“I don’t wanna be your friend/I just wanna be your lover,” Thom Yorke croons at the opening of ‘House of Cards’ but don’t expect any sentimental musings. “Infrastructure will collapse…swept under the table…denial…denial” – it’s most likely not politics of the sexual kind being explored here. As ever, Radiohead is functioning simultaneously on all manner of levels. That they can turn the ills of the world into such personal laments where others resort to mere polemic is a rare skill, and also much of the reason many find their work too ‘depressing’ and intense.
In Rainbows is a return to roots album of sorts for Radiohead. Following the very successful electronic explorations of the last few Radiohead and assorted members’ side project albums, this one is fairly straight ahead in terms of instrumentation. A small amount of drums in album opener ’15 Step’ and closer ‘Videotape’ pretty much make up the sum of all the electronic programming in the music here. Relatively traditional effect processing fills the album, but never covers the playing, which consistently highlights the guitar/bass/drums/keys/voice backbone which the band has always used. Here the arrangements and performance are all. After the first two tracks come out at a frenetic gun-blazing pace, ‘Nude’ establishes the mood of the rest of the album – glorious melancholy beauty. The interplay of Johnny Greenwood and Ed O’Brien’s guitars are consistently understated and serve the song. The overall sound is remarkably minimal when compared to their output of the last decade. Where previous albums have contained stripped back tracks, these were generally interludes. Here, they become the focus. This is not to suggest that production has become bland – the 5/4 rhythms, clattering percussion and soaring atmospheres never allow that to happen. Radiohead’s trump card over the majority of their peers has always been their exquisite songwriting. The muse has obviously not departed and In Rainbows allows the space for the songs to stand or fall on their own merits. With melodies of the calibre of those found on ‘All I Need’ and ‘Reckoner’, there’s no fear of the band being let down by their songs. Mention must also go to Thom Yorke’s vocals. Amid a sea of copyists he still manages to sound distinct and, particularly when reaching his falsetto, spine-tingling in affect.
The politics surrounding the release are for debate on countless blogs, but removed from this, the music has to be admired for what it is. As with most of their work, there is a glistening hope underpinning the mood of Old Testament prophet sombreness. In Rainbows is unmistakably Radiohead, yet does not sound like any of their previous albums. The arrangements are exquisite and always subservient to the song. And Radiohead never lets the listener get away with indifference. As the concluding words of ‘Nude’ state – “You’ll go to hell for what you’ve done to your mind/It’s thinking.”
Adrian Elmer
