Day 372: Radiohead – In Rainbows
I splashed out and bought myself new headphones as a reward for doing this for a year. I went for the Nothing Headphones (a) and let me tell you, they’re phenomenal. I’m not getting paid to say that, I just genuinely think Nothing is the best bang for your buck within my price range. To celebrate the occasion, I needed a headphone testing album, but I’m also a bit ill at the moment and needed a comfort album, so I went for a classic: Radiohead’s In Rainbows.
Album cover courtesy of Radiohead
Radiohead was formed in 1985 when the band members met at a private boys' school near Oxford. They started off calling themselves On a Friday, based on what day they rehearsed at their school. They were offered a record deal but they refused it because they wanted to go to university first, but they regrouped in 1991 and got a record deal with EMI shortly after. They changed their name to Radiohead after the Talking Heads song “Radio Head”, and by 1993 they were off to the races with a worldwide hit after they’d released “Creep”.
In February 2005, the band had been offered a £3 million advance to sign a new contract with EMI, but they were unhappy with the label’s new owners so they refused. They also weren’t able to get anywhere with recording their seventh album, to the point where their own managers suggested that they should consider breaking up. But after unsuccessfully trying to work with producer Spike Stent, they went back to touring to try to get themselves out of their funk, and it worked – after the tour ended, they went back to working with their longtime producer Nigel Godrich and made In Rainbows. They self-released it on the internet as a pay-what-you-want digital download.
I honestly haven’t really listened to Radiohead on purpose since I was a teenager, it’s one of those bands that just didn’t really follow me into adulthood. Not because I don’t like them, I do, but somehow they just fell by the wayside. Listening to them, though, I don’t know why I ever stopped. I was talking to someone the other day whose hot take was that some of Radiohead’s stuff is overrated but I disagree, I think they’re just rated – sure, they’re called one of the best bands in the word all the damn time, but let’s face it, they are.
I think this is the perfect album for me right now, as I’m feeling a little bit fuzzy and woozy and this is an incredibly suitable album for that. It envelops you, Radiohead’s ability to build a mood and an atmosphere through their music is bar none. It’s almost unusually peppy-sounding for a Radiohead album, even though the general theme of it is mortality and the knowledge that you could die at any moment. It’s existential and a little bit unmoored, but also soothing – it’s not made to make you sad, it’s just warm and relatable.
Maybe it’s a combination of the illness and the better-than-usual sound quality, with a little bit of nostalgia peppered in, but I felt very much like I was in a cloud of In Rainbows. The production on this is immaculate and it’s the perfect album to enjoy if you need something to test headphones with. Seriously, why did I ever stop listening to these guys? Radiohead is back on the menu. In Rainbows is easily a 9.5/10.