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In Rainbows Radiohead XL; 2007 Originally Published October 2, 2010 on Probably Just Hungry

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In Rainbows Radiohead XL; 2007 Originally Published October 2, 2010 on Probably Just Hungry In Rainbows Radiohead XL; 2007 originally published October 2, 2010 on Probably Just Hungry Rainbows are not the first thing that come to mind when it comes to Radiohead. Just for fun, here’s a short list of Radiohead song titles that inject images (non-rainbow images) directly into your mind: • ”Creep” • ”Paranoid Android” • ”In Limbo” • ”A Wolf at the Door” • ”My Iron Lung” • ”Knives Out” • ”Subterranean Homesick Alien” Despite its title, Radiohead’s 7th studio album does no better with song titles like ”Bodysnatchers” and ”Weird Fishes”. My argument is that In Rainbows is largely important, but not for its lyrical content. As far as I can tell, there hasn’t been anything new in the field of lyrics since the group’s debut 1 7 years ago. For many bands, this is a big problem, but Radiohead is not like most bands. Thom Yorke, principle songwriter, is currently the prominent songwriter for this self-reflective and nihilistic style, and for good reason. My bet is that Radiohead realized this before everyone else and de- cided to tweak style and sound instead to make interesting combinations. So then, artwork is put nearly at the forefront - a true rarity in albums these days. The lyri- cal themes are monotony, universal loneliness, and self-afflicted emotion, but what we should be more interested in are the aural themes: wide open space, hurried movements, and abruptness. All three of these concepts are noticeably on view on the front cover with dark background, color splashes, and bizarre punctuation, respectively. If you’re like me, when you first look at the cover of this album you look directly at the center, mid-word and mid-color. This leaves the viewer lost in a space with elements sounding off left and right, which hints slightly at the lyrical content, but largely plays off the aesthetics of the album’s sound. ”1 5 Step” ”All I Need” The first track is the album’s jarring and asymmetric opener. With its mixture of glitches, hand- claps, and Yorke’s falsetto, everything is off to a jittery propulsive start. Once the guitar kicks in, everything seems to float away in sync and you hardly notice things like the lyrics about futility and abandonment or even that the song is in 5/4. The elements of ”1 5 Step” would make for a raucous mess if attempted by many other bands, but for some reason this odd mixture is grace- fully tethered. The second sample track makes use of Radiohead’s ability to make speed from sloth. ”All I Need” is a downer of a song. Its lyrics yearn achingly, the synth booms like a melodic foghorn, Yorke’s voice is dejected and broken - but at the same time, the track is a beautiful and selfless love song. Its energy builds and builds up to the point where it all boils over and Yorke starts caterwauling over a racket of cymbals, piano chords, and glockelspiels. This is the mastery of space and speed that makes Radiohead albums so graphic and synesthetic. Overall, the artwork creates a self-fulfilling aesthetic for the band. Something about it suits the band, and something about the band suits the artwork. The title borders on self-ridicule and it hardly describes the music. The artwork, however, links the two immaculately, creating an intuitive formula. Radiohead = moods = colors. We can agree that rainbows and unicorns will never (hopefully) grace the lyrics of Thom Yorke, but what is happening here is an odd formula of sincerity and self-awareness. And in case that isn’t complicated enough for you, I’ll indulge in metaphoric hipster syllogism: if it’s ironic to grow a beard and post-ironic to actually like your beard, then In Rainbows would be the post-post-ironic self-deprecation about it that actually shows how you truly feel..
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