Early Buzz Says “In Rainbows” Is An Album

Good morning! Wait, why are you reading a blog? Shouldn’t you be prepping your insta-review of/context-free MP3 post about Radiohead’s In Rainbows, which hit the inboxes of people who ordered it last night/this morning? (My download code arrived at 2:30 a.m. ET, about 90 minutes after I threw in the towel.) Well, you may not be in the mood to digest your music after you’ve regurgitated your reaction to it, but these bloggers and journalists, bleary-eyed from their all-night waiting-for-e-mail vigils, have lined up to shout “First!” across Google’s void (even if they were already beaten to the punch):

• “They’ve made entertainment history, unless they haven’t, as if that was their role all along, as if they set themselves up as epic melancholy pop radicals with pseudo majestic conceptual breadth just so that they could be the ones that finally finished off the dinausaurian 20th Century music industry. So that the rock music business doesn’t end with a bang but with a well calibrated well intentioned sloganeering Radiohead whimper. Four stars. And a couple of complaints. And a hint of middle brow madness. And a note of dismay about the forty quid.” [Observer] • “Overall, well worth the four bucks I paid for it — with is twice what the band would have made from a physical copy sold through a label. Color us pleased androids.” [Donewaiting] • “For what it’s worth, In Rainbows was sent to me at 6.30am. Three hours later, this insidious index of sonic surprises is stacking up in my mind, like planes waiting to land. The trick, I guess, is to give your fans what they didn’t know they wanted. Radiohead, old hands at this, have been doing it for over a decade now. With In Rainbows, they appear to have done it again.” [Times Online] • “I want to listen again — more important, I’m intrigued. It doesn’t leave me cold; it didn’t stab me in the heart the way Band of Horses just did. But there’s a quiet, understated beauty to it that’s welcoming and makes me want to explore more.” [Riverfront Times] • “Early buzz says In Rainbows is … well, actually you’re gonna help dictate that early buzz right now. ” [Stereogum]