The furthest evolution of the spaceship will be a mere
bubble encasement made to travel faster than the speed of light, with
negligible wind resistance. Unlike predecessors Kid A and O.K. Computer, this
incarnation would not require complicated technology or electronics to propel
itself. Anything unnecessary will be omitted from the blueprint. Radiohead
would call it In Rainbows, and it would be their starchild, their Hegelian end
of sorts, in naked clarity.
It began as a blog called Dead Air Space, where Thom Yorke
& Co. regularly posted updates of their new project, including a cryptic
blackboard covered in potential song titles and lyrical snippets. In 2006, they
embarked on a short world tour for the purpose of road-testing said songs.
Later that year, they returned to the studio, keeping mum about their progress
aside from a few online posts. On Oct. 1, 2007, the band announced that its new
work would be released in 10 days as an mp3 download, and consumers could pay
whatever they wanted, even $0. The world watched as another pillar holding up
the antiquated whales of the music industry collapsed.
The music itself, however, may fall short of impossible
expectations on first listen for its unassuming texture. Only “Bodysnatchers”
allows Jonny Greenwood to shred, and for the rest of the album he relegates his
guitar to arpeggios and pointed-but-sparse chords. All instruments register
clearly and organically into the mix, with only the occasional lyric buried for
mystique, further emphasizing Yorke’s elongated melodies. Interweaving plucks
on “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” and “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” build to an
orchestral climax, as Yorke ruminates on surreal locales like the bottom of the
sea where carnivorous worms feed. Five to 10 years from now, common folk will
listen to a contemporary pop recording and not even flinch when historically
offputting electronics are incorporated.
This marks the first occasion where a Radiohead album could
be enjoyed in both Starbucks and on college radio, proof that they already
changed the climate of music, and are now cementing it as common vernacular.
For once in their career, Radiohead succeed at being ladies’ men, trying on a
genuine romantic persona in forlorn ballads “House of Cards” and “All I Need.”
And as the grimly bittersweet “Videotape” rolls the end credits, we come back
down to Earth and see where the future will take us.
