After Radiohead’s hit song “Creep,” on their very first album, Pablo Honey, produced in 1993, Thom Yorke was on a roll. With the song having millions of listeners and being played on repeat on radios all around the world, they had to come up with a new album that would shock the world like “Creep” did and secure their legacy as a great band.
After the album “Hail to the Thief,” they created “In Rainbows,” a lyrical and musical masterpiece that changed the world. This album not only introduced some of Radiohead’s most notable songs, but it also introduced “Pay-what-you-want,” which allowed buyers to set their own price for the album, as the name says. Whether it be free, or a million bucks. “People took it as it was meant,” Yorke told reporters. “It wasn’t sort of nihilistic; it wasn’t that music isn’t worth anything. It was the total opposite…’
This album was released on October 10, 2007, and has a runtime of about 42 minutes. It was produced by Nigel Godrich, who also helped produce a song for the movie “Scott Pilgrim VS. The World.” This was Radiohead’s first album produced without their original production team, who they had dropped due to other reasons. But enough of the background, let’s get into the song analysis.
The first song on the album is “15 Step,” which seemed to be one of the least favorites among peers. The first song of an album usually sets the tone for the rest of the album, and this song does a great job at that. The song starts off with a more groovy beat, a stark contrast to the rest of the album. It has more of a pixel feel to it, starting off with vocals around 11 seconds in with the help of the instrumental change. They achieve this pixel effect by using both electronics and their usual electric guitar, blending the two together nicely. The animated video for this song was released in 2008 after the story won a contest sponsored by the band. Yorke arranged this piece in 2005, when the band was experimenting with new instruments. Later on, on March 8, 2006, Radiohead teased the song while on tour, and debuted it as their first song at Copenhagen. This is a great song, subjectively, and I don’t see why people would hate it. Although it doesn’t match the feel of the rest of the album, it’s still great musically, and really shows people that music isn’t all about guitar and drums. I would rate it a 9.5/10, one of my personal favorites from the album.
The fifth song on the album is “All I Need,” which is a great song musically. The obvious theme of this is needing someone, but if you look further, the song is actually about obsession and unrequited love. This song is one of the first to set a theme or an underlying message, which helps viewers understand more about the song and Thom Yorke himself. The song starts off slower, matching the tempo of “Nude.” “All I Need” works great with the ribbon-like music instruments, which feels like something is soaring or flying, even though that description sounds corny. The vocals don’t start until around 37 seconds in, giving us time to enjoy the music. The lyrics also have themes to them, which makes the song flow well together. Overall, I’d give this song a 10/10, as it’s (now) one of my favorites.
The last song, one of my favorites, is “Jigsaws Falling into Place.” This song was produced on “In Rainbows,” but was later released as a single. This song is a favorite among peers and fans, and it’s amazing. The fast tempo and soft lyrics have a great contrast and make the song sound amazing. I think this song deserves all the recognition it gets, and I’d rate it a 10/10.
Overall, this album is amazing. It provides great contrast to their other albums and sounds like a musical rollercoaster. If you haven’t already, I would definitely recommend listening to this album. I could go and and on about the musicality of the album and never get bored, and I think this may have been one of Radiohead’s top three albums. Radiohead may have too much ‘radio,’ but you can never have too much of them on your playlist.
