Radiohead - In Rainbows

Well, if you didn't download this on Wednesday you're missing out because over 1.2 million people did. There was a lot of hoopla in the last couple of weeks since Radiohead announced they were releasing their new album, label-free, on the Internet. When it was released on Wednesday it created a kind of excitement that has been lost for a long time: the excitement of a big album release day. With almost every album nowadays being leaked on the interweb long (sometimes months) in advance, there hasn't been another record in a while where everyone heard it the same day. If you read HERE, you will find that a lot of these songs have been played live for a long time, but they are all new to me. I tend to make judgements on albums a little quickly. Many times I think after a couple of listens that an album is one of the best of the year, only to end up realizing that it may just be a pretty good album (see: Dinosaur Jr., El-P and Okkervil River). After listening to In Rainbows over a dozen times in the past 3 days I can actually say this could definitely be the best album of the year. I actually think it might be their best work since OK Computer. I can't say yet if it's better than Kid A, but it just as good and after time I could see myself liking it more. Thom Yorke's vocals sound as good as they ever have. Some of his singing is reminiscent of his work with PJ Harvey and Bjork, in that his voice actually sound pretty which is rarely a word used to describe it. In Rainbows is about as mellow as Radiohead has ever been but each song has such a great depth and complexity to it that it's never boring. I thought about going through and listing some favorite tracks but I find every song so engaging that I can't even pick any favorites. If you haven't downloaded this album yet go HERE...I mean, c'mon, you don't even have to pay for it.

Also, there are quite a few pictures of fans artwork for the album but this one is still my favorite: