[Detroit Rock Citizen]

[1234567890]

[Norman Bates]

[badfaith]

As some of you may know, I struggled with Kid A and Amnesiac... but not because I didn't like the music on them, it was more of a problem with me, and others like me who perhaps got interested in Radiohead from Pablo Honey, or The Bends, and came from a more rock oriented musical background.
I liked electronic experimental music, but it was in i a seperate box in my mind, and so those later two albums mentioned threw me a little. The Angsty alienation bit was a big cultural theme in the nineties, and for those who this aspect of music had a lot to say... such as myself, Radiohead were a street ahead of anyone else, not least because this was still a time when the traditional view perpetuated by older generations that unless it was made in the sixties or seventies, it wasn't somehow valid. While I love the Beatles/ Stones music, they belonged to another generation, and Radiohead at last sounded like something that could belong to me, and would last... and so, as everyoe does when they hear something good, they want more of it.
But too much of a good thing etc. - this generation grew up, and so their music had to also, and explore new areas even if they lost an audience along the way, they gained a new one at each stage. In Rainbows to me is a culmination of all that, and incorporates the best of all different aspects of their music, concisely, and in a more mature way that reflects their audience's maturity without scarificing good tunes... something which other band OF their time did not do, and may therefore have suffered for.
Put simply it's adapt and survive, evolution of band and audience, this is why they endure.... why at the end of their career they will have left, like all great bands, a body of work which can cater to every occasional mood I might have... wheras someone like say, Oasis could only ever cater to me dribbling on the bar of my local pub, something I largely lost interest in years ago.