Review: In Rainbows - Radiohead

Picture this: you run a small shop that sells vegetables in a market. You're humble, but you're known for your amazing vegetables that you sell - they're simply the best thing anyone's ever tasted. But crime is rampant in the market. Everywhere, people's foods and goods are getting stolen by seedy characters. You know you've been thieved from, but there is little you can do to stop it. Instead of tightening security like all your peers though, you do something different. You open your shop for the day, and leave a note on the desk. It says, "These are my vegetables. People tell me that they are wonderful vegetables. Please take what you need, and pay me as much as you see fit. I value your custom." You leave your vegetables out there, unattended, for the masses to take as they please, possibly for no money.


This is exactly what Radiohead has done. In a shocking endeavour that blows any other recent album release out of the water, Radiohead announced merely a week ago that their new album, In Rainbows, will debut online for download. All you have to do is sign up on the website, and offer a sum of money for the album. That is to say, offer any sum of money of your choosing. $50... 20$... free? Radiohead, in a sense, has given their album away, to the masses of the internet, for no money.

The theory is this: music now adays is littered with people who really don't care about bands. They care about the music, and that's all they want; and they will get this music by any means necessary. Music piracy is at an all-time high, simply because it's so easy. Leaked albums spread like wildfire once they hit the net, and with file sharing rampantly spreading, anyone could share entire albums for no money to thousands of people. It's the new form of bootlegging.

Radiohead understood this. So, they did away with the illegality of stealing and sharing music, and essentially said to everyone, "This is the new album, you can have it if you want. If you feel like donating some money for it, be our guest. If not, that's cool - we hope you like it anyway."


Offering a major production, nay, one of the most anticipated albums in years (especially after their hiatus since 2004) for no money? You may think it too good to be true, but in fact, it is fact. The key is, donations are accepted, by whoever is willing to donate (up to £100). Furthermore, for the oppressively addicted fans that Radiohead easily produces, they offered the oddity of a "discbox," a huge special edition of In Rainbows, containing everything from vinyl copies of the album, an extra disc of entirely new material to acompany the original publicly released album, and a hardcover book, all for the price of £40 (about $80US). With tons of fans drooling upon this revelation, there is sure to be a fair amount of discboxs being sent out by December 3rd.



And what of the downloadable content? Just because the album was released for a possible $0.00 profit doesn't mean it's haphazard by any means. On the contrary, this is possibly one of Radiohead's highest achievements. Using an immense amount of minimalism, foreign to their style, and a new recording style, they've pushed their own boundaries to the brinks. Bodysnatchers squashes the conventional single with ease, bringing out fast paced, blazing instruments to every section of your ears, brining back almost the same quality of noise pop. And without further delay, they launch into a soft, slow, beautifully quiet song like Nude. In Rainbows is characterized like a heartbeat's pulse, up and down, from fast and chaos to quiet harmony, and everywhere in between.

In Rainbows is, needless to say, epic; and with songs like All I Need, Faust Arp, and House of Cards, there is little argument against Radiohead at this point. Furthermore, the revolutionary new, brave way of introducing their album is simply profound, and has for once, in a very long time, made the release date of a cd again significant to everyone who gets the album, and has helped make everyone a little happier in doing so by uniting them. With a truly revolutionary sound after a patiently waited hiatus, and a revolutionary new way of debuting albums, it won't be difficult to proclaim Radiohead's In Rainbows is one of the most profound albums of 2007 as well as the decade.