Because geek is cool and clever

New Radiohead album October 10, 2007

I got a link to download Radiohead’s new album today after paying £5 for it (which, at the time, I considered a fair price if all the money went directly to the band).
I feel a natural kinship with Radiohead having seen them loads of times in their early days in Oxford. I don’t remember seeing ‘On a Friday’ (the original name of the band) but it’s likely that I did as I frequented many gigs back around those times. I’ve got some old indie cassette that I bought in Music Market in Oxford (remember that anyone?!) that has an On A Friday track on it. I can remember the song but I’ve not listened to it for some time.
So I’ve spent much of the day listening to In Rainbows and I’m kind of at a loss to know what to say about it apart from to use the word ‘beautiful’.
Like many people, I’m sure, OK Computer is one of my top five albums of all time. I remember listening to it over and over again whilst driving through France on my own. I went through just about every emotion it’s possible to experience during that trip and the album is indelibly etched on my brain as the soundtrack to it. Awesome – in the genuine sense of the word.
I do love Radiohead’s two (or is it three) follow up albums to OK Computer but I don’t listen to them anything like as often. Kid A gets a fair few plays but the others kind of wash over me.
In Rainbows is great and “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” is one of the most staggeringly beautiful pieces of music I can remember hearing.
If you want to hear the album – and change the way music is distributed – grab a copy of In Rainbows (and pay for it whatever you feel it’s worth) at inrainbows.com (sadly link is dead at time of writing due to overload – do a search but it’s important to pay for it and send out a message. Even if you pay only a very small amount, it will count as a statistic to this new model.