Usually when something seems to good to be true that’s because it is. Like when someone tells you to just hold this $10,000 in your bank account for them and in a week wire half of it to Eastern Europe and the other half is yours. Yeah, that’s a scam. So, you’d think that a site advertising the new Radiohead for free, well actually for whatever you want to pay, is total bullocks. It’s not. Radiohead is done (finally!!) with their newest full-length album - In Rainbows -and because they couldn’t find a label that they liked, they decided to release it themselves. Great idea, boys. So, on their site you can download the entire new album for free, $1 $5, $20, whatever you feel it’s worth. No judgment. No catch. No scam. You can buy a hard copy of the album, complete with a 2nd CD of new songs, a 12″ vinyl of the new album, a pretty collectors picture book, artwork, lyrics booklet for you to sing along all in a lovely hard case. For the hardcore Radiohead fans, it’s a mere £40, loosely converted $100.

So how’s the music? It’s back to the old days when Radiohead rocked and wrote lyrics. Don’t get me wrong. I loved the experimentation of Kid A, Amnesiac, and the politics of Hail to the Thief, but my devotion is to Pablo Honey and The Bends. In Rainbows delivers an album dedicated to themselves. They didn’t answer to any label, any corporate giant, anyone. It shows. There is still the ever present synth beat now in all Radiohead songs, but the remixed (and sometimes overmixed) electronic explorations are locked safely away in Thom Yorke’s closet – may they rest in peace there for at least a few years. Thom whines away while playing piano to a mesmerizing drumbeat in “All I Need.” In “Arpeggi” the genius guitar from both Thom and Johnny Greenwood just might make you cry. I’m telling you, it’s reminiscent of “Fake Plastic Trees” if it were updated. These are the only two songs that have been leaked so far (on YouTube), but judging by these two alone, it’s a masterpiece of British proportions.

So, seriously, what’s the catch? Nada. And Thom Yorke is laughing at home right now “Ahhh, I’ve got you now corporate knobs. The entire record industry is f*cked.” If you miss Radiohead like I do, you’ll want to download this. And, be nice, throw them a buck just for being cool and giving us the option of having it all for free.

-Sarah