Radiohead album by album

Interesting that you thought it was a dud. I think I liked The Eraser right away and found it rather easy to like. But being something that Thom did, I put a lot more listening into it.

Another one we haven’t talked about is “And It Rained All Night”, which I think has a rather clever groove and rhythm. I ended up making an instrumental electronic track that was very much inspired by that song.

 

I think Jonny’s solo soundtrack is worth a mention here really quick—because he was actually the first member to release a solo album:


Bodysong (album)

2003 soundtrack album by Jonny Greenwood

“Bodysong is the debut solo album by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood. It is the soundtrack to the documentary film of the same name. It was released on October 27, 2003 in the UK and on February 24, 2004 in the United States.

It was digitally remastered and reissued on CD and vinyl on 18 May 2018. Bodysong fuses elements of jazz, electronic, classical, and experimental music. Greenwood's brother, Radiohead bassist Colin, plays bass on the album. It is notable for be the first "solo" album released by any member of Radiohead.”

Bodysong (album) - Wikipedia

For those that haven’t heard it, it’s worth a listen. Very cinematic. Funny enough, one of the first solo albums from a Pink Floyd member was Music From The Body by Roger Waters (with Ron Geesin), which was also the soundtrack to a body-themed documentary, furthering the Floyd and Radiohead comparisons.

 

Dud is too harsh, I suppose. I just foolishly took it as a sign that the record was a bit boring, a first for anything from this guy. I absolutely should have given it a second, proper listen but my life was pretty chaotic then, putting it mildly. Didn’t get around to it. I also was starting to tire of the electronics, finally. Eraser was almost completely that, and I was deep into more guitar-centered stuff for a good while. I honestly just wasn’t the ideal receptacle for this record at that time. Once I rediscovered it years later, it stuck immediately. Go figure. Probably hearing and loving Amok and TKOL in between gave me the right context to hear this one with open ears.

 

I get it—although I was listening to tons of Boards Of Canada, Autechre, Plaid and others at the time, the electronic stuff is not something I particularly wanted to hear from Thom back then. It does have the feel of something made on a laptop and embellished in the studio (but still very good). Amok was far more of an organic take on this style with a full band later on.

 

Interesting side note: I remember reading that Black Swan was partly inspired by this theory:

Black swan theory - Wikipedia

 

Interesting—I had kinda heard of this term but never read about it very closely. I just learned from the article that there are what are known as “White Swans” and “Black Turkeys” too!

 

Pretty crazy to think how Thom has been working nonstop for nearly 30 years now, and pretty much having something new out every other year or so. I can’t think of many in music creating at that level for that long—probably Trent Reznor, Polly Jean Harvey or Neil Young come closest.

Though unlike Neil Young, what Thom put out in that time frame has all been mostly damn good.

 

I haven't kept up with PJ Harvey so much but the rest are all keeping a pretty decent track record, as far as I'm concerned (leave or take The Monsanto Years)

 

To me, Trent and Thom are the major artists from the 90s that have really kept their game up the whole time. You never really know where they might go next, either, but it’s usually worth keeping up.

 

Amazing solo piano version of Analyse from an awards show in 2006. The looks on Thom’s face at beginning and end are also priceless.

 

There is this from (?) The Henry Rollins Show, July 2006. Awesome version. Wow, I really like this one.

 

Drunkk Machine has a DEVO and/or Talking Heads vibe, especially at the end.

 

this is great! At first I thought it might be the version I have downloaded but it’s not quite. The one I’ve got has some guitar at the end that sounds distinctly Jonny

 

Good point on the Roger Waters parallel. There's even some "body percussion" on the intro of that first piece! I like this album, some of the free jazz stuff is a little bit... out there, man... but also there's "Convergence", which is an absolutely brilliant percussion composition — I'd say it's worthy of Steve Reich's canon — and brilliantly re-used for the score of There Will Be Blood

 

Bodysong is very cool but when I want to hear Jonny’s score work, I usually go for There Will be Blood or You Were Never Really Here

 

I’m a pretty big Neil Young fan, so to say his output of the last 20 years has been patchy is putting it charitably. But that’s definitely a subject for another thread.

Personal preference, but I put Maynard from Tool/A Perfect Circle/Puscifer in there as well. He’s usually doing something worth hearing.
Polly has kept the quality level high, though perhaps not as prolific. Trent Reznor has simply been absolutely killing it with both NIN and his soundtrack work.

There is really some fantastic stuff on this record. It’s a bit like Jonny first finding his feet outside the band, somewhat like Thom on his solo album. I may need to grab the vinyl reissue of this.

The closing track, “Tehellet”, is one my favorite things Jonny has ever done.

 

That’s quite rad. Have you seen this version of “The Clock” from the same Rollins taping?

 

B A D A S S.

Thanks!

 

Mon, 01 October

In Rainbows
Hello everyone.

Well, the new album is finished, and it’s coming out in 10 days;

We’ve called it In Rainbows.

Love from us all.
Jonny


THIS CONSISTS OF THE NEW ALBUM, IN RAINBOWS, ON CD
AND ON 2 X 12 INCH HEAVYWEIGHT VINYL RECORDS.
A SECOND, ENHANCED CD CONTAINS MORE NEW SONGS, ALONG WITH DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS AND ARTWORK.
THE DISCBOX ALSO INCLUDES ARTWORK AND LYRIC BOOKLETS.
ALL ARE ENCASED IN A HARDBACK BOOK AND SLIPCASE.

THE ALBUM DOWNLOAD AUTOMATICALLY COMES WITH THIS PACK.
YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE FILE DIGITALLY FROM THE 10TH OCTOBER 2007.

DISCBOXES ARE BEING MADE TO ORDER AND ARE PRICED AT £40.00 INCLUDING POSTAGE.
SHIPPING WILL BEGIN ON OR BEFORE 3RD DECEMBER 2007.

 

After a long period of inactivity for the band, this was extremely exciting news to wake up to that day. My birthday is in November, so I asked for the discbox and my Dad ordered it immediately.

I still have it, of course. Still one of the best-sounding records I own.

 

The discbox is beautiful. It was, at the time, the most I’d ever spent on a record (the exchange rate from pounds to dollars was brutal in 2007). Totally worth it. Looks amazing, sounds amazing, such a wealth of material. Kid A is my favorite Radiohead record but I think In Rainbows is their objective best. They were firing on all cylinders and even the b-sides are stunning.

 

It did take me some time to get used to some of the final studio arrangements after listening to live recordings of the songs for over a year though! Particularly videotape

 

I didn’t get the discbox sadly. This was the first album of theirs I didn’t buy on CD. I picked up the vinyl shortly after it came out separately. By this point I had a roommate who had a hard drive of downloaded music so I got a lot of digital music free around that time, In Rainbows included. Somehow I overlooked Disk 2’s songs, though. I’ve only discovered those recently. Some great stuff.

 

Once again I benefited from seemingly forgetting about the band a bit from 2003-2007 and not seeking out what they were doing live online. The songs were all new to me once I heard them, and they were stunning.

 

I also couldn't afford the Discbox at that time (was not too affordable for a full-time undergrad student, particularly when shipped and imported to Canada) and instead plumped for the pay-what-you-wish digital download. Boy was I mad when it turned out to be 160 kbps MP3 only! Could have said something about that upfront, fellas. That "you have two options, this unaffordable one or this substandard one" model was very frustrating as an audiophile, as was the bait-and-switch aspect of them going to a standard record label deal after the download had been hailed as a groundbreaking industry-wide shakeup in business as usual

As a longtime CD loyalist, I didn't even own a portable digital music player at that time... and so eventually had to burn the MP3s to a CD-R (something that was prone to irksome failure with the crappy computer I had) to do my usual headphone listening in a quiet environment. In that context, the sound quality of the download was particularly disappointing, and it almost put me off the album for a while!

Re-bought the album subsequently upon the commercial standalone CD release, and eventually inherited the Discbox from a friend. It's pretty good after all