Radiohead – In Rainbows Disk 2 Review

These are some of the best Radiohead songs available, according to frontman Thom Yorke. Clarity presented on In Rainbows is best left untouched. An extra twenty-five minutes would torpedo the album. It is better to have these tracks live on with In Rainbows Disk 2, a set of eight pieces which feel thoroughly elusive yet as loved as the original body of work. Immediately those intros and interludes make themselves known with a Radiohead sound more familiar than anything the direction-changing 2007 album offered. Yorke and the gang still had it in them to reach for those intimate classics, but the fundamental shifts made it impossible to reconnect with them. A moody minute on MK 1 does well to hide the flourishing and almost optimistic piano on Down Is The New Up but this feeling, this clarity of a new beginning, soon turns sour. 

Instead, these leftovers are clumped together, exceptional works which either haven’t the right tone or feel lyrically dense and different to the intended theme. Even for extras, these are formidable and fully fleshed works. This is not the remnants of a burnt-out mind but the sharp observations of a man who knows the future are not as bright as it once was. Down Is The New Up brings on a risk-over-reward style of living. Yorke has his finger on the pulse of society once more as the rough strings and steady percussion from Philip Selway build to a frightful climax. The flip-flop without a safety net is now the expected form of living and not the terrifying rarity it was deemed over a decade ago. Escapism is the key to In Rainbows Disk 2. In parts, it feels stronger than In Rainbows, but this is the fear of new experiences talking and the familiarity playing its part as Greenwood strikes up an acoustic guitar section on Last Flowers is treacly, hard to break free from. 

Consistency is key and for all these tracks it is clear to hear why they were cut from In Rainbows. They warranted a collection of their own, of course, but with the Tardis set lock-in on Up On The Ladder there is a tone of dated material. Yorke clings to the contemporary lessons and pop culture of the time – something Radiohead has tackled before on Hail to the Thief but with a slack edge to the setting. Radiohead finds itself in perfect harmony here. When the writing begins to drift and fade the slack is picked up by the crackles and distorted, darker effects of Selway and Greenwood, hard at work in creating a bed of difficult and fear-filled beauties. Staring into your soul never sounded so feral. Yet a track like Bangers + Mash is classic crossover material for Radiohead who guide themselves to a new and ambitious sound while holding firm with their previous album material. 

This is not the swerve in favour Radiohead made with The King of Limbs and much of In Rainbows Disk 2 brings the popular sound much preferred by the purists of the late 1990s. More of this is no fault, though it does leave a piece like 4 Minute Warning out in the cold. Yorke calls on listeners to wake up and take the fight to those piercing shells in the bubble we begin to build, protecting ourselves from the harsh realities In Rainbows Disk 2 lays out. It is honest, hurtful and gorgeous in spots and for a collection of tracks rejected from In Rainbows this marks a true triumph. Take no notice of The Smiths coming on immediately after the end of this one – that is merely a coincidence to the heartfelt and prolonged agony Yorke finds himself dealing with throughout these extra pieces. Few artists can say they hold a handy collection of discarded extras which challenge the quality of the final, choice album. But here is an addition, an extra limb, for In Rainbows.