Rehead

Radiohead are releasing their new album this Saturday. It's called The King of Limbs and I'm finding it very difficult to contain my excitement. Now, I don't know if I'll absolutely fucking adore it or anything like that. I always find the wait the most exciting. The anticipation. And it's way sweeter when there's just the right amount of it. Skinny Puppy are driving me near-mental, this is better for my sanity.

I love their way of keeping everything under wraps until the week they're planning to release it. With In Rainbows they uploaded it the same day and asked people to pay what they wanted. Of course there was a lot of controversy around it in the end due to bitrates and whatever, but all that was beside the point. For the first time in a while since it became the expected thing that records leak to the internet way ahead of the marketing date, I think everybody (who are fans of radiohead) heard it at the same time. The feeling that there's potentially millions of people listening to the exact same sounds that you are, right now, it's special to me. I think it's rare that I truly feel connected, and the In Rainbows release was definitely one of those moments where I did.

I think it's good for maximizing profit from an album release as well. Be the first one to release it on the internet and do everything you can do to make your digital download the quickest and most convenient way to listen to it. It seems like such a no-brainer. I'm not sure why everyone's not doing it. I think it must be 'cause they're on dumb major labels, or that they're just dumb themselves. Maybe that is an arrogant statement. But. If it's out on a torrent site first, then I'm gonna grab those digital bits and the likelihood of me purchasing the record later drops by, well, truckloads. It has to be pretty fucking stellar, or promoted at the local record shop just at the right moment while I happen to walk through, otherwise I'm not going to be thinking about it.

Sometimes I kinda reel against the internet and this free flow of sonic information. It has definitely cheapened music. I remember waiting in a line to get my hands on a Metallica album. I can't picture myself ever doing anything like it again. Closest thing was when I dropped into Tower Records on day one of the High Violet release. I wanted that purple vinyl so bad, because it was purple and because it was limited and because it was my new favourite band. (And I couldn't just get it online) - I needed this vinyl in spite of not having a vinyl-playing-device! I'm aware that this is insane, but then I'm very happy to own it. Heh. Anyway, I could easily digress and talk about how brilliant The National are, because, well, they are, but the point I was trying to make was this; The internet and it's adhd-like culture has cheapened music. But although it is easy to romanticize older days, I wouldn't want to go back to the way it was before. Without the internet I would possibly not have been into amazing music like The National, Arcade Fire, Mew and well I could go on for a while so I'll stop there. So yeah, something might have been lost along the way, but I've found some pretty cool music online. A lot of it I've even paid for (just maybe not right away). And I get to listen to the new Radiohead record this saturday, at the same time as everybody else. I find this pretty amazing.

So yeah. Radiohead are releasing a new album and I'm fucking ready!
Quickest preorder I've done since 2007.