IN RAINBOWS BRINGS DIFFERENT COLORS TO RADIOHEAD SOUND
A REVIEW By Finn DiSisto
If you’re looking for some good guitar melodies, great electronic beats, and a lesson on what an arpeggio is, Radiohead’s seventh studio album In Rainbows is exactly what you need.
Though it is from 2007, I was instantly drawn to In Rainbows when looking at Radiohead's discography when I was looking to try and listen to new music, and a friend had recommended the band to me for their different sound. The cover depicts a lava spout rising up behind the title of the album pasted five times and the band's name pasted twice to fill the space completely, with the colors of the texts displaying the colors of the rainbow. The design, font and random use of underscores and slashes all had me intrigued.
On my first listen, the first song immediately stood out to me, 15 Step. The song starts with a heavy electronic drum beat reminiscent of the band’s days experimenting with computer-generated sounds on their fourth album, Kid A, but then pulls you back into the world of In Rainbows with a smooth and melodic guitar that really sets the tone for the album to come.
My all-time favorite Radiohead song is also on this album, Weird Fishes/Arpeggi. For reference, an arpeggio is the notes of a chord played in succession, like in Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, with arpeggi being the plural form of the word.
The song starts with a fast-paced drumbeat that's sustained throughout the song, and quickly we’re met with the arpeggiated chords that the title of the song teased us with. The arpeggiated chords in this song almost make you feel like you’re floating, suspended in a deep ocean, like you’re one of the weird fishes referenced in the title of the song.
This song in particular also holds a certain place in my heart and in my head as a sort of a lullaby for me, as I found the track during a dark time in my life, and before drifting off to sleep each night, I would play Weird Fishes/Arpeggi on repeat and fall asleep to that floating feeling that the arpeggiated chords give off.
The album is not perfect, however, as there are some songs that don’t stand out from the rest sonically and tend to blend together into one while listening to the entire album on loop. The tracks all contain some sort of acoustic guitar with similar chords and notes, with a common time signature being used over the entire album, although it does switch up from time to time.
Compared to Radiohead's other critically acclaimed albums, mainly OK Computer and Kid A, In Rainbows has a certain cathartic feeling to it, as the album doesn’t delve too deeply into the minds of Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood like its predecessors did.
While OK Computer had a very strong anti-capitalist message from the view of the music industry, and Kid A took on an extremely experimental noise with songs like Everything In Its Right Place or Idioteque, this album keeps things very easy and simple while still holding on to the iconic Radiohead sound that cannot be described, but only understood.
In Rainbows is an absolutely beautiful album, with gorgeous guitar and astounding vocals, written by the magnificent minds at Radiohead. The album can be used as a lullaby if you’re not giving the songs your direct attention, and although a minor complaint, it still loses points in my book for this calmness. Sonically, though, this album speaks volumes to the power that music can have on an individual. Overall, I rate In Rainbows by Radiohead a 9.3/10.