Excitement builds as we approach the end. For those just joining in, ScooterDMan and I are counting down our top ten albums from 2007. Check out his column today for his second pick.

Note: I am not a Radiohead fan. While I certainly enjoy many of their songs I’ve never “gotten” the majority of their catalog. Keep this in mind while reading the following review.

2. Radiohead – In Rainbows

In Rainbows is an album that leaves me terribly conflicted. I’ve never liked Thom Yorke’s voice and after an incredible start the record begins to settle into stretch of fairly uninspiring songs. In “Nude” Yorke’s crooning takes over the entire song without really stirring anything except perhaps annoyance and boredom and while the following track “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” promises some movement it is ultimately an elongated failure to deliver. “All I Need” is the brightest spot in this uneven sequence with Yorke almost staying within the bounds of haunting, not quite straying into the range of grating he usually occupies (to my ear.)

With these complaints why, then, does this album occupy the second spot on my list of best albums of the year? Because in the instances that In Rainbows is good, it’s really fucking great.

Opening with a stunning one-two punch, the record offers one of the most dynamic, audibly dazzling songs of the year in “15 Step” followed by the bare-knuckled “Bodysnatchers.” The faster pacing and prominent rhythm sections in these songs cut the sharpness of Yorke’s voice perfectly and, before the bit of a mid-album lull mentioned above, almost instantly made a fan out of me. The light guitars of “House of Cards” matched with a simple cymbal tap offered a perfect backdrop for a relatively subdued vocal, filling in a steady, laid-back offering leading into the penultimate song on the album, “Jigsaw Falling Into Place.” A build-up of tension is quickly released as Radiohead knocks out one of the most addicting, exhilarating tracks of the year.

Ultimately the valleys of this album are small patches of rough amid a field of diamonds and while there are definitely a few tracks I do not like at all, there are more than a few that I can’t imagine going without.

ScooterDMan’s take: “Eric and I have been collaborating for the past week and half using Google Documents. Tonight, in the space he’s designated for my comments about In Rainbows, it reads: “ScooterDMan gushes about this album.” Heh. Well, I won’t fall for this trap. Eric simply assumes that because I have “gushed” about this album before that I am going to gush about it again. Well, he’s got another thing coming. You see, like an lasting, long-term relationship, In Rainbows and I are past the lovey-dovey bullshit that envelopes the first few weeks. We’ve moved on. I’m no longer “gushing” about In Rainbows because we have already settled down — we’re committed to the long haul. We’ll be together for the rest of my life. I can look back on the first few weeks when everything was new and exciting — when every note sounded like it was played just for me and every sad, post-industrial, paranoid line that came out of Thom Yorke’s mouth seemed like it perfectly described the feelings of diminished relevance in a chaotic world that I experience today. But that was then. I love In Rainbows. I want In Rainbows to raise my children. I hope that one day, when I am old and decrepit, In Rainbows and I can slowly wither away together, gently rocking on a set of matching rocking chairs. But no, I don’t gush about In Rainbows anymore.”

The Top Ten So Far:

3. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
4. The Weakerthans - Reunion Tour
5. Menomena - Friend or Foe
6. The Narrator - All That to the Wall
7. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
8. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
9. The Forms - The Forms
10. Band of Horses - Cease to Begin

© Eric Atienza 2007 for Listen In. Some rights reserved.

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