In Rainbows

Album: In Rainbows (Radiohead) - By Tetsuo

I paid £5, probably the most I'm willing to pay for music if I was given the choice. Which I was. Thanks, Radiohead!

The result of over two years' work, Radiohead's seventh album feels almost like a "Greatest Hits" compilation. Its ten tracks span much of the musical direction the band has taken from OK Computer onwards, including Thom Yorke's solo album The Eraser from last year. For the first time in years, they seem to have settled on their sound, no longer necessarily moving forward in a new direction. Nevertheless (or arguably because of this), it's unquestionably one of their strongest works so far.

For this one, there was no contract or label-imposed deadline to meet, so a certain amount of expectation had instead risen from fans eager to get their hands on new material. With the unexpected internet release date announced, a lot of attention had also been focused on the distribution method (currently an MP3-only release, with a collector's edition boxset out in December and CD in 2008), and that admittedly excellent "it's your choice" method of payment, which seems to have proven successful. Regardless, one thing's for certain, patience is a virtue because this is a brilliant Radiohead album.

Drum loops, electronic samples and twitching, erratic guitars are again the order of the day, much in the same way as they were in 2003's Hail to the Thief. Yorke's mumbling vocals are as enchanting as always; straining and painful at times but always honest and playful. The lyrics aren't as politically charged as they were in the aforementioned record, but Weird Fishes/Arpeggi is perhaps the most obviously twisted in that regard: envisaging our inevitable plunge into the ocean with a delicious sense of humour. It's the album's best track in fact: an absurd dream-like descent, with a haunting ending. Yorke had mentioned before that the album's lyrics are to do with 'that anonymous fear thing, sitting in traffic, thinking, "I'm sure I'm supposed to be doing something else"'. This is cemented by the closing Videotape, an evocative and serene song - it has just the right amount of melancholy which Yorke has demonstrated so well over the past decade.

Jigsaw Falling Into Place would have been an obvious choice for a single, because it's easily one of the most enjoyable songs the band has ever written. Some of the other tracks are finalised versions of songs the group has been playing live for sometime, with Nude a reworking of "Big Ideas" - one of the more older songs. All I Need is a love song (largely uncharted territory for Radiohead), but it's another welcome addition.

In Rainbows gets better and better every time it's revisited - revealing a humorous line or sample you didn't notice before with each listen. Whether it will prove over time to be a more enduring record than the similar Hail to the Thief is difficult to say, but there are enough strong songs here to suggest just that. It's strange to say that Radiohead are almost plain sailing here, but it's never enough to feel like it's all been heard before, because they continue to sound like no-one else around. It's just tremendously enjoyable throughout.

Same-old, same-old, then.

Eight out of Ten