Album Review: Radiohead's In Rainbows 16 years, 6 months ago by Martey Dodoo

Last week, Radiohead released a new album, entitled In Rainbows. While Radiohead fans were understandably excited by the band's first new album since 2003's Hail to the Thief, the rest of the online world was interested in the release's format: while a boxed set (with 2 CDs and 2 vinyl records) will be available in December for about $80, the album was also available for download last Wednesday for whatever price the customer wished to pay for it.

Despite this, there was a substantial amount of griping from fans about the bitrate of the MP3 files and the quality of the music itself. While I have complained about bitrates and lossy audio compression in the past, I am past my file format fascist days. While I would have loved for the album's download to be encoded in a higher bitrate (I personally like 192 Kbps), 160 is better than the standard bitrate of 128 Kbps.

By comparison, a 160 Kbps MP3 is similar in quality to a 128 Kbps AAC files like those sold in the iTunes Music Store. Unlikes in the iTMS, the "choose your own price" model allows you to decide how much you think the album is worth. I ended up paying about $7 for it, which I think was reasonable.

But while one could know the bitrate and format of the music before purchasing the album, it was impossible to know whether the album would match up to Radiohead's previous endeavors. Forming an unbiased opinion at this point in time is a bit difficult, as I have only been listening to the music for a few days,^[1] and I have high expectations for an album from Radiohead. With those caveats, I think In Rainbows is good, but not one of those great albums that defines a decade - like OK Computer, for instance. It is still worth both paying for and listening to.

My favorite songs:

• Nude: This song is dreamy, bringing to mind "Karma Police," or maybe "Street Spirit." Unlike those two songs, this one does not end on a hopeful note.


• All I Need: I like this song's beat and rhythm, although its lyrics are somewhat mediocre. It would be too much to call it a "generic love song," but its talk about being "in the middle of your picture" is somewhat boring.


• House of Cards: Probably my favorite song on the album. I mean, it starts with:
  

  I don't want to be your friend
  I just want to be your lover

  
  Passion while retaining a sense of pathos.
  


• Videotape:
  

  When I'm at the pearly gates
  This will be on my videotape, my videotape

  
  This song's lyrics are similar to the sentiments in "Motion Picture Soundtrack," the closing track of Kid A. While the latter is a better song, "Videotape" is not 7 minutes long.

Further Reading

• Luis Villa's analysis of what a reasonable price to pay for the download is.


• Pitchfork's synopsis of a Gothamist interview with Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood.


• A NYTimes editorial suggesting reasons why fans are actually paying for the download, as opposed to choosing 0 pounds at checkout.

--
^[1] My normal method of reviewing albums is to listen to them for a number of weeks, write an incomplete review that is not suitable for publication, and then get distracted by other music - which is why album reviews are relatively rare on this website.