In Rainbows

''In Rainbows'' is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was self-released on 10 October 2007 as a pay-what-you-want download, followed by a physical release internationally through XL Recordings and in North America through TBD Records. It was Radiohead's first release after their recording contract with EMI ended with their album '' Hail to the Thief'' (2003).

Radiohead began work on ''In Rainbows'' in early 2005. In 2006, after initial recording sessions with their new producer Spike Stent proved fruitless, they re-enlisted their longtime producer Nigel Godrich. Radiohead recorded in the country houses Halswell House and Tottenham House, the Hospital Club in London, and their studio in Oxfordshire. They incorporated conventional rock instrumentation plus electronic instruments, strings, piano and the ondes Martenot. The lyrics are less political and more personal than previous Radiohead albums.

Radiohead self-released ''In Rainbows'' online and allowed fans to set their own price, saying this liberated them from conventional promotional formats and removed barriers to audiences. It was the first such release by a major act and drew international media attention. Many praised Radiohead for challenging old models and finding new ways to connect with fans, while others felt it set a dangerous precedent at the expense of less successful artists.

Radiohead promoted ''In Rainbows'' with webcasts, music videos, competitions and a worldwide tour. "Jigsaw Falling into Place" and " Nude" were released as singles; "Nude" became Radiohead's first US top-40 song since their debut single " Creep" (1992). The retail release of ''In Rainbows'' topped the UK Albums Chart and the US ''Billboard'' 200, and by October 2008 it had sold over three million copies worldwide; it is certified platinum in the UK and Canada and gold in the US, Belgium and Japan. ''In Rainbows'' received acclaim, winning Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package, and was ranked one of the best albums of the year and the decade by various publications. ''Rolling Stone'' included ''In Rainbows'' in its updated lists of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Background

In 2004, after finishing the world tour for their sixth studio album '' Hail to the Thief'' (2003), Radiohead went on hiatus. ''Hail to the Thief'' was the final album released under their record contract with EMI, and they had no contractual obligation to release new material. According to the ''New York Times'' in 2006, Radiohead were "by far the world's most popular unsigned band". Drummer Philip Selway said Radiohead still wanted to create music, but took a break to focus on other areas of their lives, and the end of their contract provided a natural point to pause and reflect.

In 2005, singer and songwriter Thom Yorke appeared on the web series ''From the Basement,'' performing the future ''In Rainbows'' tracks "Videotape", "Down is the New Up" and "Last Flowers". He recorded released his first solo album, ''The Eraser'' (2006). Multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood also composed his first solo works, the soundtracks ''Bodysong'' (2004) and ''There Will Be Blood'' (2007).

Recording

In March 2005, Radiohead began writing and recording in their Oxfordshire studio. They initially chose to work without their longtime producer Nigel Godrich. According to the guitarist Ed O'Brien, "We were a little bit in the comfort zone ... We've been working together for 10 years, and we all love one another too much." The bassist Colin Greenwood later denied this, saying Godrich had been busy working with Charlotte Gainsbourg and Beck. At the Ether Festival in July 2005, Greenwood and Yorke performed a version of the future ''In Rainbows'' track "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" with the London Sinfonietta orchestra and the Arab Orchestra of Nazareth.

Regular recording sessions began in August 2005, with Radiohead updating fans on their progress intermittently on their new blog, Dead Air Space. The sessions were slow, and the band struggled to regain confidence. According to Yorke, "We spent a long time in the studio just not going anywhere, wasting our time, and that was really, really frustrating." They attributed their slow progress to a lack of momentum after their break, the lack of deadline and producer and the fact that all the members had become fathers. O'Brien said Radiohead considered splitting up, but kept working "because when you got beyond all the shit and the bollocks, the core of these songs were really good".

In December 2005, Radiohead hired the producer Spike Stent, who had worked with artists including U2 and Björk, to help them work through their material. O'Brien told ''Mojo'': "Spike listened to the stuff we'd been self-producing. These weren't demos, they'd been recorded in proper studios, and he said, 'The sounds aren't good enough.'" However, the collaboration with Stent was unsuccessful.

In an effort to break the deadlock, Radiohead decided to tour for the first time since 2004. They performed in Europe and North America in May and June 2006, and returned to Europe for several festivals in August, performing many new songs. According to Yorke, the tour forced them to finish writing the songs. He said: "Rather than it being a nightmare, it was really, really good fun, because suddenly everyone is being spontaneous and no one's self-conscious because you're not in the studio ... It felt like being 16 again."

Nigel Godrich sessions

After the tour, Radiohead scrapped their recordings and re-enlisted Godrich. According to Yorke, Godrich gave the band "a walloping kick up the arse". To focus them, Godrich transferred their rhythm tracks to a single track, where they could not be further altered. According to Colin Greenwood, "The idea was to make us commit to something ... It was as if we were sampling ourselves. And when you mash sounds together like that they cross-pollinate, they marinade, they interact with each other... They have little sonic babies."

For three weeks in October 2006, Radiohead worked at Tottenham House in Marlborough, Wiltshire, a country house scouted by Godrich. The band members lived in caravans, as the building was in a state of disrepair. Yorke described it as "derelict in the stricter sense of the word, where there's holes in the floor, rain coming through the ceilings, half the window panes missing ... There were places you just basically didn't go. It definitely had an effect. It had some pretty strange vibes." The sessions were productive, and the band recorded "Jigsaw Falling into Place" and " Bodysnatchers". Yorke wrote on Dead Air Space that Radiohead had "started the record properly now ... starting to get somewhere I think. Finally."

That December, sessions took place at Halswell House in Taunton, and Godrich's Hospital studio in Covent Garden, London, where Radiohead recorded "Videotape" and " Nude". In January, Radiohead resumed recording in their Oxfordshire studio and started to post photos, lyrics, videos and samples of new songs on Dead Air Space. In June, having wrapped up recording, Godrich posted clips of songs on Dead Air Space.

Excluding "Last Flowers", which Yorke recorded in the ''Eraser'' sessions, the ''In Rainbows'' sessions produced 16 songs. Feeling ''Hail to the Thief'' was overlong, Radiohead wanted their next album to be concise. Yorke said: "I believe in the rock album as an artistic form of expression. ''In Rainbows'' is a conscious return to this form of 45-minute statement ... Our aim was to describe in 45 minutes, as coherently and conclusively as possible, what moves us." They settled on 10 songs, saving the rest for a bonus disc included in the limited edition. The album was mastered by Bob Ludwig in July 2007 at Gateway Mastering, New York City.

Songs

Music

''In Rainbows'' incorporates elements of art rock, experimental rock, art pop, and electronica. The opening track, "15 Step", features a handclap rhythm inspired by "Fuck the Pain Away" by Peaches. Radiohead recorded handclaps by a group of children from the Matrix Music School & Arts Centre in Oxford; when the clapping proved "not quite good enough", they recorded the children cheering instead.

"Bodysnatchers", which Yorke described as a combination of Wolfmother, Neu! and "dodgy hippy rock", was recorded when he was in a period of "hyperactive mania". On "All I Need", Jonny Greenwood wanted to capture the white noise generated by a band playing loudly in a room, which never occurs in the studio. His solution was to have a string section play every note of the scale, blanketing the frequencies.

Radiohead recorded a version of "Nude" during the ''OK Computer'' sessions, but discarded it; this version featured a Hammond organ, a "straighter" feel, and different lyrics. For ''In Rainbows'', Colin Greenwood wrote a new bassline for the song, which Godrich said "transformed it from something very straight into something that had much more of a rhythmic flow". "Reckoner" developed while Radiohead were working on another song, " Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses". It features Yorke's falsetto, "frosty, clanging" percussion, a "meandering" guitar line, piano, and a string arrangement by Jonny Greenwood. Yorke described it as "a love song... sort of".

Yorke described the process of composing "Videotape" as "absolute agony", and said it "went through every possible parameter". He initially wanted it to be a "post-rave trance track", similar to the music of Surgeon, and Jonny Greenwood was "obsessed" with shifting the start of the bar. Radiohead performed a more conventional rock arrangement on tour in 2006, with Selway's drums building to a climax. For the album, Godrich and Greenwood stripped the song down to a minimal piano ballad, with percussion from a Roland TR-909 drum machine.

Lyrics

Yorke said that the ''In Rainbows'' lyrics were based on "that anonymous fear thing, sitting in traffic, thinking, 'I'm sure I'm supposed to be doing something else' ... it's similar to '' OK Computer'' in a way. It's much more terrifying." He said that, unlike ''Hail to the Thief'', there was "very little anger" in ''In Rainbows:'' "It's in no way political, or, at least, doesn't feel that way to me. It very much explores the ideas of transience. It starts in one place and ends somewhere completely different." In another interview, Yorke said the album was "about the fucking panic of realising you're going to die! And that any time soon couldpossibly avea heart attack when I next go for a run."

O'Brien described the lyrics as "universal. There wasn't a political agenda. It's being human." "Bodysnatchers" was inspired by Victorian ghost stories, the 1972 novel ''The Stepford Wives'' and Yorke's feeling of "your physical consciousness trapped without being able to connect fully with anything else". "Jigsaw Falling into Place" was inspired by the chaos witnessed by Yorke when he used to go out on the weekend in Oxford. He said: "The lyrics are quite caustic—the idea of 'before you're comatose' or whatever, drinking yourself into oblivion and getting fucked-up to forget ... hereis partly this elation. But there's a much darker side."

Artwork

The ''In Rainbows'' artwork was designed by Radiohead's longtime collaborator Stanley Donwood. Donwood worked in the studio while Radiohead worked on the album, allowing the artwork to convey the mood of the music. He displayed images in the studio and on the studio computer for the band to interact with and comment on. He also posted images daily on the Radiohead website, though none were used in the final artwork.

Donwood experimented with photographic etching, putting prints into acid baths and throwing wax at paper, creating images influenced by NASA space photography. He originally planned to explore suburban life, but realised it did not fit the album, saying: "The music took a different direction and became much more organic, sensual and sexual, so I started working with wax and syringes." He described the final artwork as "very colourful ... It's a rainbow but it is very toxic, it's more like the sort of one you'd see in a puddle." Radiohead did not release the cover for the digital release, preferring to hold it back for the physical release. The limited edition includes a booklet containing additional artwork by Donwood.

Release

On 1 October 2007, Jonny Greenwood announced the album on Radiohead's blog, writing: "Well, the new album is finished, and it's coming out in 10 days; we've called it ''In Rainbows''." The post contained a link to inrainbows.com, where users could pre-order an MP3 version of the album for any amount they wanted, including £0.

The release was landmark use of the pay-what-you-want model for music sales. It was suggested by Radiohead's managers, Bryce Edge and Chris Hufford, in April 2007. According to Selway, "Because he albumwas taking quite long, our management were twiddling thumbs at points and they were just coming up with ideas. And this was one that really stuck." Colin Greenwood explained the release as a way of avoiding the "regulated playlists" and "straitened formats" of radio and TV, ensuring listeners around the world would experience the music at the same time, and preventing leaks in advance of a physical release.Greenwood, Colin (13 September 2010),
Set Yourself Free
", Index on Censorship. Retrieved 31 October 2010 He said that the decision had not been made for financial gain, and that if money had been Radiohead's motivation, they would have accepted an offer from Universal Records.

Formats and distribution

For the ''In Rainbows'' download, Radiohead employed the network provider PacketExchange to bypass public internet servers, using a less-trafficked private network. The download was packaged as a ZIP file containing the album's ten tracks encoded in a 160 kbit/s DRM-free MP3 format. The staggered online release began at about 5:30am GMT on 10 October 2007. On 10 December, the download was removed.

Fans could also order a limited "discbox" edition from Radiohead's website, containing the album on CD and two 12" heavyweight 45 rpm vinyl records with artwork and lyric booklets, plus an enhanced CD with eight additional tracks, digital photos and artwork, packaged in a hardcover book and slipcase. The limited edition was shipped from December 2007. In June 2009, Radiohead made the second ''In Rainbows'' disc available for download on their website for £6.

Radiohead ruled out an internet-only distribution, saying that 80% of people still bought physical releases and that it was important for them to have "an object". ''In Rainbows'' was released on CD and vinyl in Japan by BMG on 26 December 2007, in Australia on 29 December 2007 by Remote Control Records, and in the United States and Canada on 1 January 2008 by ATO imprint TBD Records and MapleMusic/ Fontana respectively. Elsewhere, the album was released on 31 December 2007 by independent record label XL Recordings, which had released Yorke's solo album ''The Eraser''. The CD release came in a cardboard package containing the CD, lyric booklet, and several stickers that could be placed on the blank jewel case to create cover art. ''In Rainbows'' was the first Radiohead album available for download in several digital music stores, such as the iTunes Store and Amazon MP3. On 10 June 2016, it was added to the free streaming service Spotify.

Radiohead retained ownership of the recordings and compositions for ''In Rainbows''. The download and limited editions of the album were self-released; for the retail release, Radiohead licensed the music to record labels. Licensing agreements for all releases were managed by their publisher, Warner Chappell Music Publishing.

Reaction

The pay-what-you-want release, the first for a major musical act, attracted international media attention and sparked debate about the implications for the music industry. According to ''Mojo'', the release was "hailed as a revolution in the way major bands sell their music", and the media's reaction was "almost overwhelmingly positive". ''Time'' called it "easily the most important release in the recent history of the music business" and Jon Pareles'' wrote that "for the beleaguered recording business Radiohead has put in motion the most audacious experiment in years". ''NME'' wrote that "the music world seemed to judder several rimes off its axis", and praised the fact that everyone, from fans to critics, had access to the album at the same time on release day: "the kind of moment of togetherness you don't get very often". The U2 singer Bono praised Radiohead as "courageous and imaginative in trying to figure out some new relationship with their audience". Courtney Love wrote on her blog: "The kamikaze pilot in me wants to do the same damn thing. I'm grateful for Radiohead for making the first move." Jay-Z described the release as "genius".

The release also drew criticism. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails thought it did not go far enough, and accused Radiohead of using a compressed digital release as a bait-and-switch to promote a traditional record sale. Reznor released his sixth album, ''Ghosts I–IV,'' under a Creative Commons licence the following year. The singer Lily Allen said the release was "arrogant" and sent a bad message to less successful acts, saying: "You don't choose how to pay for eggs. Why should it be different for music?" The Sonic Youth bassist Kim Gordon said the release "seemed really community-oriented, but it wasn't catered towards their musician brothers and sisters, who don't sell as many records s Radiohead It makes everyone else look bad for not offering their music for whatever." The ''Guardian'' journalist Will Hodgkinson argued that Radiohead had made it impossible for less successful musicians to make a living from their music. The release surprised record executives; an unidentified executive at a major European label told ''Time:'' "This feels like yet another death knell. If the best band in the world doesn't want a part of us, I'm not sure what's left for this business."

The release came at a time when CD sales were falling due to internet piracy. U2's manager Paul McGuinness said that 60 to 70 percent of Radiohead fans had pirated ''In Rainbows'', and saw this as an indication that Radiohead's strategy had failed. However, the media measurement company BigChampagne concluded that the music industry should not think of piracy as lost sales, as Radiohead had shown that even releasing music free had not deterred it. Based on this report, ''Wired'' concluded that "by 'losing' the battle for the email addresses of those who downloaded their album via bit torrent, adioheadactually won the overall war for the public's attention – no easy feat, these days". In a retrospective article, ''NME'' argued that Radiohead had demonstrated that the best response to piracy was to explore alternative ways to connect with fans, offering content at different price points: "The pay-what-you-want aspect isn't something to be followed slavishly ... It's the willingness to try it and the connection with fans that made it successful that should be an inspiration."

Responding to criticisms, Jonny Greenwood said Radiohead were responding to the culture of downloading free music, which he likened to the legend of King Canute: "You can't pretend the flood isn't happening." Colin said the criticism was "worrying about all these ancillary questions and forgetting about the primal urge of people to share and enjoy music. And there's always going to be a way of finding money or livings to be made out of it." Yorke told the BBC
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