In Rainbows is a dream that's far from even close to the edge.

The method of promoting this new offering of ten tracks from Radiohead, erstwhile pioneers of the extraordinary, has to be commended. When the band realized it was substandard they baled out, opting to leave the decision on price up to the buyer.

Lacking the resonance of The Bends or the outrageousness of Kid A it doesn’t even try to grab hold of the listener. Even the otherworldlyness of Amnesiac seems beyond the band these days. Remember those esoteric almost mystical moments from off the wall?

The whole of this package is just too non threatening, too tight and just too neat. It can accommodate everybody from old through to new fans and even lapsed fans in between who are now reborn after just one listen.

It demands no thinking from the listener just a go with the flow, making no real decisions while sitting on the fence pretending to be a fan in certain circles and denying it in others. A one size fits all kind of easy on the ear stuff that both your parents and your kids would enjoy.

Bob Dylan did a similar thing when he found God and demanded disciples not critics, then discovered that his cutting edge had been severely blunted.

There’s nothing ragged or jagged about this Radiohead, in fact nothing dangerous to even suggest that the listener is being mugged. The whole thing can be listened to as elevator music or worse still, played as a lullabye sequence for recalcitrant babies.

The Peppers worked a similar con with Stadium Arcadium although they retained some of their dignity by at least charging for their recent offering.

The similarities between the two boil down to both packages being curiously listenable and yet making no unique impact on listeners. The con simply lulling them into temporary amnesia about any band bibliography with which to make comparisons.

The ultimate postmodern music, a band with no history only the present moment, In Rainbows.

Generic, albeit polished, pieces tooled to deliver instant gratification with absolutely no demand on the listener. This kind of toy or plaything comes from a comfort zone playpen far from that edge, ever close to the precipice, that Radiohead inhabited in their not so distant past.

Maybe the band has started believing their own myth or could it be a cutting indictment of most listeners and critics and their mushy acceptance of mediocrity? A credible bounce back from this far down is always possible but not inevitable. His track record speaks for itself though, so watch my space.

Maintaining the extraordinary momentum that they had started was going to boil down to one word, sustainability. A hard ask given the high standards rhey had set for themselves. After all sustainability is all about sustain-ability or sustained-ability.

According to Wikipedia, In Rainbows earned a rating of 88 out of 100 on Metacritic.
‘Nuff said.

In short, it's a great repeatable read.

Imagine someone being able to write the ultimate book for our instant gratification society. Speed is all that counts and if you need something profound, you need it yesterday.

I only recently read a Terry Pratchett book and that was not by design, as I had lost an inopportune bet and the price was a tome that goes by the name 'MORT'.

Strange that I not only enjoyed but also chuckled along with an author that combines instructive insights into philosophy, physics, metaphysics and a whole horde of other deep stuff. All done in a throwaway, take out kind of style tailormade for the current hustle and bustle lifestyle of coffeeshops and reading in waiting rooms while texting dinner instructions, coordinating a board meeting, intentionally ignoring the seat occupied next to you and of course moaning at the assistant for delaying your jampacked donut day.

Bite size chunks of takeout wordplay that remain curiously rereadable. Instant gratification that can be repeated at leisure. In short, it's a great instantaneous read.

My fave quote from this reading sums up the endless quest to be moving on to the next 'big" thing. "People don't alter history any more than birds alter the sky, they just make brief patterns in it."

Brevitous

I got mail, therefore I am.

Dilbert got the human psyche spot on here. Most people need continuous confirmation that they exist and the easiest, least stressful method is via superficial attention from other people.

Most people have outrageously big address books crammed to the rafters with gratuitous addys that link to gratuitous people that are also seeking confirmation of a robotic existence that gains meaning via email.

This curious human affliction is great to watch from the sidelines and to speculate even wager on who of any given grouping of lab rts has a breakdown first.

One could sceptically wager big bucks on whether the said breakdown is actually real or just a desperate bid to keep up with the latest fad.

Most people boast about the size of their onbox and enthuse about the wasted hours wading through meaningles mails that clog the system just like cholestrol clogs the arteries and leads directly to heart failure.

All in a vain bid for affirmation and confirmation of existence. Vain because fleeting, as the whole process begins again at least once a day and has to be repeated as and when necessary.

This really is it ...

This really is it as I survey the possibilities of blogging further and contributing yet more baggage to the daily increase of data online.

An old mate, Dreaded Outsider, once highlighted the dangers of unwittingly contributing to this avalanche that will at some stage reach critical mass. Until then, just like the greenhouse that we pretend isn't there, let's party on!