Radiohead, 'The King of Limbs' - A Token Blog Response

You've got to love it when a bit of genuine, totally exhilarating and unexpected excitement sweeps across the internet. In an age where even the spread of a viral video is something that's no longer remarkable, and where new music releases lose any and all mystique through months of leaks and grainy YouTube videos pulling a fast one on the internet is a challenge to say the least. But, in true envelope-pusher style, Radiohead pulled it off this morning.

At 9am, it was announced via Radiohead's official website that their eighth studio album, entitled The Kings of Limbs, is soon going to be available. Wikipedia's going to have one hell of a time trying to pin down when the actual release date is however. Here's why:

- A downloadable mp3 or .wav version of the album is available through pre-order from this Saturday, the 19th of February. £6 for the mp3 version, £9 for the .wav version.
- The album is also available as a "Newspaper Album". If you're wondering what the hell that means, so is everyone else. It means that for £30 or £33 (due to your preference of either mp3 or .wav format) you can get the download, a CD, two clear 10" vinyl records, many large pieces of art work, 625 smaller pieces of artwork and a full colour piece of oxo-degradable plastic to hold it all together!
- It's available on standard commerical CD release from March 28th.

So they've spread themselves nicely across the next few months. After releasing their last album, the brilliant In Rainbows, under a "pay what you like" system, Radiohead had made it clear when they announced they had a new batch of songs ready that they had "begun to wonder about how to release them in a digital landscape that has changed again".

I'm guessing that if you're reading my blog you're probably already familiar with Radiohead to some extent, and most likely familiar with the details of release already. So I've just got a few thoughts to share about the nature of this release:


1. It's putting real value into the music
I've mentioned time and time again recently that music is so horrendously devalued in our culture. You can see it in the fact that pathetic and vacuous little scroungers like Bruno Mars somehow manage to dominate the charts and sell millions of records and win awards, simply by spreading their self-respect's metaphorical bum cheeks in front of a financially lecherous and predatory record label that's looking to pour malleable, liquidised flesh into a Chris Brown shaped mould and press it into a walking, warbling mess of musical spam within the shadowy bowels of their iron clad headquarters. You can also see it in the WE WANT IT NOW attitude to downloading music, where piracy is on the rise and physical music sales plummet whilst digital sales stall. It's so hard to be really excited by music and to really want to cherish it.

This model of release, however, shows Radiohead trying to get people to do that. They've given mere days warning prior to the album's release which has made genuine, underwear soiling excitement erupt shamelessly across the board. And the idea of the "Newspaper Album" is brilliant. The exact origin of the name is perhaps horrendously unclear, but that's besides the point. They're making a point that their music is something that they want to be special and collectible. They want it to be something that rewards their loyalest fans and gives them more than your average, more infrequent listener. And they've done it in a fresh, creative and brilliant way. And it's not like they're making it into a high end product, and definitely not as if they're turning it into an extortionate gimmick. They're straddling both the "digital landscape" they themselves had identified, as well as the physical plain of musical releases, valued highly by serious music lovers. It's a stand against the throwaway nature of a lot of music in the 21st century.

2. However, it's easy for them
Brilliant as this model is, and as strong a stand as it may be, it's easy for Radiohead to do. Not necessarily easy in a creative sense(though I get the impression that Jonny Greenwood has a small army of gnome slaves in his brain, whipped into building and rebuilding large, shiny musical pyramids inside his unsettlingly prolific brain) but easy in a financial sense. They're 8 albums into their career, clearly well off enough to be acting without a label and could probably live comfortably off of royalties if they wanted. I'm not saying "they prostituted themselves to the music industry and now they're turning round and criticising it". I'm pointing out that they made their money in the industry when it functioned a heck of a lot differently, and didn't suffer so much from the problems I've mentioned. When it became clear that the industry was going ethically south they decided to take a very valid stance against it, but they were only able to do so financially because they'd already made their money. New bands, or less successful bands, couldn't really echo this model of release. Please be aware though, I am far from calling them hypocrites or questioning their integrity.

3. The music press are going to snipe at them whatever happens
Even just from the few opinion based blogs and articles I've read about this today, it's clear that the musical press which keeps on purporting the value of innovation in the release of new music and spitting venom about the shallow and extortionate music industry, is the same musical press that's willing to take a pointless and defamatory stab at bands like Radiohead who are striving to preserve the value of music. They do it partly because of the overly sceptical and distrustful age in which we live but probably mostly because they want to get cheap laughs and lots of comments from their readers. It's pathetic really; and Radiohead, like any band with something special about them I guess, are going to attract a good number of embittered, small minded critics.

4. But could it change the industry?
Like I've said above, small bands and bands trying to break into the music industry can't possibly use the same model of release as Radiohead. At current they often have to simply dance to the record labels' tunes or, even if they're on a fantastic independent label with a lot of integrity, deal with the harsh realities of the world. So will this model of release directly change anything? I'm not so sure. But indirectly it could. It could set a precedent for other big indie acts to follow, and I think that it's with them that the future lies. If Radiohead started a label and began recruiting new, emerging artists then you'd have a label run by bosses with a clear passion and vision for putting out releases which give value to the music. They'd also be bosses with the money and, perhaps more importantly, the industry influence to make it happen. And if half a dozen other big, creative and honourable indie acts followed, we would be rolling in it folks.

So there you have it folks. A few thoughts from me on what is surely one of the biggest musical events of 2011, and (maybe, just maybe) of the early 21st century. Who knows. What I do know is that I'm bloody excited.

Here's a video of them performing for the awesome sessions website From The Basement. More of the same please boys: