In a rather startling move announced just a week or so ago, Radiohead chose to release their long-gestating seventh album "In Rainbows" as a download from their own website, which visitors can pay as much or as little for as they like. With the music industry all in a tangle over the ever-decreasing popularity of real life albums that you buy in a shop, the news that the actual best band in the world doesn't require or desire it's help must feel like another nail in the coffin. Whatever is read into the results of what is effectively a poll of the entire world as to what music is actually *worth*, it should be noted that there's a second CD of extra material available only with the £40 "discbox" which ships in December and will presumably be part of the early 2008 CD release of the album (still being negotiated as Radiohead remain without a label, making them effectively the biggest unsigned band in the world), so most people probably typed in zero not just to see if it was actually possible but also because they know they're going to end up buying the CD eventually.
What's far more interesting about this release model is that everyone in the entire world got the album at more or less the same time. The record labels, the journalists, the fans, the indifferent people who got swept up in the hype. As a long-standing Radiohead devotee, it's the first time since OK Computer I've got to hear a Radiohead album without already being familiar with the songs from poring over live versions, unmastered studio recordings (in the case of 2003s Hail To The Thief), or early album leaks. I deliberately kept "dry" this time, musically spoiler-free, and was rewarded with one of the most surprising and culturally important events of recent years.
Which is all well and good and whatever, but what's the album like?
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