I don’t think music is really something you can “finish consuming”. That said, I just got the discbox in the post today—and, oh, what excitement! I can’t even describe how much I’m loving the B-Sides [no, I didn’t listen to the leaks of that disc online, preferring to build the antici—]. The packaging is very awesome, and I’m rather excited to have spent the money.

Merry Christmas to me!

Since the unexpected & unconventional release of Radiohead’s In Rainbows, (which is, in my not-so-humble opinion, their best album to date) the blogosphere buzz on music industry news, rumors, and reviews has grown exponentially. The most recent hype you’ll undoubtedly encounter while cruising through music & tech blogs alike, is the alleged inaccuracy of the data used by comScore to support a claim: the “name your price” guerrilla marketing technique used by Radiohead for the October 10th release of In Rainbows, was unsuccessful. Apparently all that Radiohead achieved was some serious, industry-wide panic.
Read Radiohead’s argument: comScore’s data is inherently accurate.

Ho hum. I am so sick of hearing about Radiohead. Well, at least I was—until today. While conducting top secret Orphan research on Last.fm, I came across the music networking site’s overall (we’re talking SITE-WIDE) charts section—I was completely bowled over by the data it displayed.
...but all hats off to Radiohead.(read more)

For me Radiohead peaked at OK Computer. It’s not that everything since then has been bad, just that none of it has been as good (though Kid A came close). Each album has been just a bit worse than the previous until this one, which breaks the trend only slightly by being better than its direct predecessor Hail To The Thief. It’s okay, but it’s just not that great – I suspect like Hail To The Thief it will improve with time, but not by much. Worth listening to? Sure, occasionally; but certainly no classic.

Nothing stands out here as being particularly memorable, or as something that will be remembered in years to come as a classic song. Having just listened to it it’s easy to forget; compare that with OK Computer that still resonates ten years after its release.

I haven’t given up on Radiohead, I just hope one day they’ll stop releasing so many mediocre albums and bring out something brilliant again (Thom Yorke’s Eraser showed he’s still got it in him to be brilliant). There’s a sameness to most of their albums that’s just getting really tiresome – time to reinvent and come up with something truly original once more.

Just curious… how many of you bought the discbox, too? And, if so, why?

Not that it matters to anyone else, but I pre-ordered because I’m really excited to help support such a DIY effort [even if they did decide to court labels for a “real” release next year…]. I’m not the die hard Radiohead fan by any means, so it’s probably a bit crazy of me to spend $82 [US!] on them. However, I appreciate them for their music and for making this album available without the annoying bells and whistles of a major label or iTunes.

Oh, and so far? I’m definitely into it. By the time the discbox rolls around, I’ll probably be ready for some mastered b-sides…