Radiohead album by album

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by ponkine, Jul 11, 2020.

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  1. ponkine

    ponkine Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Villarrica, Chile
    On 10 October 2007, the band released their seventh studio album 'In Rainbows'

    It was the first Radiohead album since they ended they contract with EMI/Parlophone, and it created such a buzz with the 'Pay what you want' (even for free) approach

    From Wikipedia:

    In Rainbows is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was self-released on 10 October 2007 as a pay-what-you-want download, followed by a physical release internationally through XL Recordings in December 2007 and in North America through TBD Records on 1 January 2008. It was Radiohead's first release after their recording contract with EMI ended with their previous album Hail to the Thief (2003).

    Radiohead began work on In Rainbows in early 2005. In 2006, after initial recording sessions with new producer Spike Stent proved fruitless, the band toured Europe and North America, performing the new material. After re-enlisting longtime producer Nigel Godrich, Radiohead recorded in the country houses Halswell House and Tottenham House, Godrich's London studio, and Radiohead's Oxfordshire studio. In Rainbows is more personal than previous Radiohead albums, with singer Thom Yorke describing it as "seduction songs".[1] Radiohead incorporated a variety of styles and instruments, using electronic instruments, strings, piano, and the ondes Martenot.

    The pay-what-you-want release, the first for a major act, made headlines around the world and sparked debate about implications for the music industry. Radiohead promoted In Rainbows with webcasts, remix and music video competitions, a worldwide tour, and videos for the singles "Jigsaw Falling into Place", "Nude", "House of Cards" and "Reckoner". The retail release topped the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200, and by October 2008 In Rainbows had sold over three million copies worldwide. It received critical acclaim, winning Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package, and was ranked one of the best albums of the year and the decade by various publications. Rolling Stone ranked In Rainbows on its updated lists of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time at number 336 in 2012 and 387 in 2020.

    Disc 1

    1. "15 Step" 3:58
    2. "Bodysnatchers" 4:02
    3. "Nude" 4:15
    4. "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" 5:18
    5. "All I Need" 3:49
    6. "Faust Arp" 2:10
    7. "Reckoner" 4:50
    8. "House of Cards" 5:28
    9. "Jigsaw Falling into Place" 4:09
    10. "Videotape" 4:40


    Disc 2

    1. "MK 1" 1:03
    2. "Down Is the New Up" 4:59
    3. "Go Slowly" 3:48
    4. "MK 2" 0:53
    5. "Last Flowers" 4:26
    6. "Up on the Ladder" 4:17
    7. "Bangers + Mash" 3:19
    8. "4 Minute Warning" 4:04

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  2. ghoulsurgery

    ghoulsurgery House Ghost

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Oh wow, I’d forgotten about the bitrate of the files. That was a giant bummer!
     
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  3. WHMusical

    WHMusical Chameleon Comedian Corinthian & Caricature

    In Rainbows is where I came back to Radiohead, after ten years of wandering in the musical wilderness without them, dense me, unable to wrap my head around their post-OK Computer sonic adventures. (Not a big fan of drum machines, synth, layers upon layers of wield sounds, I just like adventurous rock music with your basic guitars, bass and drums, fed thru whatever...)

    Anyhow, being as I am an LP lover and not a Digital Downloader, I waited until it came out on Record here, in the States, on Janauary 1st, 2008. Oh glorious day/year... I was smitten immediately.

    I Played it every morning, first thing, and at the time my older daughter was briefly living at home, in transit, and she was sleeping in the room with my turntable so she´d awaken every day to the sounds of ¨15 Steps¨ (Ẅake up?) and the rest of side 1. She became a fan subliminally then. About ten years later she ¨discovered them¨ and abandoned The White Stripes to become a HUGE Radiohead Head, which she is to this day. She fell down the Radiohead Rabbithole, and I´m Pretty sure those early morning wake up calls from In Rainbows sunk DEEP into her subconsciousness and created the hard--core RAdioHead fan she is today.

    We both LOVE In Rainbows, our favorite after OK Computer.
     
    Last edited: Nov 16, 2020
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  4. ponkine

    ponkine Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Villarrica, Chile
  5. aphexj

    aphexj Sound mind & body

    Jonny's justification when someone asked him about it was "they're better than iTunes" (ie. greater than 128kbps, which was the original standard before iTunes Plus in mid-2007). But they didn't use the best encoder, and so that wasn't really a fair comparison. He also said they didn't offer lossless because "that's what CDs are for"... uh, okay?
     
  6. Daniel Plainview

    Daniel Plainview God's Lonely Man

    I actually just got the discbox this year. It was less than perfect so I got it for a reasonable price. The single LP was good enough but it nagged at me that I didn't have those disc 2 tracks on physical format (and it annoys me still that I don't have a physical copy of "Staircase" which is a top 10 RH song for me), so I finally decided to make the investment.

    Up until "HTTT" Radiohead seemed pretty infallible to me. But then HTTT arrived, and while I liked much of it (and learned over the years to appreciate the whole record more), a good half of the songs irked me. I was tired of the electronic beat machine and whatever whiffle ball bat lightsaber waving past my head noise gimmicks they were employing at the time.

    I was kind of busy at the time anyway. Sometimes I get into a snobbish "I don't need any more 'new' music" state of mind. So when "In Rainbows" arrived I paid $2 for the download and bought the CD when it arrived, and the vinyl a little later on.

    I remember listening to it for the first time in the car on the way to my night job. It was not a great time for me. I was working around the clock, 13 or 14 hours a day (and would continue to do so for several more years). I could probably have just worked one job and not spent my savings on records but if you want to dance you gotta pay the fiddler.

    Initial impressions were the album was better and more focused than HTTT, yet something about it left me unsatisfied. I still sorta feel that way. There's nothing on the record that I don't like, really, but nothing moves me the way the Bends-Kid A era does, but it arrived at a different time of my life, so maybe I was less receptive.

    When the album leads off with the electronic beat of "15 Steps" I was like, 'aww here we go again with this techno ****', but mercifully the record isn't like that the rest of the way.

    I've always liked "Fishes" and "Jigsaw" best.

    I liked "Down is New up" on disc 2 a lot. It's primarily the reason I felt compelled to buy the fancy set and not just settle for a questionable burnt CD. Still, the content didn't exactly justify the price tag, but whatever. I've wasted money on worse than this.
     
  7. WHMusical

    WHMusical Chameleon Comedian Corinthian & Caricature

    $2!?!? Big Spender!!! (JK)

    Cd and LP bought too! and Deluxe!
     
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  8. aphexj

    aphexj Sound mind & body

    In retrospect, the PWYW files (again — for context — this was the same quality being offered for free over at other bands' MySpace pages) were not even worth that much. I think I read that most people paid around $5–10 USD, don't remember the exact median number

    Would have gladly paid $10+ for FLAC or WAV but this stuff was over most peoples' heads at the time (including the band, apparently)
     
  9. ghoulsurgery

    ghoulsurgery House Ghost

    Location:
    New Jersey
    It was a brilliant marketing move, though. It got the record so much attention, and I’m sure a lot of folks checked out the record that would not have otherwise.

    Now we just need them to finally press the disk 2 songs on vinyl! I have “4 min warning” on the b side of a 7” but that’s it
     
  10. ponkine

    ponkine Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Villarrica, Chile
    I must confess that I got the album for free at first.
    Have heard 'The Eraser' the previous year, and I didn't know what to expect. I liked 'The Eraser' a lot, but I missed the band sound. I was afraid to find a Eraser II with 'In Rainbows', so I decided to listen to the album complete and then decide to get or not the CD.

    To my surprise, it was far less electronic than I've imagined. It was the sound of a band playing together ... in a basement! but not a throwaway by any means. A carefully planned performance with tons of details and nuances from start to finish. To my delight, half year later the band did play together in a basement

    My least favourite track is ... the most electronic. '15 Step'
    And my favourites are 'Nude' (fan of the song since it was 'Big Ideas' in the 90s), 'Weird Fishes', 'All I Need', 'House of Cards' and 'Videotape'

    Over the years it's become a top 5 Radiohead album
     
  11. WHMusical

    WHMusical Chameleon Comedian Corinthian & Caricature

    ¨House of Cards¨ and ¨Jigsaw Puzzle Falling Into Place¨ for me.

    Will have to revisit ¨Nude.¨
     
  12. aphexj

    aphexj Sound mind & body

    Yes! That's the "Nude" single you're talking about, right? In particular, I would like to hear "Go Slowly" remastered for vinyl, as it suffers from the same crunchy limiter distortion that I last brought up for "Sail to the Moon". It certainly doesn't do their quiet ballads any favours to be slammed into the red so much...
     
  13. CassetteDek

    CassetteDek social distancing since 1979

    Location:
    Chicago
    I seem to remember it being pretty obvious right off the bat that the band was on an entirely new level of... whatever it is they do. The stitch work on their influences was fairly seamless here.

    Starting with this record, their output either becomes too difficult to categorize or is so freaking good it doesn’t matter what the category is. Both options are great.
     
  14. Chrome_Head

    Chrome_Head Planetary Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA.
    I can remember when the digital tracks hit--I had to go to work very early that day (I was working a freelance A/V technician job) but I made time to listen to the songs, and I remember me and a few other co-workers excitedly discussing them.

    When was the last time you had an excited discussion with co-workers / semi-strangers about NEW music? That's how huge this was at the time. There was a big sense that the band were finally back (both figuratively and literally).

    I'm so glad I got the discbox set. Definitely "All I Need"-ed in terms of this album, I never had to double dip on it.

    I wish other bands, like Tool, had adopted this discbox option (45rpm pressings, album on CD, CD of extras) for their newer albums.

    I forgot to mention it when we were discussing the tracks, but I once read in a review that someone wrote that it sounded like the band "fired off a laser" at the end of "Backdrifts" on HTTT. I never forgot that, and now every time I hear it, I think of that and laugh.

    I think it's pretty astounding that the band were still able to find a new angle on their sound that late in the game. I think Thom calling them "sensual seduction" songs or whatever is interesting but spot on. The whole album mostly has a languid, sensual tone to it.

    The time off certainly did the band well--and that was reflected in the quality of the album also, IMO.
     
    Last edited: Nov 16, 2020
  15. CassetteDek

    CassetteDek social distancing since 1979

    Location:
    Chicago
    Yes. His vocals fit the material so well too. He’s tapped into some soulful side of himself, it’s some Smokey Robinson-level stuff he pulls off. That’s just the lead vocals. All the backup and/or counterpoint harmonies are insanely cool and beautiful motifs in their own right.
     
  16. Chrome_Head

    Chrome_Head Planetary Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA.
    I spun The Eraser in its entirety the other night--hadn't heard it in ages. He started to do very cool stuff with harmonies there. I don't remember that many stacked harmonies on Radiohead's older stuff, though I'm probably forgetting something.

    That experimentation with the vocals seemed to carry over to In Rainbows.
     
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  17. CassetteDek

    CassetteDek social distancing since 1979

    Location:
    Chicago
    That approach did start to appear on certain HTTT songs, I’d say. Young Blood, I Will, the end of Go to Sleep, etc. But it’s much more to the fore on Eraser and In Rainbows, for sure.
     
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  18. drsmuts

    drsmuts Forum Resident

    Location:
    Essex
    I love this album. That crunchy intro to Bodysnatchers is my ringtone and Nude and House of Cards are wonderful.

    However all of them pale against All I Need which is probably my favourite Radiohead song.
     
  19. ghoulsurgery

    ghoulsurgery House Ghost

    Location:
    New Jersey
    I’ve managed to see every song from In Rainbows live, the only Radiohead album I’ve pulled that off for. It definitely helps that I saw some of the 2006 shows as well as the 2008 IR proper tour. I think they retired “jigsaw” and “Faust arp” right after that tour.
     
  20. ghoulsurgery

    ghoulsurgery House Ghost

    Location:
    New Jersey
    “Faust Arp” is such a cool brief song. I remember being really surprised by that one. It may have been the only one they didn’t road test? I remember seeing the title and figuring it would be “Treefingers” part 2. The last thing I expected was a pretty acoustic song!
     
  21. Chrome_Head

    Chrome_Head Planetary Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA.
    Oh duh, of course on "I Will".

    That's what I really like about this album, there's no dead weight or anything that feels like filler on it.
     
  22. LarsO

    LarsO Forum Resident

    Amazing album! It was probably the peak of my life as a Radiohead fan. It happened during a brief period of life where I had some financial flexibility. The moment the tour was announced and I saw no dates in Norway I bought four tickets for Victoria Park, London. The funny thing is that between buying the tickets and going to the concert I met my future wife and we became a couple and she went with me. She was/is not a major Radiohead fan but we both enjoyed the trip and the concert.

    As for the album I got a digital copy from a friend. He was my flatmate at the time and got the discbox. I bought the standard CD as soon as it was released January 2008.

    I also enjoyed the whole online video happening (Scotch Mist) and saw the surprise gig online when it happened.
     
  23. MothMonsterMan

    MothMonsterMan I am a moth who just wants to eat your flag

    Location:
    Tampa, FL USA
    This album is the reason I have a record player.
    When the ' pay what you want' was offered; I wanted to give the band my $£€ because I was, and am, a very big fan. But I don't pay for digital. So, I went with the discbox. Which necessitated a turntable. Which has cost me considerably more than eighty bucks in the subsequent 13 years. But, I'm pretty happy with my record collection now. Which, I ,likely, wouldn't have, had it not been for the "Pay what you want" option.
    Same here. Close with HTTT but haven't seen 'I Will' or 'Scatterbrain'.
     
    Last edited: Nov 17, 2020
  24. ponkine

    ponkine Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Villarrica, Chile
  25. Chrome_Head

    Chrome_Head Planetary Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA.
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