Radiohead - In Rainbows

"On the 10th December Radiohead are releasing a limited edition box set collection of all their Parlophone albums from 1993 - 2003."

= We, EMI/Parlophone, are releasing

I haven't paid anything for this yet, as I intend to buy the actual physical album when it arrives in the shops. Still their best album since "OK Computer".

I'm not trolling, but honestly, I think this album is deadly boring. I listened to it all the way through 5 times, which is about three more times than I would normally give it, and I can't bring myself to play it again.

But it's free!

Yeah, I feel pretty much the same way as Billy. Mostly glad that I put 0.00 in for what I wanted to pay.

I think it's got 3 or 4 great songs on it. And the rest is not exactly bad but it's Radiohead-by-numbers. About the same as I felt about Hail To The Thief.

I love it. My favourite Radiohead album.

Somebody upthread or somewhere else said that it's a rich man's album, and I have to agree. That's not inherently bad, but it made me think that what I have always really liked about Radiohead was the visceral impact of their best songs. They go for the jugular. and I don't mean just the uptempo songs, I just mean the performances/productions are fully committed to the band's conception of the song. These songs, otoh, sound curated, hedged, smoothed out, refined. That's okay too, but the songs themselves don't have much to say either, so it's all very nice and polite and I'm off to listen to something else thank you very much

I like it well enough, and I think there are some really great moments on it that get up there with some of their best stuff. It's funny too how some tunes I didn't really like very much now seem to work really well. I'll probably reach for this one before any of the others besides Kid A/Amnesiac.

Maybe my musical interests have changed a bit since 2000/2001, but this one hasn't really dominated my listening repetoire in any way similar to the way Kid A/Amnesiac both did.

I maintain that the 10 best songs on HTTT are a better "album" than this one.

Still love this one, mind.

you might be right on that, one of these days I'll finally put on my own sequenced, edited-down version of HTTT

HTTT just never happened for me. 4 good songs at best.

Special editions of Thom Yorke and co's early work out this year
2 hours ago
Radiohead's first six studio albums are set to be made available as a box set.

'Pablo Honey', 'The Bends', 'OK Computer', 'Kid A', 'Amnesiac' and 'Hail To The Thief', plus live album 'I Might Be Wrong', will be released in a box set on December 10.

The new releases - the band's output for old label Parlophone - will come in new 'digipack' sleeves featuring the original artwork. Owners of the new editions will also get access access to stream special footage via "Digital Insert technology" by putting the new CDs into their computer.

A limited edition USB stick shaped like the band's bear logo, will also be available featuring the same contents on CD-quality WAV files, along with digital artwork.

A download bundle of the boxset will also be available from www.radioheadstore.com

As previously reported, the band have left Parlophone, and following the download and deluxe releases of new album 'In Rainbows' via their own website, they have signed a deal to release the album on CD with XL Recordings.

£34.99 for the download

£39.99 for the 7 CD boxset, and

£79.99 for : this:
http://www.radioheadstore.com/images/usb_img.jpg

This is dumb.

But In Rainbows is the album of the year.

it does strike me as kind of dumb. the bear logo usb? plus all these releases are some of the most widely available releases out there.

I have a feeling that Radiohead played little part in this and they're probably a bit pissed off because this move seems totally contrary to the direction they're moving in from a marketing perspective.

yea, you're right. just seems like parlophone trying to cash in on the in rainbows profits which they obviously aren't going to see anything of.

i won't be buying this.

Dry Humping the Cash Cow

Yeah, I bet they had nothing to say in this. It's all old fonts & designs too.

Awaiting a comment on their site... (will they even acknowledge this? ask people to boycott it?)

Number of bonus tracks: 0

40 pounds/80 bucks for a box set of Radiohead's first 6 albums >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 40 pounds/80 bucks for a box set of Radiohead's one most recent album

I don't think they need to get people to boycott it - where's the demand for an ugly white box they shoved all the old records into?

Alex, would you really pay 80 pounds for a USB stick? At least the discbox has bonus tracks.

Hell, they could have at least thrown in a b-sides comp.

To be honest, I expected Parlophone to release a "Radiohead's Greatest Hits" (called exactly that, just to spite them) :-)

"Radiohead's Greatest Hits (not out-of-date for some time, right lads?)" on Parlophone.

the day will soon come when we'll see that, though

We Might Be Right: The Very Best of Radiohead

Fitter Happier: Twelve Classic Radiohead Hits infomercials at 3 in the morning.

I didn't say I'd buy the USB stick, I have no use for that, if anything from that deal I'd get the CD box set. But to be honest I'm kind of right in the target audience for this kind of thing (have heard/liked 4 of their first 6 albums but currently only own a copy of 1 of them).

And in the last few years I've been really big on buying up bands' entire catalogs all at once as box sets (Steely Dan, The Police, have my eye on the Led Zep one next).

you just wonder how many executive meetings they had @ emi as to exactly where they were going to put the usb connection in the bear logo.

as long as Pull/Pulk is on any future best of, all will be right in the world.

Alex, i think you're the exception to the rule. every Radiohead fan i know has their *entire* fucking catalog. myself included.

and this is off topic, but as for entire catalogs in box sets, Alex: Joy Division's Heart and Soul is excellent

from Billboard news article:

A Radiohead boxed set, spanning the British band's first six studio albums plus a live record, will be available from Dec. 10 via the band's Web site.

??????

the band's web site? if radiohead didn't have anything to do with this, why their own web site?

nothing about this on radiohead.com, it's EMI's radiohead site.

Yeah, the article's wrong.

ah

http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=radiohead.com :

Administrative Contact : someone at waste.uk.com

http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=radioheadstore.com

Administrative Contact: someone at virginmusic.com

are they ever gonna price this shit in dollars for U.S. third world folks in America?

The site has been changed!

"On the 10th December Parlophone are releasing a limited edition box set collection of all their Radiohead albums from 1993 - 2003."

vs. 3 hours ago (scroll up a little) :

"On the 10th December Radiohead are releasing a limited edition box set collection of all their Parlophone albums from 1993 - 2003."

Did EMI/Parlophone REALLY think they could get away with "Radiohead are releasing" or does this prove that they're amateurs and not P/R specialists at all?

I was wondering how long they'd have the nerve to keep that up for.

When Parlaphone tosses around the term "strictly limited" (the USB thingy) without committing to a number?

Industry rule number 4080: Record company people are shady

I'm actually thinking about picking this up. Never even listened to Pablo Honey, my copies of The Bends and OK Computer are burned CD-Rs from a friend, downloaded I Might Be Wrong, and my copies of Kid A thru Hail to the Thief are in the gorgeous "limited" packaging which of course means the actual discs are all scratched to shit (why is it so hard for bands to make fancy-schmancy packaging with a standard jewel case-style tray in the back of the book or whatever?). Filling out the rest of their back catalogue and getting some of the more dodgily packaged releases (I Might Be Wrong in particular, I have seen the super-tight gatefold thing it comes in and it makes me wince) in digipaks isn't all bad. And really, it's no less legitimate than buying the albums outside the box; the same major profits off of them regardless.

Also I can put it next to my Talking Heads and Sly Stone box sets, I am weak-willed consumer whore :(

xpost: oh yeah, the USB stick is going to be "limited" like, well, the previous "limited" Radiohead albums were. You don't make the molds to manufacture the plastic bits for that thing and then get some electronics manufacturer to slap USB sticks in them just to make a thousand of them or whatever, you'd barely break even, even at the ridiculous price they're asking.

Though I do wonder: 7 albums in .wav format, that's somewhere in the region of 4.5 GB, isn't it?

Shady notwithstanding. Agreed. I am a weak-willed (Radiohead) whore and will likely pick up the "box set" at least (for the digipacks alone).