As I continue my weekly countdown of my own personal all-time favorite albums, I've arrived at #18: IN RAINBOWS by the British alternative rock band RADIOHEAD. Coming out in 2007, I was completely unaware of it until three years later when I decide to collect their albums to date and put them on my MP3 player...and then listen to them all in shuffle mode while on my long training runs. Radiohead is most widely known for their debut hit single Creep...not exactly one of my favorite songs, and it wouldn't be for a few more years until in early 1998 I finally began to see what a talented and creative group they were, with the release of their third album O.K. Computer and the single Karma Police. Fast forward nine years and In Rainbows is their seventh studio album. Radiohead has Thom Yorke as their high-pitched and cynical lead singer with Jonny Greenwood, Colin Greenwood, Ed O'Brien and Philip Selway on backup instrumentals and vocals...the music and lyrics are a collaborative effort although Yorke and Jonny Greenwood reportedly play a large role in the creative process. I liked In Rainbows for the wide variety of forms in their songs. My favorite track is Faust Arp, a short piece that sounds a little like the Beatles' Dear Prudence with its musical background. Reckoner is another favorite, a mournful and soulful lounge act kind of song that has a Marvin Gaye sound to it...quite a different kind of Radiohead tune. All I Need is a slow-moving, deep love song. Faster-moving, very rhythmic pieces are the opening track 15 Step and Jigsaw Falling into Place. The album's closing track Videotape is probably the most "Goth" track, very somber and darkly beautiful. I also liked...a little less, admittedly, Weird Fishes/Arpeggi and House of Cards. And the remaining song, Nude, is tolerable although I didn't care for it...still, I'd never deliberately skip it, either. I think of Radiohead as the best rock band of this century...they're still together although they tend to space their albums pretty far apart these years and have their side projects. One of these is The Smile, with Thom Yorke teaming up with Jonny Greenwood and some other musicians to produce an album this year titled A Light for Attracting Attention: it sounds like a high-quality Radiohead album...
Next week: Album #17...
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