The Daily Spin, January 21
Radiohead | In Rainbows
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here.
If you want to suggest an album, good news! You can do so right here!
Album: In Rainbows (2007)
Artist: Radiohead
Link:
Longevity is something worth acknowledging - we have known this since time immemorial. WE celebrate streaks, the iron men and women that have shaped our society. We, too, celebrate dynastic performance - look at the Hall of Fames for every major sport, and you’ll see people who were the best of the best - but moreover, people who could do that for long enough that they were no longer flashes in the pan.
Radiohead is exactly that. For what, nearly 30 years now, they’ve been the best of the best in so many ways, innovative and consistent, a new face on the scene that has now become part of the institution of pop music, but even greater than that, the face of music in our generation and the generations before and after us. Timeless, even.
In Rainbows is timeless. Through muddled synths and clear falsettos both, the album paints a picture of a return to earth, a coming back down after 2003’s Hail To The Thief. It’s the end of a long arc, but it’s also a new beginning. It’s melancholy and hopeful and the sound of all things at once coming together in a cacophony both absurd and simple. It’s beautiful. It’s timeless.
Rating: 9.3/10
Best Tracks: All I Need; Bodysnatchers
Worst Tracks: Weird Fishes/Arpeggi