Radiohead album by album

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

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  1. JimSpark

    JimSpark I haven't got a title

    In Rainbows is my favorite Radiohead album. It became that way a few years ago, when for a few months, it became my go-to "driving-to-work" album. I'd leave my house around 5 am, it was always still dark. "15 Step" would start me out of my driveway, and would usually be finishing up once I'd reached the interstate highway a few minutes from my house. Once "Bodysnatchers" started, I was usually accelerating on the on-ramp or already on the highway reaching 70 miles an hour just to keep up with traffic. Quite the adrenaline rush :cool:

    And there was a part later in my drive when "Weird Fishes / Arpeggi" would be playing, and I'd be traveling up a hill for about 2 straight miles. It was so cool when the timing allowed me to reach the crest of the hill and see all the lights in the valley ahead, when Thom would be singing, "I hit....I hit the bottom....I hit the bottom and escape....Escape!" That was an awesome way to start the work day! :righton:
     
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  2. ponkine

    ponkine Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Villarrica, Chile
    Track 5: 'All I Need'

    From Wikipedia

    Radiohead debuted "All I Need" at their 20 June 2006 performance at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.[1] Singer Thom Yorke told the audience that they had just "sketched [the song] out earlier and might get it wrong".[1]

    Radiohead recorded "All I Need" for their seventh studio album, In Rainbows (2007). They used fan recording of the debut performance, uploaded to YouTube, as a reference when working in the studio; Yorke said: "It's all crunchy, it's all from mobile phone but... that's sort of an element of it I really find incredibly exciting."[2]

    Guitarist Jonny Greenwood wanted to capture the sensation of white noise generated by "a band playing loudly in a room, when all this chaos kicks up".[3] Unable to produce the sound in a recording studio, Greenwood instead had a string section, the Millennia Ensemble,[4] play every note of the scale, blanketing the audio frequencies.[3] He also overdubbed his own viola playing.[3]

    Guitarist Ed O'Brien used a guitar strung with four bottom E strings, creating a "thicker" sound, combined with a sustain unit (allowing notes to be sustained indefinitely) and delay pedal.[5] Yorke said that the final version of "All I Need" was a combination of four different recordings of the song.[6]


     
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  3. ponkine

    ponkine Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Villarrica, Chile
    From Wikipedia

    "All I Need" is a song by English alternative rock band Radiohead, produced by Nigel Godrich. It was released as a promotional single on 5 January 2009, the fifth and final single from their seventh studio album, In Rainbows (2007). One of the band's most direct love songs, "All I Need" is a downbeat track which sees frontman Thom Yorke singing of obsession and unrequited love.

    In support of the MTV EXIT anti-human trafficking campaign, Radiohead released a music video for "All I Need", directed by Steve Rogers, which premiered on May 1, 2008. The video, which contrasts the lives of two boys from different economic backgrounds, received critical acclaim and won numerous awards.

    Here's the promo video

     
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  4. ponkine

    ponkine Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Villarrica, Chile
    From NME 2007:

    This song was debuted live in June last year. Swathed in cello effects and cut through by a melodic, electronic pulse melody, it’s a semi-love song. Lyrics: “I’m a cloud of moths/Who just wants to share your light/I’m just an insect/Trying to get out of the night”, “You only stick with me/Because there are no others.”

    From Pitchfork 2007:

    In June 2006, producer Nigel Godrich posted to Dead Air Space a clip of various mixed songs, among which were "Jigsaw Falling Into Place", Weird Fishes/Arpeggi", eventual bonus disc tracks "Down Is the New Up" and "Bangers and Mash", and "All I Need". Debuted in late June 2006 in Chicago, this was the only new song performed on that tour not to be listed for rehearsal on Colin's blackboard.

    Key lyric: "I'm the next act/ Waiting in the wings"

    Here's the Live From The Basement performance

     
  5. ponkine

    ponkine Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Villarrica, Chile
    Not many fans of 'All I Need' it seems

    One of my favourite songs of the album
     
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  6. LarsO

    LarsO Forum Resident

    I think when I first listened to the album it was THE favourite. I have to relisten to the album to say how it ranks now. But anyway a beautiful track.
     
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  7. ghoulsurgery

    ghoulsurgery House Ghost

    Location:
    New Jersey
    I was super busy at work yesterday and missed the “all I need” post. Love this song! It’s a great, tense, moody song, which they’ve always done well, but this felt like a new direction for their moody sound to go to. It’s very open and leaves space for the terror to breathe. The “I only stick with you because there are no others” lyric feels a bit out of place with the rest on paper but Thom makes it work so well in the song. It really undercuts the “all I need” sentiment in a dark, dark way. I’ve always wondered if the ending of this song was repurposed from the old extended ending of “paranoid Android.” When the minidiscs hit and we could hear proper recordings of the old PA ending, it felt like an embryonic version of this song’s ending to me.
     
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  8. aphexj

    aphexj Sound mind & body

    It's "a mood"

    I vaguely remember reading a poem in University — I think it was by Margaret Atwood? Sketchy on the details — written from the perspective of a corpse hidden in the background of a landscape photo. The line "I'm in the middle of your picture, lying in the reeds" always reminds me of that
     
    Last edited: Nov 26, 2020
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  9. dloew

    dloew Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Was an easy stand-out for me, my favorite off the album during initial listens and still ranks very high. At the time i remember really liking this live rendition cover by Bat For Lashes
     
  10. CassetteDek

    CassetteDek social distancing since 1979

    Location:
    Chicago
    I agree with everybody, All I Need stood out from the pack right from the get-go. The bass and keyboards are sooooooo thick and enveloping. Then the glockenspiel adds eerie vibes. The ending is ok, but only because that main bass/keyboard riff of the first part is so strong. One of their slyest hooks.

    This is where the album gets deep into a sustained mood for a few songs, All I Need > Faust Arp > Reckoner > House of Cards. This restrained, more delicate beauty of these songs forms the core of the album, for me. Aside from Faust Arp, everything becomes so blissfully relaxed.
     
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  11. OUTRUN70

    OUTRUN70 Member

    Location:
    Portsmouth
    What a fantastic performance that is, just watched for the second time, there soooo good live,on my bucket list for sure to see them,
     
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  12. OUTRUN70

    OUTRUN70 Member

    Location:
    Portsmouth
    For me its in rainbows, every track has great sound, Reckoner being my favorite. ok computer not so much, moon shaped pool very good, prob my 2nd favorite, pablo honey very good for early stuff, just getting ito Amnesiac am liking that a lot at the moment, Has anyone tryed Anima Thom York's solo, also very good , and let me not forget Kid A, great stuff.
     
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  13. ponkine

    ponkine Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Villarrica, Chile
    Track 6: 'Faust Arp'

    From NME 2007:

    This song has never been played live before, although the song title did crop up on messageboards previous to its release. Moody and orchestral while at the same time catchy and jerky, unmistakably Radiohead-style acoustic guitar picking defines this song, hinting at the guitar lines we heard on ‘Paranoid Android’.

    From Pitchfork 2007:

    Nobody knows a thing about this one, leading to speculation that it's another palatte-cleansing instrumental, á la * Amnesiac * 's "Hunting Bears" or * Kid A * 's "Treefingers". The second half of the title could refer to Address Resolution Protocol, a means of determining one's ethernet address via an internet address. If the first half of the title refers to the krautrock band, that's probably good news.

    Key lyric: None that we know of. [ * Update: Oh, hey, lyrics! The guesswork was wrong after all. * ]


     
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  14. ponkine

    ponkine Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Villarrica, Chile
    Here's the Stoch Mist version

     
  15. ghoulsurgery

    ghoulsurgery House Ghost

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Like I posted earlier, Faust Arp was such a pleasant surprise. I also expected an ambient soundscape sort of track and instead we got this beautiful acoustic song. It’s a little slight and far from my favorite Radiohead song, but it works so well as a break in the album.
     
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  16. CassetteDek

    CassetteDek social distancing since 1979

    Location:
    Chicago
    Faust Arp kind of has that steady stream of lyrics to it, not unlike Wolf at the Door, but with more melodic twists. It’s really cool how it ends up as kind of a duet between Thom and the strings. The counterpoint melodies on the cellos are so supportive but always interesting in their own right.
     
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  17. aphexj

    aphexj Sound mind & body

    I found it! The key lines:

    I am in the lake, in the center
    of the picture, just under the surface.
     
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  18. Chrome_Head

    Chrome_Head Planetary Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA.
    Whoa, I've missed a bunch of this thread since the site was down earlier this week. I will try to briefly catch up:

    Bodysnatchers: Great upbeat rock track, ends up rocking harder since anything the band had done since the late 90's IMO. There's an awesome section ("Has the light gone out for you?..") that reminds me of Sonic Youth musically.

    Nude: I have to confess that I don't like this song that much, but I love the sound of the recording they got here. Very, very lush, and fits perfectly with the luxurious sonics of the rest of the record. Glad this song eventually found a home on an LP.

    Weird Fishes / Arpeggi: Here's where we get to the real interesting meat of the album--a very sprawling, rambling, dare I say epic track. The band hit on a new level of greatness with this song. Everyone's pulling their weight here on this one.

    All I Need: I love this track, extremely well done. Another beautifully lush song. Great mood and vibe. Not a lot else I can say about it. I adore the typically perverse Thom lyric "I'm an animal / trapped in your hot car".

    Faust Arp: A bit of a breather between the two sides in a way. Radiohead returning to folky acoustic balladry--good lyrics and musically spot on. Doesn't overstay its welcome either. I've always wondered who the line "I love you but enough is enough, enough" was written about.
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2020
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  19. ghoulsurgery

    ghoulsurgery House Ghost

    Location:
    New Jersey
    In 2007, I never thought Radiohead would release a song like “Faust Arp” on an album again. Fast forward to 2016 and it would fit right in with AMSP.
     
  20. Chrome_Head

    Chrome_Head Planetary Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA.
    Maybe I should save the overall philosophical waxing on In Rainbows until the end of our discussion of the album, but there was a true sense with this record that the band had come full circle in a way.

    They didn't need to be the studio innovators of the Kid A era anymore, nor the purveyors of the seething, neurotic agitprop of Hail To The Thief either. The band sound comfortable just being Radiohead, which was itself revelatory.
     
  21. tequeyoyo3000

    tequeyoyo3000 Forum Resident

    Location:
    maracaibo, vzla
    I got into Radiohead around the time of In Rainbows, I certainly remember the hoopla about the free album (never downloaded it - didn't have a home computer at the time) and I remember the remixing contest and the All I Need video. Not my favorite RH album, but it's pretty much perfect. So terse, 10 great tracks,, 40 minutes. It sounded like a classic even when it was new. The From The Basement performance became legendary in a way. It earned them a lot of goodwill which remains to this day. It shares a lot of common ground with OKC, there was that famous theory that both albums combined fit seamlessly or whatever. But they DID revisit a couple of old OKC era tunes for the album! Nude and Last Flowers.

    Bodysnatchers was better in it short version!
     
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  22. ponkine

    ponkine Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Villarrica, Chile
    Track 7: 'Reckoner'

    From Wikipedia

    "Reckoner" is a song by English rock band Radiohead, released on 23 September 2008 as the fourth single from their album In Rainbows. It was produced by longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich. The song developed while Radiohead were working on another song, "Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses".

    "Reckoner" was named one of the best songs of the decade by Pitchfork and the NME. Remixes were released by James Holden, Flying Lotus and Diplo. To promote the single, Radiohead released the separate stems for fans to remix, as they had done with their previous single "Nude".


     
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  23. ponkine

    ponkine Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Villarrica, Chile
    From NME 2007:

    Another highly orchestral number, this song pre-dates the ‘Hail To The Thief’ sessions and has been played live before. Thom Yorke’s voice sounds choir-like. A fan favourite, messageboards have already been humming with praise for the song, which is being cited as a standout track on ‘In Rainbows’.

    From Pitchfork 2007:

    This song was only played once live-- at the Gorge Ampitheatere, in 2001-- and yet it's on YouTube. Formerly known as "Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses", a half-decade ago this was aggressive and guitar-led, nearer to * OK Computer * 's "Electioneering" than anything the band has done since.

    Key lyric: "Insect bites/ Machine-gun-cameras/ You're not asleep/ You're not dreaming"


    Here's the promo video

     
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  24. ponkine

    ponkine Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Villarrica, Chile
    Live from The Basement

     
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  25. ghoulsurgery

    ghoulsurgery House Ghost

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Another gorgeous song from this record. I’m glad the old arrangement/song wasn’t abandoned completely and Thom eventually released it. It would be very cool if a studio take of the original band arrangement eventually came out
     
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