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A sensual masterpiece that soars over all Rainbows

16:24 / by the gloriously humble gadi cohen /


Radiohead
In Rainbows
A-

The first time you hear In Rainbows, you just want more. It’s luxuriant and thin, tweaked with special electricity, moody and blissful at the same time. What makes this album scream—or sing, rather (you won’t find any screams on this album,)--is its ballad-like softness that evokes personality—something we haven’t heard from Radiohead before. Radiohead’s last few albums were packed with crunches that seemed forced and impersonal—attributed to the pressure placed on them by their record label—but In Rainbows is an insane trip full of delicate longing and sentiment. It’s a collection of anxious, polished tunes much lighter than their most successful album to date, Ok Computer. The track” Nude” is an elegant and thrilling ride into optimism, while “Faust Arp” is an uplifting snapshot full of autumn sensations; “15 Step” is digital jazz that will become a cultural masterpiece years from now, and “Videotape” is an emotional ode to one videotape or another. The only problem with In Rainbows is its lack of diversity; sometimes, tracks are carbon copies of the same mellow neuroticism, with no extraordinarily different songs. Even so, every song is a ticket to pleasure that ends too quickly. In Rainbows is a triumph, a nostalgic slumber into dreams of childhood, yet worldly and artful at the same time.

Reviewed by Gadi Cohen

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