The Cold Cut

As much as I love music, film has always been a passion of mine (check back to the beginning of The Cold Cut for proof), and I couldn't go without listing a couple of the best films this year. I also forgot in my previous post to list a couple of older albums that I really got into this year.

Most Spun Old Albums
1. Lauryn Hill- The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill is, without a doubt, the best female MC ever. Its no wonder 'The Miseducation...' won her a load of Grammy's.

Lauryn Hill- To Zion

2. Joy Division- Unknown Pleasures
It took a film as brilliant as Control to finally get me into Joy Division.

Joy Division- She's Lost Control

3. Artful Dodger- Its All About Stragglers
The birth of real garage music. This album is incredible, flawless, and a musical gem. I really can't find anything at all wrong with it.

Artful Dodger- Something

4. Bruce Sprinsteen- Born To Run
The definitive Bruce Springsteen. And I don't care how good Magic is...

Bruce Springsteen- She's The One

5. Black Star- Black Star
Classic rap. Talib Kweli, finally living up to his promise. He hasn't reached the same heights since.

Black Star- RE: Definition

6. Radiohead- Kid A
Okay- In Rainbows was effortlessly amazing. Kid A, is experimental, brave, and as a result, sensational.

Radiohead- Idioteque

Top Films
1. The Bourne Ultimatum- The thrilling conclusion to the best action trilogy in a long, long time.
2. The Lives Of Others- The Oscar was well deserved.
3. Control- The film that finally made me love Joy Division.
4. Michael Clayton- George Clooney pulls of the most surprisingly great thriller of the year.
5. The Host- Only visionary Korean director Bong Joon Ho could produce something so wonderfully convoluted.
6. Half Nelson- If you've seen a better piece of acting than Ryan Gosling's cocaine addled teacher, please comment.
7. Sunshine- Unfortunately, Danny Boyle dropped the ball with the ending, but other than that slight hiccup, this is a sci-fi masterpiece.
8. Infamous- And you thought 40 Old Virgin was good? Look again!
9. American Gangster- Put two of the greatest actors of their generation together, and a slightly lesser Goodfellas is what you get.
10. Hot Fuzz- Never the equal of Shaun Of The Dead, but still one of the funnies films this year.

Artist: Radiohead
Album: In Rainbows
Rating: 9/10

[Slow Clap] Well done, guys, you've done it again. Not only is 'In Rainbows' a massive triumph over the machinations of the music industry, its quite possibly the best collection of Radiohead material recorded since the bands formation. The "you decide" price marketing scheme has garnered so much publicity that this album could be mediocre and still change the music industry, but rather than being eclipsed by it's own publicity, Radiohead have produced a 7th which is as strong as its marketing ideas. As well as producing the most bravely controversial albums of the year they've also produced the most musically accomplished offering thus far (well worth the reasonable £5 I paid for it)- 'In Rainbows' is a serious contender for album of the year. 'In Rainbows' shouts clearly to the world that in Radiohead, we have a band who buck the trend, and for that matter, don't give a damn what said 'trend' is.

With all the publicity surrounding this release, you could get so wrapped up in it all that you forget about the musical content of this album; however, for the purpose of this review, I'm going to assume we all know about the price of the new album, or should I say, lack of one. After flying through the registration process yesterday, I was greeted by a long link to download the album, which was playing within 5 minutes of purchase. Things open in Kid A fashion with '15 Step', which starts with processed beats and then tricks the listener seconds later once the full band come in, moving swiftly into Hail To The Thief territory. But fear not, things are mixed up again half way through as Thom Yorke howls and we are thrown back to Ok Computer. To finish things off, we have an echo effect, some more eerie synths and even a group of shouting children in the background. So, all that in one song? Well, '15 Step' is a brilliant opening track, but the rest of the album is much the same: In Rainbows is a masterful mix of all their previous styles- The synths of Kid A and Amnesiac are mixed with the eerie guitar-trio of The Bends, OK Computer contributes atmospheric falsetto from Yorke alongside the overall polish of Hail To The Thief.

'In Rainbows' is such a dense collection of songs that I really have my work cut out describing them to you: as you've read, summing up 15 step took me upwards of 150 words, and thus I'm not going to give you a full track by track description, rather a condensed idea of what the band offer here. Following 15 Step, a distorted baseline announces the arrival of 'Bodysnatchers': this is text-book Radiohead, all wailing falsetto, but I suppose you could call it the weak spot. But, hey, what a weak spot: most other bands would kill to produce music so sonically diverse, and its a testament to this album that such a brilliantly crunchy (listen to it, then comment) song can be considered weak. Next comes 'Nude', a real standout track, with a procession of falsetto ooh's and acoustic guitar solos that rise higher and higher until Yorke is singing in his trademark falsetto at the end. I can't really express how beautiful this song is, but I'm sure many of you have heard live versions, and if not, download it and have a listen (below). We are brought back down to Earth by 'Weird Fishes/Arpeggi', another one of my favourites, but listening here I realised I had only heard half the album. Possible singles from the second half include 'Reckoner' and 'Jigsaw Falling Into Place'.

As I said earlier, 'In Rainbows' doesn't need a track-by-track runthrough, rather a confident assurance that this is a brilliant album. It's been a long hiatus for the band, but listening to this album, you can see its been well spent. As if it weren't obvious already, Radiohead have firmly cemented themselves as a great band once again: all said and done, 'In Rainbows' presents an even better combination of the band's styles than Hail To The Thief, an album which most felt was brilliant but more of a stepping stone than a progression- agreed?

Just a few seconds ago a little pop-up appeared on my Digg widget stating that 'In Rainbows' has already gone platinum, just days after its release. What more can I say? The numbers speak for themselves... Take my word, buy the album for a price of your choice, and enjoy listening to this album both for the music and what it stands for. I'm not including any tracks because defeats the idea of this experiment, but here's a link to the download website...

In Rainbows- Download

*Okay- I couldn't resist posting at least one track: its available for a very short time only, so download it quick by following the link

Radiohead- Nude

About two months ago a little sound snippet arrived on Radiohead's website: a whirlwind 2 minutes long, this casually released recording was actually short sections of the songs that would make up their seventh studio album. Since that time I have been anxiously awaiting the release of said album- provisionally titled "7", which should occur during the next couple of months.In fact, scratch that, I’ve been waiting for any sort of material whatsoever to make its way onto the airwaves from this hugely talented band. Lets face it: Radiohead are a pretty special group of people, possessing some of the most talented- and weird- individuals in modern music. Ever since I saw them live three years ago I’ve been quietly intrigued by the band, and their frontman Thom Yorke, in particular.

If you look through any decent music magazines (read Q, NME, Word) top 100 albums list, I’m sure you will find Radiohead albums occupy many of the available spaces. Last year, Thom Yorke’s debut solo album, The Eraser, would probably also have been in those magazines favourite albums of the year, and quite correctly. The only problem is, I can’t really understand why I like their/his music: place Kid A and OK Computer into your CD player or computer one after the other and you would struggle to believe they are by the same band if you weren’t so culturally inclined (flattery of the readership!). Whilst they flit between styles of music on each album, Radiohead always produce atmospheric, interesting music; you would be hard pressed to think of a mediocre Radiohead album.

From the heavily electronica and Krautrock influenced Kid A to the piece de resistance that is OK Computer, Radiohead have been producing quality music since their breakthrough debut, Pablo Honey. At this point, you really have to ask yourself: why then are they rarely cited as influences? Furthermore, I don’t think their music is anywhere near as revered as it should be given their consistency… and yet for all those who don`t know of the band there are the hugely devoted superfans: my whole family has loved the band since I can remember, and because i grew up with thesmI have many memories attached to songs such as Karma Police, 2+2=5 (The Lukewarm) and Paranoid Android, which on recollection is the first song I ever learnt the words to. However, don’t forget Thom Yorke’s solo offerings; The Eraser gave a clear idea of his new artistic direction, and became known in our household as Kid B, a phrase my Dad coined, due to it similarity to the previous Radiohead offering. The Eraser received many accolades (Mercury Priwe nominated) last year and has some really memorable songs on it (see bottom of this post for downloads).

After a long musical drought, the band broke the silence early this year to say that work was underway on their new album, the follow up to 2003’s Hail To The Thief. News broke early this month that the album was now completed, and a snippet was released on the bands website containing short parts of a selection of new songs: see hype machine if you are interested. It certainly built up the anticipation, and this has been achieved once again with the release of a new song by Modeselektor (Yorke's favourite band) featuring Thom Yorke titled White Flash. This song amps up the anticipation for the new album, and if any of the as yet untitled release is as good as this song I for one will be happy. It will be interesting to see which sound they have adopted for album number 7: have Yorkes solo albums been an indication of zhat is to come or will they surprise us? We shall see, but given their previous track record, this will be an album to remember...

Just a few of their most memorable songs: they can all be downloaded from this project, or by clicking the links individually. You can buy Radiohead's albums here...

Modeselektor feat. Thom Yorke- White Flash
Radiohead- 2+2=5 (The Lukewarm)
Radiohead- Creep
Radiohead- Paranoid Android
Radiohead- Karma Police
Radiohead- Knives Out
Radiohead- Idioteque
Thom Yorke- Analyse