What's your favorite song on Radiohead's 2007 masterpiece 'In Rainbows'?

I'd also love to hear stories about how it moved you on your first or 100th time listening to it.

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I think it's really impossible to pick just one, but gun to my head, I'd pick Weird Fishes. It's got strong energy, but it's still introspective and emotional, great backing vocals, great Thom vocals, and as a bassist I love a lot of the bass work in that song.
- One of my favourite pieces of music, a treat for the ears and soul. Love the arrangement of the arppegiated guitars and rhodes piano, and ya when the bass kicks into the second half it rules.

The opener, 15 Step. I mean, it doesn't live up to Creep, but nothing ever will.
- I honestly don’t get the love for Creep. Ig it’s catchy, but musically, it might be one of the most boring Radiohead songs. I’ve heard that even Thom Yorke hates the song
  
  It’s a nice reimagination of Albert Hammond’s ‘The Air That I Breathe’.

House of cards is one that has grown into me for the emotional content. Love weird fishes /arpeggio and all the others but that one is the one from in rainbows that I like a lot this season.
- Love house of cards too, especially the lyrics, the second verse is beautiful.

Reckoner! It's got the most enthusiastic procession I can think of in a song.

I will get back to you in 42min. and 38sec.
- After listening to the album it was underwhelming. It was good and sometimes great. I can't call it a "masterpiece"
  My favourite was "15 step". It had nice and interesting percussion.
  All I need in 1:40 was a highlight and ending of Videotape had also nice rhythm.
  I definitely listened to better albums.
  
  Fair assessment and kudos for trying something new. I thought it was meh on my first couple of listens, but it's among my favorites now, especially with good headphones. I really like the guitar tones, the vocal reverb, and everything the bass is doing. The drums very much have a "less is more" vibe, and I've always been a sucker for simple or classic stuff executed well. No solos or crazy fills because the album really doesn't call for it.
  It sounds like you were digging the spacey, atmospheric bits and the atypical rhythms. If I'm understanding correctly, this was never gonna be the Radiohead album for you. The King of Limbs is more of a dark haunt with punchy percussion in the first half and then atmospheric I'm the second half. Kid A is spacey af but has a couple of very danceable tracks like Optimistic and Idioteque. Hail to the Thief is kinda both in every track, but I think you'd also like the time signature and changes of Go To Sleep as well as the general vibe of There There. I doubt you'll think any of those are masterpieces per se, but I think you'll find that they're closer to what you wanted, even if you only check out the tracks I singled out. Personally, I fucking love In Rainbows and only like the 3 albums I just recommended to you, but I think In Rainbows is safe in a lot of ways and you seem to be into the aspects that are a bit more experimental. For context, Kid A came out in 2000 after the smash hit albums The Bends and OK Computer, which were 90s guitar rock albums; the world expected the next album to be more of the same, but they took a hard left turn and got weird with it. How To Disappear Completely is on that album and I'd say that that song is an absolute masterpiece of atmospheric, uncomfortable honesty about dissociating from crippling anxieties that are impossible to actually escape from, centered around a two-note motif that will send shivers down your spine the first time you hear it on your second listen.
  Sorry for the wall of text. Just excited to share stuff that might impact you in the way that art should.

Jigsaw Falling Into Place.
Great use of dynamics on the vocal going from quiet and restrained to Thom's higher register in the second verse.
The drums have a sort of understated franticism about them.
The bridge section where the title appears in the lyrics is beautiful and bittersweet sounding.
It's a pretty interestingly-structured song, like it's designed to be as emotionally impactful as possible.
- Love the lyrics too, has that whole racing feeling throughout

The entire album is incredible, but I would say Videotape. Simply awesome. The syncopation is great even if I haven't looked into it much. I honestly thought the repetiotnnof "in videotape" was weird but now its really grown on me. The entire album has really grown on me, my first listen I thought it was good but nothing special. Now its one of my favorite albums of all time. Kid A is still the best Radiohead album, though.

jigsaw
- Not just once, not just twice

At first, Jigsaw. Then I fell in love with Reckoner. Then 15 Step because it's such a danceable 5/4 bop. Then the reverb of House of Cards. Now I think Nude is my favorite. I slept on All I Need until I heard the 01-10 album with 10 second crossfade because it fits in so fucking well with OK Computer. I used to actually really dislike Videotape until I recognized that the piano strikes are not on the beat, even from the very start; they slightly lag.
Anybody who's a fan of the album and hasn't heard the From The Basement set, I can't recommend it highly enough. The performance of Nude may be even better than on the album. The way that Jonny rakes quiet upstrums in the chorus is strangely heartbreaking. But through the whole performance, they're fucking with a ton of equipment and not just playing guitars in a traditional way like most bands. They're tweaking knobs, using strange gear, and all somehow on the same page with some pretty awesome cues in unusual time signatures. They're not everybody's cup of tea, but it's impossible to see them in their element and claim that they aren't objectively skilled and passionate.
- Ya this is me too, I will listen through and think this is the best song, and then each one moves me in a different way. I love Nude as well as all I need. I think my favorite which I haven't seen anyone mention is faust arp, just such an interesting song

I think the whole album is great from start to finish.
Probably Weird fishes/arpeggi live from the basement.
Whole In Rainbows Album live from the basement
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  Weird fishes/arpeggi live from the basement.
  Whole In Rainbows Album live from the basement
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
- When it cuts out and it's just the rhodes is so good.

My favorites:
Jigsaw Falling into Place
Reckoner
Bodysnatchers
4 Minute Warning

For me it's either Weird Fishes or Jigsaw Falling into Place. They are both so nice to get lost in the rhythm.

It's a tough choice because the entire album is fantastic, but I would say All I Need is my favorite with Weird Fishes/Arpeggi a close second.
Also, "In Rainbows - From The Basement" is my favorite version of this album. Because it's live, it has something to it that for me is missing from the studio album.
- Ya, just a master class in performance, they all play their part so well together, hard to believe they can nail such intricate arrangements as well as they do on the record

Can I pick something off Disk 2? It's Bangers + Mash.
The lyrics, Thom's crazed singing, the way the instruments drop out and back in throughout the verses, the stumbling overlapped drum patterns, the opposing guitars, 1 repetitive and monotonous and the other with a frantic riff....
If we're talking on the album, it's Jigsaw Falling into Place. Bodysnatchers, 15 Step, Weird Fishes, and House of Cards are all very close though.

Reckoner
But I like the From The Basement version more.
- That lemon shaker 🍋

Never heard the album before, so I skimmed it.
Bodysnatcher has a really cool riff that I'm trying to instrumentally wrap my head around.
- This isn't an album to "skim".
  
  You are probably right, but having Gabbys Dollhouse on full blast in the living room while I wait for the kids' bedtime doesn't allow for much active listening.

I know I'll get down-voted for this, but it's pronounced overratediohead.
- Lmao, don't say that, it might hurt their feelings!!!
  
  Oh, also, if Radiohead doesn't tickle you, what do you enjoy instead?
- Then listen to the Smile, from Tom Yorke.
- Have you actually given their stuff a chance? I feel like they have something for a lot of different tastes. Unless you only like power ballads or something

38 comments