2008 Woodie Awards
CD REVIEW: Radiohead's 'Rainbows' paints unique sound
by Mike Slepian | Daily Orange (Syracuse University)
Issue date: 10/24/07 Section: Arts
Radiohead is constantly growing and the band's music evolves concurrently. Using standard guitars, drums and synthesizer on their latest album, "In Rainbows," the band creates an innovative and genuine album - which is what making art is all about.
This translates to all mediums: paint is paint, it hasn't advanced very far in hundreds of years, and artists still find new ways to lay it on canvas. Bands like Radiohead are finding new ways to combine the usual instruments of rock to produce creative and original albums.
Even the marketing and release of the album was creative. The band decided to make the Internet its ally and release its album in a novel way. On Oct. 10, fans could purchase the album, but only in a digital format from the band's website. The price: whatever the customer is willing to pay, even $0. The innovative marketing of the album has been written about extensively in blogs and newspapers alike, but what matters most is the music itself.
Radiohead again crafted an album that synthesizes the two genres it dabbles with, rock and electronic, found on their most popular albums "OK Computer" and "Kid A." They also did this four years ago on "Hail to the Thief," but "In Rainbows" differs in a noticeable fashion: It is much more straightforward.
Instead of protracted poetic song titles like "A Wolf At The Door (It Girl. Rag Doll.)," we get "All I Need." The lyrics are also strikingly unambiguous when compared with the cryptic phrases that frontman Thom Yorke crafted on past albums.
"In Rainbows" alternates between thumping guitar-driven tracks like "Bodysnatchers," the jagged beats behind fuzzy resonating chords on "15 Step" and the familiar warm yet gloomy rock that made Radiohead famous, with "Nude."
The band combines these seemingly disparate songs into a unified album. The theme permeating "In Rainbows" seems to be that of love, of its stability and its transience. On "All I Need," Yorke sings "You're all I need," but he later croons "Throw your keys in the bowl. Kiss your husband goodnight" on the "House of Cards" track.
"In Rainbows" currently exists only in digital form, but is the actual, tangible album dead? Radiohead is planning a physical album release in a few months. Many are interpreting declining CD sales as an indication that plastic albums are dying.
Yorke verbalizes on the album that everything is temporary. Most people aren't ready to part with the physical album just yet, but you may have to one day "Forget about your house of cards."
This translates to all mediums: paint is paint, it hasn't advanced very far in hundreds of years, and artists still find new ways to lay it on canvas. Bands like Radiohead are finding new ways to combine the usual instruments of rock to produce creative and original albums.
Even the marketing and release of the album was creative. The band decided to make the Internet its ally and release its album in a novel way. On Oct. 10, fans could purchase the album, but only in a digital format from the band's website. The price: whatever the customer is willing to pay, even $0. The innovative marketing of the album has been written about extensively in blogs and newspapers alike, but what matters most is the music itself.
Radiohead again crafted an album that synthesizes the two genres it dabbles with, rock and electronic, found on their most popular albums "OK Computer" and "Kid A." They also did this four years ago on "Hail to the Thief," but "In Rainbows" differs in a noticeable fashion: It is much more straightforward.
Instead of protracted poetic song titles like "A Wolf At The Door (It Girl. Rag Doll.)," we get "All I Need." The lyrics are also strikingly unambiguous when compared with the cryptic phrases that frontman Thom Yorke crafted on past albums.
"In Rainbows" alternates between thumping guitar-driven tracks like "Bodysnatchers," the jagged beats behind fuzzy resonating chords on "15 Step" and the familiar warm yet gloomy rock that made Radiohead famous, with "Nude."
The band combines these seemingly disparate songs into a unified album. The theme permeating "In Rainbows" seems to be that of love, of its stability and its transience. On "All I Need," Yorke sings "You're all I need," but he later croons "Throw your keys in the bowl. Kiss your husband goodnight" on the "House of Cards" track.
"In Rainbows" currently exists only in digital form, but is the actual, tangible album dead? Radiohead is planning a physical album release in a few months. Many are interpreting declining CD sales as an indication that plastic albums are dying.
Yorke verbalizes on the album that everything is temporary. Most people aren't ready to part with the physical album just yet, but you may have to one day "Forget about your house of cards."
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