British alternative rock band Radiohead’s new album “In Rainbows” is the most cohesive effort by the band since 2000’s Kid A.
However, its method of distribution may be more memorable than anything on the album.
Radiohead is allowing people purchasing their seventh LP, available since Oct. 10, to choose what they want to pay for the album online.
You can pay as much as you want, including nothing, but there is a small processing fee for the download.
People electing to pay 40 pounds, or about $80 American, will receive the download along with a “discbox” set to be mailed to them in December, which will include a CD with bonus tracks, artwork from longtime Radiohead artist Stanley Donwood and the album in vinyl format.
The band plans to have a traditional CD of “In Rainbows” in stores sometime during early 2008, once they work out a recording contract.
In the past, Radiohead albums used rhythm to enhance the diversely ambient instrumentation taking center stage.
With “In Rainbows,” this order has reversed, as the album relies more on traditional instrumental interplay than on the Ondes Martenot or string quartets, which are still used.
With the exception of “Bodysnatchers,” which drowns out lead singer Thom Yorke’s cryptic lyrics with a wave of fuzz and distortion, the album has a mellow tone throughout.
“House of Cards,” seemingly a musical homage to bossa nova, and “All I Need,” which cascades into a climactic, high-texture finish, are the closest thing to love songs that Radiohead has ever done.
Drummer Phil Selway is more solid than ever, as evidenced in the cymbal-heavy “Reckoner,” which contains the subservient lyric “Did I cater to all you/all your needs?”
Yorke uses drawn-out allusions to dystopia over the backmasked noise in “Nude” when he exclaims, “You’ll go to Hell for what you did to your mind/It’s thinking.”
Radiohead creates an aquatic feeling of exploration with the rhythm section in “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi,” while the opening track “15 Step” contains elements of R&B production.
The closing cut “Videotape” is a calm, piano-driven tune reminiscent of Kid A’s “Motion Picture Soundtrack.”
“Videotape” allows you to visualize the broad scope of the album and compare Radiohead’s new evolution with the other times the band has managed to reinvent itself.
While it may be no “OK Computer,” “In Rainbows” is still a great album.