Radiohead remains gloomy

By Kelsey Whipple

Published Jan. 25, 2008

There's no band quite like Radiohead to tell fans that the world is ending and to make them like it — smiling as they put the knife in, if you will. For a band that capitalizes on the opposite of giddiness, In Rainbows (Disc 2) is more of the same — 26 minutes more of what has to be the most overwhelmingly tense, withering music the band has ever crammed onto a B-sides disc. Unclench? Radiohead? Never.

It would be easy to criticize Thom and co. for the tedious paranoia and vague depression that haunts most of Disc 2 if only the exceptions weren't so lovely.

Perhaps the most startlingly lovely of the extras is "4 Minute Warning," a track about what the guys know best (doomsday) done the best way they know how (gloom and doom). Yorke's voice cuts an imposing figure over lyrics about "Running from the bombers/Hiding in the forest ... Stepping over heads."

Not to be outdone in menace, "Last Flowers" warn listeners that "appliances have gone berserk." There's no time to laugh at the title of "Bangers + Mash," because "If you stare into the dark/The dark will stare back/back into your soul." These guys have never known a well adjusted day in their lives.

Fans rarely get instant gratification on this level (an entire bonus disc), and for that, Radiohead should be praised. It would belittle the band to say the eight songs on Disc 2 aren't worthwhile, but they've got all the terror of Amnesiac without the elation of In Rainbows proper.

In Rainbows may not have been the arockalypse, but by now that's almost beside the point. Don't hate Radiohead because they're over-hyped. If you have to hate them, do it because they're scary as shit.