Records that Rocked the Aughts Part VI: Radiohead's "In Rainbows"

The general consensus amongst people who follow rock music is that Radiohead’s Kid A was the best album of the Aughts.

Kid A was a studio-bred masterwork, no doubt about it. So was its evil twin Amnesiac. Recorded together, but released a year apart, they form a 9/11-era White Album – in fact, I wish they had released them together as such (The Red Album, perhaps.).

Kid A is the kind of quote-unquote “important, difficult" record that sends rock critics into a lather. But 2007’s In Rainbows is a more enjoyable and yes, better album.

In Rainbows has the intensity and sense of exploration of the other two records, but it also has more traditional rock & roll song structures. It’s the first Radiohead album since 1995's The Bends that you could put on at the beginning of the party, not at the end when everyone is up for a late-night freakout.

In Rainbows is the sound of a band in complete command of their art, showing awesome powers of rocking in tracks like “Bodysnatchers”:


Their mid-tempo tracks like “Reckoner” are sonically, rhythmically, lyrically light years ahead of all but a handful of artists.


In Rainbows also featured one of their most haunting ballads, "House of Cards," which seems to describe a failing relationship but also points to the global financial meltdown that was just around the corner.


At the time of In Rainbows’ release, the big news wasn’t the music but the paradigm-shifting pricing plan – pay whatever you wish at the Radiohead website and the record is yours to download. Or pay nothing at all. (I paid 4 pounds as I recall) Yes, this was bold and daft, but what will be remembered in years hence is not the goofy - and successful - sales gimmick but the very un-goofy genius music.

One of the best things about In Rainbows was that it showed, after the dark, Bush-bashing Hail to the Thief, that the band was still capable of having a good time, as demonstrated by this in-studio cover of The Smiths' "Headmaster Ritual" - something that bodes very well for the world's most awe-inspiring band at the start of this new decade, whatever it's called.




Buy In Rainbows on iTunes here.