(t5!) Heroes Of The Zeroes Albums: #14: Radiohead – In Rainbows (2007)

In Rainbows is a Radiohead album. That statement right there is probably enough to validate its placement in this rankings. But I’ll elaborate anyway, whether you want me to or not.

There’s so much noise that accompanied this seventh release. Overblown discussion of how the band’s commitment to release In Rainbows via mp3 by themselves, at least at first, would forever change the record industry. There’s no other band that would acquire this much buzz and garner this much commercial success only from the strength of how they attempted to revolutionize the way music is supplied to consumers (that could be a positive or a negative trait, depending on how much you love these guys, I guess). Thanks to the people of the Internet, the citizens felt overwhelmed back in 2007, even before you heard a single note from In Rainbows.

But, the thing is it’s actually very super fantastically terrific. In a decade where Radiohead were making extra effort to pull the rug from under their audiences, they presented us with their most straightforward album with In Rainbows. In a decade where Radiohead were congratulating themselves a little too much because of their constant experimentation, they gave us their most restrained album with In Rainbows. In a decade where Radiohead carried so much excess, they gave us their leanest album with In Rainbows. In a very ironic way, it turns out that In Rainbows is the Radiohead album for listeners who are already sick of Radiohead. They devoted so many years early in the decade trying to regenerate the magic enkindled by the electronic magnum opus, Kid A, and they were so weary of regularly falling short that they decided to say “fuck it” and create a straight-up guitars, bass, and drums album. It’s also a testament to how much we underrated the members of the band not named Thom Yorke because when given a stage to shine on, they actually shine pretty stunningly.

All in their late-thirties, there’s an inclination to consider this album an outcome of their maturity because of their ages. Or if not maturity, maybe security. In Rainbows sounds like the work of a bunch of men comfortable with their own discography, a Radiohead that feels like they don’t need to prove themselves with incessant innovative tricks. And it’s somehow refreshing to hear them conquer a proneness to think outside the box, which has shown in the past could be both beneficial and detrimental to their sound (again, depending if you’re a Kid A guy or an Ok Computer guy). Unquestionably, there are remarkable seconds when they reminded us why we celebrated their experimental tendencies of the past, like the unorthodox drum pattern in “15 Step” or the tumbling percussion in “Videotape”. However, most of these songs are stripped-down and unproduced, how they were the day they were conceived.

Spoiler Alert! I doubt that this would come as a surprise that this would not be the last time a Radiohead album would show up in this list. As terrific and as praised as Kid A is, as well as Ok Computer, In Rainbows may age better than any of Radiohead albums. Due to its accessibility, it may reach an extraordinary quantity of hearts, ears, and hard drives. You never know, when people 30 years from now look back at this album, they may declare that this is the start when Radiohead really got good.