I've downloaded Radiohead's In Rainbows (you set your own price... I paid ten quid for the 160Kbps MP3 version... what did you pay? You can pay 'zero') and I must say this is a very interesting album.
It is an 'album' in the classic, Pink Floyd or Beatles sense of the term -- a cohesive whole, meant to be be listened to in the prescribed order I'd guess. (Radiohead have had a high-profile battle with Apple over their refusal to sell individual tracks).
Jigsaw Falling Into Place is a beautiful pop single; Nude is the same beautiful-yet-sad groove they've been mining for years. And Faust Arp is gorgeous, elegiac... lovely guitar work and string section.
Of course Radiohead's distinctive sound is largely thanks to Thom Yorke's soaring voice and sometimes falsetto. It is a strange instrument, his voice. It is very expressive and rings clear like a bell, yet it always sounds as if it is about to break. Sort of plaintive, but pleasant. I think I'm going to grow tired of it but I never do... he always finds new ways to draw me in to his stories.
They aren't just treading over old ground here: All I Need is channeling Boards of Canada (in a good way) and the high point of the disc is Reckoner where they channel gospel and Moby but with Yorke's unmistakeable imprimatur. A beautiful groove, and probably the most radio-friendly track on the album.
It's been stuck in my head since the first listen so it will take a little time to fully digest... but this is an album to be savored.
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