the album off with captivating, danceable momentum. “Bodysnatchers” in particular is a marvel, four minutes of pure reckless energy that comes closer than ever to accurately representing Radiohead’s live performances on a record. By comparison, the rest of In Rainbows is smooth jazz. Wisely, the band put “Nude” next on the list, and all the people who have waited ten years for a proper recording of that song will not be disappointed (except perhaps by the absence of Ed O’Brien’s guitar outro).

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Could someone remind me when the H-E-Doubletoothpicks the box-set ships (in the U.S.).

Rex Anderson | 6 December 2007
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I received mine not five minutes ago, as it happens. Disc 2 is available on most BitTorrent sites if you can’t wait.

Hannah Clemens | 12 December 2007

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