get into In Rainbows by Radiohead

Wakey wakey, rise and shine
It’s on again off again on again
watch me fall
like Dominoes
in pretty patterns

This was love at first sound. Acoustic guitar, Yorke’s vocals and violins. This is how music is meant to be. Stripped down bare, like the shedding of layers, revealing the core, the most intimate, one’s soul.

Some info on Faust Arp here.

Take a listen here.

This is Radiohead, at their most achingly beautiful stretch. It begins like a hum, and this time around the drum tracks do not steal the show. Yorke begins, “Don’t get any big ideas.. they’re not gonna happen.” You get the drift. Pessimist at peace. Stop fighting the end and let it come, the big finish.

The track ends quite ceremoniously. Yorke continues his seemingly mindless humming. I thought it would fade out, but he goes on towards a crescendo. Then suddenly, it’s all over. And I can’t help but let out a sigh.

..I fired up my Media Player to get a taste of In Rainbows, the latest album from Radiohead. The opening track “15 Step” sounded like a dance tune, almost poppish, very un-Radiohead. Undeterred, I plodded on.

I am finally rewarded by “All I Need”, a slow starting tune with drum tracks too happy to match Yorke’s monologue. I could see myself lost in this tune, as I speed away in my car, undoing the deeds of the day.

“Faust Arp” is as close as it gets to revisiting the good old days of Paranoid Android. But this is not 1997. Ten years later, Radiohead is not afraid of being catchy. But this track is its saviour, and fans of Radiohead like me can breathe a sigh of relief.

More.. coming in the next entry.