Easily my favorite song on an amazing record.

It's funny to me that so many people like this song best when it's the one I wish they had left out! Like, I think the album would've been stronger if they'd switched this out for "Bangers and Mash," not only because I think that's the best of all the new songs, but because the record gets a bit too same-y in mood and tempo after "Bodysnatchers."

Have you heard the newly recorded "Bangers and Mash" somehow?

The only songs on the album I really have time for, individually, are "Reckoner", "Nude" and "Videotape". But they're so beautiful. I love the modesty of the approach, the way all the beauty resides just in guitar tones and drum sound. (Thom's vocals are in a lot of ways the least compelling parts of the record.) The saminess is what redeems the album for me - the songs, separately, don't stand up as well as Kid A or Amnesiac. But instead there's just 40 minutes of loveliness. It's weird to hear a Radiohead album that feels influenced by Spoon (the emphasis on instrumental tone, the modesty of arrangement, the amount of *space*) - makes me think y/our Jim Eno/REM dream might one day manifest. There's also a lot of Sea and Cake in this one...

I find "Reckoner" ridiculously moving, though; not the lyrics or even the vocals at all. Just the persistence of it, the way the percussion GOES AWAY and then comes back; so generous in its return. So warm. Skin on skin, and starlight, somehow.

Thank you thank you for comparing Radiohead to Spoon. Those bands are two my favorites and with In Rainbows you just voiced thoughts that I was too afraid to articulate out loud. And thank you for featuring them; I like to think my email had something to do with that. :)

But I find Thom Yorke's voice to be the most moving part of all, at least in terms of individual songs. I probably wouldn't listen to House of Cards on repeat if it weren't for Thom's falsetto in the beginning and end (and dare I say that it reminded me a little bit of Bob Marley in Don't Worry, Be Happy?), and I found his falsetto particularly at the climax of Reckoner.

That song just stands out, one of the best things they've done. (1st listen = !?!?, 2nd listen = wow, 3rd listen=dear lord, 4th listen = I AM IN LOVE).

Thinking about the early lyrics of the song ("feeling pulled apart by horses" "pay the right price"), I feel like this song is expressing some horrible thing or reality, but in a very beautiful way, having totally accepted it, that there is nothing else you can do, but still smiling.
Thom said he wanted to write his angry songs in a very sunny/smiling way, as Bob Marley did on Uprising, and I feel like he's finally succeeded.

So your comments about "generosity" and persistence above ring very true Sean...

..Been waiting for a post including some new Radiohead stuff. Very awesome that this is the song you chose that stood out to you, I completely agree. Thanks for the post.

This is also my favorite one from IR. The building moment when the drums come back is one of my favorite radiohead moments of all time, you express as grandly as ever, sean, the reason for it's beauty.

Phoenix: That would be Bobby Mcferrin, not Bob Marley. Never Bob Marley.

also this is interesting if you haven't noticed:

http://www.citizeninsane.eu/audio/inrainbows.mp3

the part with the voices before the drums come back are saying "in rainbows". This clip dubs the instrument and main voice so you hear it.

You write so beautifully about music. This website is really a treasure. Thank you for this.

OK, am I the only one who hears the Red Hot Chili Peppers in this one?

yes. yes yes and yes! i love the way you write about music. this is one of my very favorite songs on the album, along with 15 step, bodysnatchers, nude, and jigsaw and videotape. shit, that's more than half the album, isn't it? oh well. the only ones i really didn't care for were 'all i need' and 'house of cards', both of which seem to be on so many's best-of lists. i love how that works. anyway, i'm happy to have stumbled upon this wonderful and well-produced blog. i will definitely be returning.

JKelly, you're not the only one who hears it! as soon as i heard the start fo reckoner for the first time i heard the chilis... i dunno if it's the similiarity toi the riff of scar tissue or some other song.... but it definately sounded like i'd KIND of heard it before.