

Love and melody return as Radiohead hit a fine balance between adventure and warmth. With no label to please and a pay-what-you-want purchase model planned, In Rainbows was free to be wilfully avant garde. Instead, amid plenty of rhythmic and electronic flourishes, the band re-engage with tunes and guitars, framing emotional intensity within straightforward rock (“Bodysnatchers”) and gently burning love songs that are artful without being oblique (“All I Need”, “House of Cards”). Of course, the love Thom Yorke sings of is darkly complicated but it’s satisfying to hear his aching falsetto at the fore again.