Album Rating: 4.5
This album is beautiful. Regardless whether or not I'm in a "Radiohead phase" (which I recently got back into after 4ish years of avoidance), IR gets spins every once in a while.
The smooth, clean sound is unparalleled. Jonny channels his Wes Montgomery. Thom shows a little bit of Soul. The lyrics are poignant, universal, introspective, and inspiring. It's romantic and loving and human on a level RH isn't anywhere else.
"Everybody leaves if they get the chance, and this is my chance."
The sense of empowering agency in All I Need is captivating. Nude rings like it's a lost, angelic chapter of the Tao. The sexy swinger references in House of Cards. The entirety of the lyrics of Jigsaw enthrall me, from start to finish. The jotting a number, the song being just right, the scene is set up so vivid. The drinks are arriving. At the end of it all, she looks back at you. And you look back at her. Not just once. Not just twice. Everything is in its right place. Jigsaw, besides maybe Let Down, has gotta be my favorite RH song.
Despite being so clean, the guitar and percussion on this album is so colorful. The bass and rhythm is sedating in a comforting, natural, oxytocin kind of way. Each song flows so well into the next the album just flies by - not because it's too short but because the whole motif of the album is encapsulated and personified so precisely.
I listen back on OKC, KA, AMSP, & TKOL (don't hate me) every now & again, thinking "Wow, Radiohead are so magnificent." But with IR feels so separate from their discog. Whenever I listen to In Rainbows I'm not listening to Radiohead. I'm listening to In Rainbows, a beautiful spectacle in space and sound.
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