I would have downloaded Radiohead's In Rainbows when it came out as a download-only thing, if they'd let me download a CD-quality download. As it was, the choice was between a fairly low-res MP3, and a download, a CD and a bunch of vinyl records I'd never play. So I waited until it came out on CD, and then waited until my next Amazon order was due; the CD came in today, I ripped it, and I've been pretty much solidly listening to it ever since.
One of the things I like to do in situations like this is go look for reviews, so I can read what other people have thought about it. And I stumbled across The Onion's review (note: this is their audio/visual part, which is serious and not a parody site). And I saw the following:
This is still the Radiohead that finds straight-ahead pop structures gauche or just plain tired, even though those structures made the group famous, from "Creep" through "Paranoid Android."
Sorry? Paranoid Android, a straight-ahead pop structure? This is a 6 and a half minute song that obeys an apparent pop structure for all of just over 2 minutes (guitar intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, apparent middle 8), then goes into 7:4, back into 4:4, then back into 7:4 repeatedly (including the guitar solo), for about a minute and a half, before slowing down and introducing effectively another set of verses for another two minutes, before reprising the 4:4 / 7:4 switch in the last minute.
This is as bad as the reviewer who complained that Sting wasn't writing any of his timeless catchy songs any more, like Fields of Gold, a mere 4 years (and one album) after he wrote, er, Fields of Gold. Or every single review of Tori Amos's second album that I read at the time, none of which mentioned that it was mostly solo piano.
(I can't find the Q magazine review of said album, because Q have decided that they're in the business of selling back issues through the post, not letting random Internet browsers know that Q write well-informed reviews of pretty much everything, and as such redesigned their website a while ago and removed all reviews. You can't even pay them money to get access to their review database. Madness!)
So far, incidentally, I'm impressed. I have yet to listen to it enough to remember it well enough to pay attention to the details, but it sounds like a very good continuation of their attempt to blend their OK Computer sound and the Kid A / Amnesiac sound. (Bear in mind that I think that Creep is lack-lustre at most, and think there's only good song on The Bends, being Street Spirit (Fade Out).)
