Radiohead In Rainbows (SS) by: Steve Scully Mon:15-Oct-07 Label: Independent Year: 2007 WB rating 92 out of 100

Earlier this year, Arcade Fire unleashed their second album, Neon Bible, to rave reviews. Whatever the critics said, however, the album was just a shadow of what they promised with the flawless Funeral LP. A few months later, Wilco (America’s answer to Radiohead, if you believe the post-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot press) uploaded Sky Blue Sky, and our hearts collectively sunk. You may make excuses – you may harp on about maturity and other such euphemisms for boredom – but it’s true, the album was underwhelming. Crowded House’s comeback was painfully monotonous; Paul McCartney released another shocker. The year so far has been all about those on the fringes of this mega success. As the bigger names fail to impress, esoteric acts like Bright Eyes, Andrew Bird, Akron/Family, Stars and The National have delivered the year’s musical highlights.

And now we have a new Radiohead album: In Rainbows, the latest release from the label-less and self-promoting monolith. With the added gimmick of the ‘choose your own price’ downloadable pre-purchase, In Rainbows must have ranked as the most popular download (of the non-pornography variety) in a long time. There isn’t a band you’d rather call on to fix a year characterised by so many big-name disappointments, but judging on recent evidence, they’re not quite the Ghostbusters of old: Hail to the Thief was patchy, with moments of sheer brilliance offset by moments of tedium and Thom Yorke’s Eraser fell painfully short. It was with breath held deep in our lungs that we pressed play on the first mp3 of the album, and with the greatest relief of all that we listened on with complete rapture. Radiohead have stemmed 2007’s bleeding, In Rainbows their fourth full-length masterpiece.

To start with, Thom Yorke is in fine form. Rhythmic vocal lines characterise a great part of the album – from the opener ‘15 Steps’ to the pulsating verses of ‘Jigsaw Falling In to Place’ – but the most pleasing aspect of Yorke’s performance is his belting delivery, each number delivered sans inhibitions. He’s still reaching for the high notes, still venturing to his falsetto (which sounds as sweet as ever- just listen to ‘Reckoner’, it’s utterly beautiful), and still layering gorgeous harmonies. All with an ease an enthusiasm so rarely felt from the elusive and reclusive frontman. In the album closer, ‘Videotape’, Yorke’s voice sits high in the mix, and he delivers his ode to nostalgia with intimacy not felt since ‘How To Disappear Completely’, ‘No Surprises’ or as far back as ‘Bulletproof… I Wish I Was.’

While Yorke’s lyrics are sometimes at their most indiscernible, his diction falling victim to his vocal acrobatics, there are some compelling moments of poetic wordplay throughout. ‘All I Need’ is a sinister-sounding love song, containing such convincingly original expressions of love and desire as “I’m an animal trapped in your hot car.” The chorus – “You are all I need” – is frank, if a little creepy, the disturbing undertones to this statement of necessity heightened by the song’s powerful crescendo.

Too often, Radiohead’s brilliance is put down to the Yorke and Jonny Greenwood combination, the high-profile mavericks of the band. In Rainbows is rendered a remarkable record due, in no small part, to the rhythm section of Phil Selway and Colin Greenwood. Greenwood’s pounding, distorted bass lines drive so many of the album’s better tracks: from the rhythmic opener ‘15 Steps’ to the smooth, intoxicating ‘Nude’, the latter some of his best work to date. Selway’s ingenuity comes to the fore in the sporadic, evocative fills of ‘Videotape’, the somewhat incongruously hectic beats of ‘Weird Fishes/Arpeggi’ and ‘Jigsaw Falling into Place.’

While its subtleties are what make In Rainbows such a successful effort, the up-front ‘Bodysnatchers’ is the energetic heart and soul of the record. While you may swoon a little when ‘Weird Fishes/Arpeggi’ dips to vocal/synth minimalism only to explode again with rhythmic intensity, fans of Radiohead will no doubt be in awe of the shoegaze/punk energy of ‘Bodysnatchers’. Cleaner, more polished and over-produced than The Bends, it is nonetheless as close to pure rock as the band has ventured in nigh on a decade. Somewhat of a departure from the experimentalism that’s pervaded their more recent work, the injection of their undeniable rock know-how may be a little organic for the newer supporter-base, but the track represents unbridled enthusiasm.

In Rainbows is beautiful, mind-bendingly vast, while starkly simple in comparison with so much of their back-catalogue. Don’t just download it. Buy the $90 box-set, then buy the album when it comes out in stores. In Rainbows isn’t the quintessential Radiohead album, but for such a band, the idea of a quintessential record is pointless. With this record, we see Radiohead stopping, taking stock of their sound and position, and looked outward for the first time in a while. Instead of trying to confuse the fuck out of us all, they seem to finally have found a compromise: they can still challenge us and themselves, whilst producing an endlessly palatable listening experience. It may not be as poignant and genre-perfect as The Bends, as revolutionary as OK Computer, but In Rainbows is another nail in the coffin for anyone trying to surpass Radiohead in the ‘world’s best’ stakes, they are a band with no comparison in modern times; a new album being a godsend for any music lover.