New Radiohead Album

Finally! Myself and a million other Radiohead fans have been following this thing ever since they announced that they were recording a new album back in 2005. It's been a long wait, but it's official that the album, called In Rainbows, is complete and will be "sort of" available only about a week from now. By "sort of," I mean that the album will be available for pre-release download on October 10 from Radiohead.com. Interestingly, Radiohead is allowing you to pay whatever you want. The price box is blank, and you fill it in yourself. I decided to pay 4 pounds (about $8) because that's about the average price for a digital album download, but if you don't believe in the honor system, I supposed you could get it for free. There will also reportedly be no promo copies out before the 10th, which means that nobody except the band themselves has heard the album yet. That also means no possibility of someone leaking it beforehand on the internet. So basically, Radiohead is leaking the album themselves, which explains the "optional" payment scheme.

They're also offering a package, available in December, called the "discbox," which includes the album on both CD and vinyl, along with extra songs that aren't included in the download version. As awesome as that sounds, I have bills to pay, and the "discbox" costs around $80 American. They'll be releasing a proper CD sometime in early 2008, so I'll wait till then to get a physical copy. This may be the most eagerly awaited album by any band during my lifetime. I can't wait for October 10th.