TheLostSocietyMusic

Radiohead: In Rainbows Groundbreaking or what???

Call me a bluff old traditionalist but I prefer Radiohead when they right a normal song. All these meditations in uncommon time signatures with bizarre titles, such as Fishscale arpeggio, or whatever, are far too pretentious for my liking. They could do all of this and make it sound uncomplicated with songs such as Paranoid Android, but now it sounds as if they are doing it just to frustrate fans such as I that are craving another High and Dry or Just. The golden age of Radiohead was the Bends and OK computer, before Kid A assaulted my ears with the primal scream of a band trying to ‘push the boundaries.’ I thought such notions had been washed away with the death of the hippy ideal forty years ago.
Any artist that ‘pushes the boundaries’ does so without effort and it sounds completely relevant and in place. But what I hear from Radiohead these days is like the worst kind of drum n bass fusion that I thought I had heard the last of when drum n bass splintered into the many ridiculous sub genres that were around in the late 90s.
Don’t get me wrong, Yorke, Greenwood et al are genii, groundbreakers and pioneers. I love most of Radiohead’s music. But when they were writing Karma Police and Exit Music… they were ‘pushing the boundaries,’ yet the songs were there and fluid and marvelous. So please guys give us a few more sing-a-longs and use those interesting chord movements, and let Greenwood do his guitar thing and do do those fantastic and totally original soundscapes but in keeping with a good poppy song. These are groundbreaking moments, these are great. Please, a few more before you get too old to be cool!!

 

MusicMan

I actually thought that In Rainbows was a really nice "in between" type of album that was a blend of Thom's personality which came out prominently on Kid A and on his solo album, The Eraser...and the natural progression of the rest of the band and their influence. Compared to The Eraser and Kid A, In Rainbows felt like a comfortable old shoe the first time I listened to it.

Now if you're craving more radio friendly pop and not so complex arrangements, you might be in luck because Thom is now gigging with a new band. Radiohead, he assures us, is not breaking up, but Thom has played a few shows with a band that features Flea of the RHCP on bass and Beck's drummer, to name a couple. And from what I've seen so far, the interpretations of Thom's solo creations have become a bit more funky and more organic, so much so that Thom is now dancing on stage quite a bit. Not that I like the way he dances, or that I even condone musicians dancing at all, but the new incarnation of the band surrounding Thom Yorke is less pops and clicks and more grooves. So check it out on Youtube if you haven't already.

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TheLostSocietyMusic

Interesting line up! Will check that one out

youwhoo

I'm a big Radiohead fan but I do have to admit that it took me quite a few listens to get into In Rainbows...I thought it was pretty different that previous stuff but after a while I started to like it a bit more.