Latest news with #InRainbows
Forbes
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Radiohead's Early-Career Masterpiece Leads A Sale Surge
Just a few weeks ago, Radiohead's song "Let Down" began picking up steam on TikTok. The tune quickly went viral and has spent more than a month reaching both longtime fans of the band and those who were previously unfamiliar with the track. Although "Let Down" was actually released decades ago, its recent success has spread to much of the Grammy-winning act's catalog. All the attention being paid to the tune — and to Radiohead in general — seems to be powering something of a comeback for the group. Multiple albums, which have already enjoyed their time in the spotlight, are now on the rise in the United Kingdom, and impressively, it's not just streams that are growing. Pure purchases are growing noticeably as well, which is a relatively uncommon occurrence when virality is involved. Radiohead Fills Three Spots on the Official Albums Sales Chart This week, Radiohead claims three spaces on the Official Albums Sales chart, the U.K. ranking that looks at the bestselling projects of any length or style. Three of the group's titles are rising — some by just one space, while others grow much more dramatically. OK Computer, which includes "Let Down" on its tracklist, ascends four rungs to No. 23, and it stands as Radiohead's current highest-placed and highest-rising full-length on the Official Albums Sales chart. At the same time, In Rainbows improves by just one space to No. 48. Further down the list, The Bends enjoys a significant push, jumping more than 20 spots to settle at No. 50. OK Computer Emerges as Radiohead's Most Successful Album Among all of Radiohead's charting albums, OK Computer is the most successful when looking at the total number of rankings on which it appears. The Bends and In Rainbows live on three tallies apiece, while OK Computer reaches one more and performs best overall, as it also hits No. 74 on the consumption-based Official Albums chart. 'Let Down' Manages a Revival, and It's Not Alone Radiohead may have "Let Down" to thank for this moment of glory, as the albums currently performing the best for the group are tied to the viral tune, but it's not the group's only hit song right now. "Let Down" itself appears on just two rankings, climbing on both the Official Singles Sales chart and the Official Streaming Chart. Another smash, "Creep," also manages to inch north two spaces on the streaming-only tally.
Times
28-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
What Radiohead's artwork tells us about their music (and a new album)
In 2007, when Radiohead surprise-released the album In Rainbows, their legions of devoted fans were given a choice. Click here, we were told, and you can have the music for free. Or click here and you can pay £40 to have the music plus a load of artwork. Reader, I paid the £40 — and that record, with its gorgeous, trippy rainbow splurge of colour, is still on display in my living room. Hence This Is What You Get, an era-spanning hits, rarities and notebooks exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in the band's home town of Oxford, and which is named for a lyric in their song Karma Police. Because nothing sums up Radiohead diehards better than spending hard-earned cash on some photocopied paintings instead of opting to own In Rainbows for zilch . Do the band have a sleeve as iconic as Sgt Pepper? Nevermind? Parklife? No. But nobody else gets close to the synergy between music and image that Radiohead's body of work boasts — a point This Is What You Get pushes over and over again as it traces the singer Thom Yorke's professional relationship with his artist friend Stanley Donwood through 180 exhibits. • The time Thom Yorke smiled — candid snaps by the Radiohead bassist They met at Exeter University in the late 1980s and started working together for the front cover of The Bends in 1995 — that image of a crash test dummy looking as if he is at the point of climax. The duo have put images to music for everything Yorke has written since. For fans, then, this exhibition will be essential, from the opening display of album and single covers they probably own, all the way to the gift shop, where a blue and white teacup and saucer will set you back £42. Yet fans are hardly the test here. Heck, we spent money on essentially free music and acolytes will lap up not so much the art on the wall as the personal items, mostly shown in display cabinets. There is a self-portrait by Yorke with spiders in his beard. One notebook shows an alternative track listing for the album Hail to the Thief (I tried it out; it's better). Another lists Yorke's fears from 2006, which include Iran, smoking ganja, getting fat, the suffering of millions as a consequence of global warming, and evangelists. Scribbled above some lyrics is a phone number for someone called Ellie. These lived-in pages in themselves prove to be a joy, probably as close to an autobiography as Yorke will get, showing us a mind that is always on, always jotting. The explanatory text for his solo album Tomorrow's Modern Boxes says it was made at 'a particularly bleak time for Yorke'. I am not sure we knew that. • Radiohead are playing together again Still, the focus here is not Yorke's words, nor his music, which plays very little role in the exhibition at his insistence that nothing would be played through speakers (there are a couple of points offering headphones for the uninitiated who have somehow found themselves in a Radiohead exhibition). Instead the point is is to let the visuals speak for themselves, to extricate Donwood and Yorke's artwork, which they mostly create at the same time as the music is being recorded, from the awards-laden band that made said art famous. 'It was years before I could go into a gallery,' an introductory text by Donwood reads. 'They're just intimidating, whereas a record shop is full of all kinds of oiks.' It says something about the confidence of the two men that we are clearly not in a record shop any more. So do the paintings, drawings and sketches, on canvases great and small, digital and analogue, stand alone? It is hard, as a fan, to divorce the art from the music — this is a nostalgia trip on which you recall where you were when you first heard each album in every room — but, largely, yes they do, albeit not at the start. The Bends, for instance, is limited here to a couple of posters, but its acclaimed follow-up, OK Computer, is gifted its own big room for artwork that was a parody of self-help and business speak — that lack of soul the album was railing against. It follows Yorke's lyrics and technological fears, thus making it less album art, more art for an album. Non-fans may wonder whether the room actually belongs in a gallery. Move on, though, and as Radiohead's music became more abstract, so did the images. The initially divisive, glitchy Kid A, we are told, was made when Yorke was struggling with the idea of following up OK Computer's success. 'Some anxiety could be exorcised by painting with brushes, knives, sticks, rags, anger, frustration and kicks,' the supporting text reads, and the nightmarish paint-splatter mountains and monsters perfectly evoke music that had left guitars behind and lyrics that no longer told stories but dealt with feelings. Which is pretty much what the past quarter of a century has been for Yorke, a man who, over time, became perhaps more interested in the visuals than he was in music. A real highlight is Yorke's debut solo album, The Eraser, for which Donwood created a London cityscape swept away in a flood. It is black-and-white, eerie and powerful in a way very little album art manages because most of it is not made in cahoots with the musician. At certain points the music supports the art, rather than the other way around: the monochrome sketches of endlessly chopped-down trees for Radiohead's single for war veterans, Harry Patch (In Memory Of), is far more memorable than the actual song. Now that I have seen that image, which I never had in full given I had only streamed the track on Spotify, the song packs a greater power. The exhibition ends with the Smile, Yorke's most recent band. This final room showcases how free-form his partnership with Donwood is. Made after lockdown, the bright, vivid paintings are full of life. It was a happy time and it shows. Many yellow suns are out and the trees are growing again. Donwood said he wanted to make 'less miserable pictures', something both Radiohead fans and haters will smile at. • How Radiohead reinvented rock (with help from a composer) But then the show ends — with a full stop rather than the comma fans would like. They would, after all, love another room, a hint at a new album by Radiohead, if one will ever exist. It is a question this exhibition does not even try to answer but it does at least point us towards what we already knew: that Yorke is an enigma who has put the art into art rock, someone who long ago left behind the idea that his music can be defined, let alone predicted. There is, after all, no mention whatsoever of the breakthrough hit Creep, made before Yorke really knew who he was — and before he started to work with Donwood, his most important creative Is What You Get is at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Aug 6 to Jan 11,
BBC News
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Radiohead reimagined at Oxford's Christ Church Cathedral
A classical music ensemble's concert of Radiohead songs in the band's hometown of Oxford will feel extra special, its artistic director Concertante's Radiohead Reimagined show is touring cathedrals and abbeys across the UK, and arrives at Christ Church Cathedral on ensemble, used to performing the works of Bach, Vivaldi, and Vaughan Williams, will reinterpret songs from the band's entire Grist, who is also founder of the orchestra, tells the BBC: "The fact that Radiohead are from Oxford, for us to bring the show there feels like a real homecoming." It means reimagining both the guitar anthems and alternative rock from their breakthrough albums The Bends and OK Computer, through to their more experimental later releases, such as Kid A and In Rainbows. Grist says he spent an "awful lot of time listening to every single Radiohead album", and that whittling down the songs was difficult."It has been a really fun challenge and we've tried not to shy away from really musically-challenging situations," he cultural legacy has been expanding in recent years. Upcoming productions include an art exhibition at the prestigious Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and a stage show at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford Upon Avon that will combine the Bard's Hamlet with their Hail to the Thief album. Grist believes that a former "perceived snobbery" in the art and classical world is "evaporating", as the opportunities rock music can bring become evident."[This] can be a starting point for the listener to then explore further the world of classical music, and that's certainly our aim whilst we're creating this show," he says."There is such a line that goes through from the great masters to great rock music, and the way that we've approached it is to not dumb down anything about the music that we're presenting. "So for a Radiohead fan, they'll hear their favourite tunes in a slightly different way, but for a classical music audience who perhaps aren't familiar with the Radiohead repertoire, they'll hear a symphonic concert that happens to be music by Radiohead."It's our way of trying to bridge that gap." Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood is classically-trained and has written extensively for orchestras before, and both he and Thom Yorke have separately worked on soundtracks for filmmakers such as Paul Thomas Anderson, Jane Campion, Lynne Ramsay, and Luca says both are "immersed in that world" which makes their compositions so ideal to work on."You can tell from their writing and music that their musical brains are thoroughly engaged," he says."When you delve deep into what they've created, there is harmonic and rhythmic complexity, and even simple melodic lines are used so effectively." He adds: "There's an ethereal quality to their music, which is going to lend itself so well to the venues we're going to play, particularly Christ Church."It's such an iconic and beautiful venue to be in, and hopefully we'll convey that through the music."For an audience it's all about the partnership between the venue, the music, and the ambience of what they're seeing, and I think that's why live music is still so alive today because it's the only opportunity where listeners get to experience that full immersive element."Radiohead Reimagined tours throughout 2025. You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'An Evening of Radiohead' is an absolute must-see for any fan
While I've seen hundreds of bands over the years, there's one I've sadly never been able to catch live – my all-time favourite, Radiohead. So when I discovered there was a tribute show being held at Manchester Cathedral on my 30th birthday, I just knew I couldn't miss out on the opportunity. Hosted by Let Me In, the incredible performance took place during the event provider's UK Cathedral and Minster tour following a sold-out run in 2024. READ MORE: Sabrina Carpenter hits back after crowd erupts into boos at Manchester Co-op Live gig READ MORE: Review: Teddy Swims delivers show packed full of hits and mammoth vocals at Co-op Live And the setting couldn't have been dreamier – Manchester Cathedral providing a stunning backdrop for the journey through Radiohead's 30-year catalogue. The show brought together a full live band complete with vocalists and the nationally renowned Mike Nowland String Quartet. The night was a spectacular celebration of Radiohead's incredible work, spanning hits and lesser-known gems from albums like OK Computer, In Rainbows and The Bends. And though I initially had doubts over seeing a cover band, I must say I was absolutely blown away by the event. Having been desperate to see Radiohead live since the age of 15, it genuinely felt as close as I could possibly get to the real deal. Every song was delivered with such passion, showcasing the band's ability to navigate melancholic rock anthems to more experimental pieces - capturing Thom Yorke's distinctive voice with impressive accuracy. Under the direction of Christopher Buckle, the band – featuring talented local musicians like Alfie Woods, Bruce Higgs, Daniel Anketell, Josh Semans, Lydia Karaviotis and musical director Ewan Steady – created a powerful and emotional performance. But it was the addition of the exceptional string quartet – Mike Nowland, Mathias Svensson, Caroline Boddimead and Hannah Paterson – that brought a truly magical depth to the event. If you're a huge Radiohead fan like me, An Evening of Radiohead really is a must-see. The night was a perfect mix of nostalgia and fresh interpretations of the band's music and a truly unforgettable experience in a breathtaking venue. For tickets, visit the link by clicking here.
