Fitter, Happier, More Productive...

Radiohead shocked the music world when they released "In Rainbows" Wednesday (You can't release an album on Wednesday, you can only do that on Tuesdays! Radiohead, you are so rebelious!), allowing devoted fans to pay however much they wanted for the downloadable album. I admit, I had my doubts about the album.
"What if it's a big let down and I waste fifteen dollars?!" I would think.
"What if it's amazing and I didn't pay anything?!" I would correct.

I decided on paying five dollars because I desperately want a hard copy when it becomes available (sorry, didn't have forty quid to drop on the box set).

I downloaded it and listened to it on the way to school Thursday morning. I turned off my car, got out, took five steps toward the school, and stopped. I had the sudden feeling that I had just experianced something monumental, and it all sank in at once.

This possibly final album (read the lyrics to Videotape) caps off a career that should serve as an example to every artisan. Each song is perfectly paced, distributed, and executed throughout the entire album. Its one thing when an album is genius, it is another when the genius is so understated it almost feels offhand.

The album does not hit a flat note. Fitting somewhere between OK Computer and a Godspeed You! Black Emperor! album, to divide up the songs would do the album a disservice. It showcases a mellower, less antagonistic, more weary Radiohead, and I mean all of the above in the absolute, most complimentary way. The album's feel is the equivalent of the five or so minutes of wakefulness before you finally drift off to sleep; pleasant, thoughtful,melancholy, and content.

The ending song, Videotape, is taken from a Japanese film called After Life. When you die, you can choose one moment, THE moment, the moment where you were happiest, most fulfilled, etc. That moment is recorded on a videotape where you can watch it (and only that moment) for the rest of eternity. If this is Radiohead's final curtain, what a great memory to choose.