Reckoner

In Rainbows arrived in October 2007 as a pay-what-you-want download — a business model as radical as anything on the record itself. After the fractured electronics of Kid A and Amnesiac, Radiohead returned to something warmer, more human, more groove-based. In Rainbows remains their most purely beautiful record.

Reckoner is its emotional center: a stuttering rhythm, Phil Selway's brushed percussion, Jonny Greenwood's guitar shimmering like heat, Thom Yorke's falsetto stretching over it all. The lyrics are opaque but the feeling is crystalline — somewhere between grief and acceptance.

In the years since, In Rainbows has only grown in stature. It is Radiohead fully in command of their instruments and instincts, making music that sounds like no effort at all.