Radiohead

It is a commonly understood fact that a man can never possess too much pretentious vinyl; and so it was that I forked out £30 for the "newspaper album" version of Radiohead's new record The King of Limbs with barely a second thought. This apparently comprises of two clear vinyl records in a purpose-built record sleeve, a compact disc, many large sheets of newspaper artwork, 625 tiny pieces of artwork and a full colour piece of oxo-degradable plastic to hold it all together.

As I said; pretentious.

More importantly though, it comes with a free download of the record - which is very nearly all that I've been listening to this week. Because it's terrific.

Anyone hoping for a return to the soaring guitar of Bends-era Radiohead is probably going to be a little disappointed. I love that record too, but for me Radiohead just keep getting better as they get weirder. Plus, Codex - the sixth track on the new record - is quite possibly one of the greatest songs not just by Radiohead, but by anyone, ever. To attempt to describe it using mere words would seem a rather clumsy disservice; so you'll just have to listen to it yourself.

Having never seen them play live, my favourite Radiohead experience is still the discovery of the scribbled booklet full of Thom Yorke's thoughts hidden beneath the CD tray in my copy of Kid A, after a year or so of owning the thing.

Crazy bastard.

Website: http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/radiohead

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiohead