Features Albums Of 2007: #2 Radiohead - In Rainbows

. It’s a given that when Radiohead do something, they do it bloody well, but even Mystic Meg couldn’t predict what the Oxford world-conquerers were about to do this autumn.

Most bands announce an album at least a few months before its release. Some people are still waiting for ‘Chinese Democracy’. Most bands aren’t Radiohead. It seemed about five minutes’ time between Radiohead announcing the release of ‘In Rainbows’ and the record being available. But, in that ‘five minutes’, it appeared that the world froze several times over. The band were letting you pay what you wanted for the record.

Not wanting to go in to what that could, should, or doesn’t mean for the ‘Industry’, the band were at least willing to challenge fans to put a value on what they were about to listen to. To make them question their downloading habits. To prove that people are bloody well prepared to pay for quality. That’s more than a few great bucketloads of hype for one album to live up to.

‘In Rainbows’ did. It’s Radiohead, after all.

Watch the video for ‘Jigsaw Falling Into Place’: