After 24 hours: Radiohead "In Rainbows" Album Reviews Are In

HipHopMusic.com
"The 80,000 references to In Rainbows being "lush" and "sparse" were correct. People who like Radiohead with guitars and melodies should be very happy today, people who like weird bleeps and bloops maybe a bit less happy. If OK Computer is your favorite album In Rainbows might be your second favorite."

Rollingstone
"On 2003's Hail to the Thief, Yorke's vocals were all punk rage, but here his voice has an R&B lilt that suits the songs' romantic directness. The end of "Videotape" is the only time the band dips back into dated glitch-blip electronics. Otherwise, the music is full of vividly collaborative sonic touches, from the Gary Numan synth-nightmare drones of "All I Need" and "House of Cards" to drummer Phil Selway's surprisingly deft way with his brushes and woodblocks. No wasted moments, no weak tracks: just primo Radiohead. Hell, I'm going back and tipping them another quarter just for the finger-cymbal solo on "Reckoner.""

Courant
"“In Rainbows,” the band's seventh studio album and first since 2003's “Hail to the Thief,” is dense and thorny, complex and beautiful. The songs are a skillful mix of instruments and electronic sounds, incorporating elements of all the things Radiohead has done before without sounding exactly like any of them."

Lunapark6
"Each song is worth listening to in its entirety. The album has a pretty decent flow to it. All the trademark Radiohead things are there: the synths, electronic beats, piano, weird lyrics, catchy melodies, Thom Yorke’s warbly self and so on. It’s subtle at times, it “rocks” at times, it envokes emotion. The thing is that’s the thing; it’s everything one would expect from a Radiohead album. There are no alarms and no surprises. It’s fitter, happier, more comfortable. Everything is in its right place…A good album that I’ll continue to try and fall in love with like the hopeless Radiohead fan in denial that I am."

Telegraph
"In Rainbows doesn’t really put a foot wrong from then on in. The band can’t resist a dash of dissonance and random distortion here and there, but then again they wouldn’t still be Radiohead if they had edited that out of the mix; and for every nod to weirdness for its own sake there is a string arrangement that is more up George Martin’s street than Messaien’s"

Stereogum
"After a day of spins, we can say this is the record we wanted them to make -- or at least, it's the middle-of-the-record we wanted them to make; everything from "Nude" through "Reckoner" is warm, organic, and instant classic. Less paranoid -- or focused on paranoia -- than recent past. Yeah, most of the album's been making setlists for a long while"