With every album Radiohead falls further and further down my list of favorite bands. It’s not that I don’t like what they’ve been doing in the 21st century; it’s that I just don’t care about them anymore. Ever since Thom Yorke got tired of writing music that people really want to listen to it’s just been a drag being a Radiohead fan. That being said I had zero expectations for the new album. Hail to the thief had it’s moments of astonishing beauty, just like Amnesiac and Kid A, but all three are albums I don’t find myself listening to more than once a year.
In Rainbows can be purchased online for whatever price you feel the band deserves, in my case very little, and I don’t regret it either. To my dismay the album starts with that same damn twittering of electronic beats that can be found on songs like Hail to the Thief’s The Gloaming. Usually the sound precludes some very tiresome “Radiohead does electronica song.” Fortunately to my pleasant surprise the song turns into a moderately pretty little dirge full of the usual Yorke lyrics and the now usual Greenwood acoustic chord noodling. Unfortunately, it sounds pretty much like what you would expect off a 21st century Radiohead album, with a few of the OK Computer sound effects thrown in. Bodysnatchers, the second song on the album begins promisingly with a nice fuzz bass line and turns that into the best 4 minutes of the album. It almost sounds like a song a rock band would play. The rest of the album floats by without much reaction. I’m sure the lyrics are pretty, but there’s nothing interesting about the songs that makes me really want to pay attention. Every song on In Rainbows could be off either Thom Yorke’s last solo, or Hail, and to me that equals a disappointment. It may be that I just hold Radiohead to a higher standard than other bands. But dammit, if their early work doesn’t warrant it. In Rainbows sounds like a Thom Yorke power trip. Greenwood must be tearing his hair out trying to get in a guitar solo, or even a lead with a little overdrive in it.
In previous years Radiohead could be counted on to produce a life-changing, genre re-defining masterpiece. But there is nothing on In Rainbows that would sound all that foreign on Hail to the Thief, and that’s a disappointment. While I wasn’t expecting another OK Computer, at least Kid A, Amnesiac and Hail all had their standout singles. In Rainbows doesn’t, every song sounds damn near the same. It pains me to say this but I finally found a Radiohead album I don’t like.
Thom Yorke, what have you done?
IN RAINBOWS: B-
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