Everyone has been talking about the release of Radiohead's In Rainbows in a pay-what-you-want digital-only format, and not many have talked about the music. The album opens up with a low-fi electronic beat a la Kid A, blending into an island guitar riff that leaves "15 Step" lazy and unassuming, contrasting starkly against the follow-up, "Bodysnatchers", a SNAFU of a jam, filtering around a mucky bog of noise and trading places with acoustic interlude.

Moving in sequence, "Bodysnatchers" gives way to the well-known "Nude", rather apropos as this song puts Thom Yorke in the shoes of an R&B songstress, his near-falsetto silky-sweet and tantalizing. More than just tantalizing, Radiohead have the uncanny ability, like Trent Reznor, to give fans something they never knew they'd fall in love with.

"All I Need" has a hip hop drum beat and echo chamber vocals generating a vapor trail of noise and a later symphony of 1s and 0s. The Bends is aging into its teens, and it's left the roost never to return. In Rainbows, Radiohead's full reign on artistic freedom, has no constraints. Not only have they sold enough albums to do what they want and not have to listen to anyone, no one is on the other side of the table to try to influence them. Rainbows is a self-fulfilling project, a liberal license to kill, leaving Radiohead in a position to please, annoy, shock, and awe as they please, an Andres Serrano of the new age of music. Lucky for the Music Industry 2.0, left to their own devices the band keep themselves in check, delivering on "Reckoner" rather than overshooting the target and selling snake oil like a 21st century Red Hot Chili Peppers' One Hot Minute.

Radiohead always perplexes listeners when a new album comes out, because it's impossible to know what to expect. In Rainbows is no exception, but it does quickly decode itself, becoming aesthetically pleasing, intuitive, artistically challenging, and groundbreaking all at once. Name your price and buy this record. Radiohead and other blockbuster acts find themselves in a unique position of being able to buck the price point of typical CD releases, and whatever you pay, you participate in the future of the music industry just as this album elbows its way into the future of the musical art form.

Tags: Album Reviews, any given tuesday, radiohead