Radiohead Announce that New Album, "In Rainbows," Essentially Will Be Free

Out in Two Weeks, Radiohead's Album is Offered at What Fans Want to Pay

Radiohead have been working on their mysterious seventh album since February of 2005. Considering that "Hail to the Thief" was released in 2003, one can see that it's been quite a while since the band has released some new music. However, that is all about to change in less than 2 weeks. Radiohead have revealed the details behind their seventh album, which is called "In Rainbows."

You can currently preorder the album from their site in two ways: buying the discbox or a digital download. The discbox comes with In Rainbows on CD, 2 x 12 heavyweight vinyl records, a second CD with more new songs, some digital photographs, artwork, and lyric booklets. That's a lot of good stuff, and it's all encased in a nice hardback book and slipcase. If you decide to preorder the discbox, which is roughly around $81, you'll also be able to digitally download the album starting October 3rd, 2007. The downside is that the discboxes won't be shipped until December 3rd.

The most interesting information revealed about In Rainbows was their digital download deal. If you decide to preorder via digital download only instead of getting the discbox, you essentially get to give Radiohead as little or as much money you want for the album. Yes, you can even give Radiohead $0 if you want. Currently the band does not have a record label, so it should be interesting to see how successful their form of self-distribution will be. Fans of the band are generally pleased with Radiohead's pricing for the digital download, although many think the discbox is rather expensive.

Thom Yorke, singer and guitarist of Radiohead, has described In Rainbows to be somewhat similar to "OK Computer" in some ways. He has mentioned in the past that the upcoming album is more terrifying. According to Yorke, the lyrics conceptually deal with anonymous fear and things like that. Nigel Godrich, their long-time producer who has worked with them since 1995's The Bends, worked on "In Rainbows." However, in a spring 2006 recording session the band worked with producer Mark "Spike" Stent. It is unclear whether or not material produced during this period will make it onto the album.