Listened to this again this morning and once again concluded that it is easuiy their best album. Just the perfect length, every song doesnt waste a moment, it sounds incredible and i think ol boy Yorkes voclas are the best theyve ever been
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Iāve tried to get into Radiohead so many times over the years without success, even though other people who like the kind of music I do always love Radiohead. I know it doesnāt always work like that but it does make you wonder if youāre missing something.
anyway, my mind is open and willing to be changed. letās see about In Rainbowsā¦
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oh iām well up for this ridiculous idea for a listening club.
Going to have a re-listen to In Rainbows later this morning. So, so surprised to see it so low down the list. Itās genuinely my favourite Radiohead album, and Iām a fan of their full catalogue too. Iām not sure how well the whole āgiving it away for freeā thing has aged. Maybe it set a terrible precedent. I was working for the Beggars Group at the time and this was the first album they released on XL. We listened to it a hell of a lot in the office. It reminds me a lot of that time - a bit bittersweet. I think Nude is one of the most beautiful things ever recorded. Full thoughts later.
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You might want to update the thread tiltle with tge album we are on as itll bring people in to discuss if they arent following fully 
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Just finished In Rainbows. I echo others comments about being surprised this didnāt pick up more votes (didnāt vote).
Utterly gorgeous album from start to finish. Thereās such a warmth and lushness to it that you just want to stay in it once itās over. Weird Fishes is up there with my top Radiohead songs, absolutely incredible piece of music.
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verdict: quite nice/10
In Rainbows was probably the single most important album of my adoloscence. But Iāve heard it so, so many times that I donāt want to hear it again for a while.
I listened to it a lot during quite a challenging time in my life, but I donāt think those associations put me off - if anything that sort of thing has strengthened my relationship to other music. I think I just want a bit more ugliness from my Radiohead. Might also be that there are two tracks in the back half that I just like and everybody else fucking loves (Jigsaw and Videotape). House of Cards is lovely but inessential, so after Reckoner (a highlight of all human achievement) it feels like Iāve had enough.
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Listened to it for the first time in years. This was the album where I gave up on the band, so Iām surprised to find that itās quite nice.
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This alternative cut of Weird Fishes remains their best work:
Iām listening to it now. Itās where I switched off Radiohead for some reason, so given that I might be wrong, Iām going to try it again.
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I did me a full listen through. Still stands up for me as my favourite Radiohead album. As I said before, I listened to this a lot, and one of the outcomes of that is that Iāve got my singalong harmony parts absolutely burned into the back of my brain. One of my greatest, silliest joys is making up harmonies to sing over the top of records. It is probably testament to how much Iāve sung along with In Rainbows in the past that I often end up getting comparisons to Thom Yorke vocals when I sing, even though Iām definitely not trying to sound like Thom Yorke. [Side note - my version of All I Need with my added harmonies over the top - fucking love it]
Talking about Thomās voice - I think this is the album on which it is best showcased - it can go from being as knuckle grating as granite to being light as a feather within the same song. Thereās also a warmth and softness in this album that can sometimes be missing from other later period Radiohead stuff.
Thereās not a single track on here that I dislike - and I feel it works as a whole. But there are three that stand out for me - Reckoner (as per @SunnyBās comment - one of my favourite pieces of recorded music of all time), All I Need and Nude. Also love Weird Fishes, Faust Arp and Videotape. Itās also stuffed full of classic Radiohead lyrics - āDonāt get any big ideas, theyāre not gonna happenā from Nude always cuts through me like a knife.
Like i said earlier - this record reminds me of a very cool and sadly short period of my life where i got to work in the control centre of beggars group land and this was an XL release, so I think we were absolutely rinsing playing this in the office pre-release before anyone else heard it. Very fucking good stuff. I am v much not that cool any more.
Pitchfork format rating: 9.2
[side story this reminded me of - the summer after this was released, Radiohead were playing Victoria Park on my birthday. I did not have tickets, but was still an āinsiderāā¦ the day before my birthday I tried to round up some of my friends to go to the pub and everyone gave me weird excuses. So the morning of my birthday at work I managed to blag a single ticket to Radiohead that evening. When I then told my boyfriend at the time that I was off to Radiohead alone that evening, he let slip that the reason everyone was flaking on me was because heād arranged secretly for everyone to go out for a meal at my favourite Ethiopian restaurant that night. HAHAH. I think it was a particularly good sad vibe for going to a Radiohead birthday concert on your own for your 20th birthday party while your friends went to a restaurant without you]
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Nude ā Weird Fishes/Arpeggi ā All I Need might be the best 3-track run on any album, you know.
only Soma ā Geek USA ā Mayonaise on Siamese Dream comes close imo
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This came out during a rubbish period of my life when I couldnāt afford the bus to work, so walked every day listening to this on a shitey 512mb mp3 player.
They didnāt get a lot of money from me out of the āpay what you want model!ā
As a result itās an album I know very well and really loved, but reluctant to go back to it now because itās associated with such a shit 6 months.
Will listen to it later though!
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Yeah - when this came out I was like 18 in my first house share and working only 3 days a week - the pay anything you want model blew my mind. I think I threw them Ā£2 if memory serves. Sorry guys!
I think the research afterwards was that despite it being PWYW, even more people just got it through bit torrent or whatever and stole it rather than get it legitimately for nothing 
I remembered that I ended up buying it physically after the fact and now Iām hecking peeved I paid Ā£14 instead of Ā£12
Their best album and Reckoner is their best song. Not one bad track on it imo. Shame they split up and never made anything else after this.
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Feel like I donāt even need to listen to it to evaluate. Know it like the back of my hand. Put it on maybe a month ago and still loved it as much as I ever did.
Didnāt vote for it in the poll but have loved it since the day of release and only recently swapped it with Kid A for the number two spot in their album rankings.
Was absolutely buzzed for it when it came out. The five years since Hail To The Thief had felt like an eternity so I was immediately thirsty for it and it didnāt disappoint. Pretty sure it was out as soon as they announced it - have I got that right? There was no build up, it was just there and you could pay what you liked for it?
Favourite track then was All I Need and probably still is.
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So, itās definitely better than I remember, and Weird Fishes, House of Cards and All I Need are great, but I nearly fell asleep at Nude. Might be that I have a cold. I think itās fine, but I donāt think itās their best. I might be wrong.
So much hoopla around the release strategy for this, in hindsight itās even more remarkable that itās gotten itās current reputation from being a really fuckin good album
Some bits from the release I remember:
- People going ballistic over the MP3s being 160kbps
- The Radiohead last.fm comment section and blogs were very fun on release day
- I tried joining AtEaseWeb.com, got put off and lurked on it and Green Plastic instead for all the high quality concert rips (and some of the threads littered with Mediafire links i accidentally clicked on) because I was still too young to go to the Malahide Castle gig
- There was a mini-wave of surprise releases in the aftermath, including NiN who also went in on free/PWYW though it was mostly the likes of Raconteurs and Beck being like āSurprise! Album next week!ā
Convinced the rents to let me get the box set as a Christmas gift. As @thesewoodenideas said the Ā£40 looks like a goddam bargain now. 15 Step skips on my copy.
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