Record Review: Radiohead - In Rainbows [Disc 2]

Rating: 6.9 / 10.0

B-sides/bonus records are a dangerous business. Collecting the scraps from the cutting room floor and compiling them in such a way so that they make sense and fit together is a daunting task. When it comes to this tricky practice, people (okay, critics) posit arguments like, "these songs didn't make the album for a reason," and claim that releases like this one is that they are "for fans only." The greatest danger about putting out a b-sides record is that despite the fact that they are not presented as album-worthy tracks, we critcs still hold them to the same critical standards to which we held the source album itself.

This particular collection of songs, then, had some large shoes to fill (especially here at Never Learned to Swim, where its parent album earned our coveted Album of the Year honours). In Rainbows was an astonishingly consistent and compelling assortment of songs that flew in the face of genre labels. Each song was part of a larger pastiche, which by all accounts should not have felt cohesive, but did anyway. Therein lay the genius of In Rainbows, in its cavalier impulsiveness.

It would be unfair to say that the second disc unequivocally lacks the diversity of the source album. It doesn't match it, but that's not the problem. The problem is that these songs have such striking stylistic parallels on the album proper, that they seem contrived. Rather than being an extension of the stylistic diversity of the first disc, it seems to be a bland photocopy of parts of the first disc. "Go Slowly" Xeroxes "Reckoner", "Last Flowers to the Hospital" can't escape the shadow of "Nude," "Up on the Ladder" smacks of "Jigsaw Falling Into Place," "Bangers and Mash" could try to but probably wouldn't be able to sound more like "Bodysnatchers," and "4 Minute Warning" is just like "Videotape" except not half as beautiful. The only exception to this rule is the standout "Down Is The New Up," which creates an identity all its own.

This criticism is far from an indictment of the release, however. It is merely a testament to the fact that this b-sides release shows where Radiohead's creative limits lay while they were putting In Rainbows together (they're human; who knew?). That said, it's by far the most cohesive b-sides record I've ever listened to - it hangs together like an album all in and of itself rather than seeming a hodge-podge of odds-and-ends (pardon the excessive hyphenation). The quality of the songs is lower than that of In Rainbows, but that just means the songs aren't perfect. This is a good record that was unfortunately (for it) released in the wake of (and therefore can only be regarded as the bastard cousin of) a legendary record. It is one thing to stand on the shoulders of a giant, it is quite another to fill his footsteps.


-PTC