The bastions of unpredictability return after a considerable hiatus from recording as a band. There is a very different sense of anticipation with Radiohead, so radically they contort from one album to the next. You don’t know what you’re looking forward to.

Musically, the band has taken a step back from the heavily computerised albums Kid A and Hail to the Thief. The songs on this album are typically underdeveloped and simplistic, but this being Radiohead, you feel that is exactly what they were aiming for. ‘Bodysnatchers,’ early in the album is the most aggressive, using heavily distorted guitars to counterpoint Yorke’s ethereal vocals.

Lyrics go from the grimly prophetic “Don’t get any bright ideas, they’re not gonna happen,” to the ludicrously surreal ‘Weird Fishes,’ “I fall to the edge of the Earth and fall off, get eaten by the worms.” The two outstanding songs on this album are ‘Reckoner’ and ‘Jigsaw Falling Into Place,’ where Yorke uses his brilliant falsetto voice to greatest effect.

It takes time to develop a band’s sound or a new genre and it seems that with every new album, Radiohead become a new band or invent a new genre. They simply don’t have enough time to perfect their ideas. Take Sigur Ros’s rise to fame after Kid A and Amnesiac. Sigur Ros wouldn’t be where they are now if Radiohead’s weird turn hadn’t paved the way for more experimental indie rock, but as members of similar genres Sigur Ros are a better band.

Radiohead have tried again to give their followers what they don’t know they want, and the die-hards will find some interpretation of Yorke’s minimalist lyrics or some aspect of the scant music to fall in love with again. In Rainbows is not for the uninitiated, but you can download it for a donation (minimum VALUE.00) at their website.