It's not terribly rare that a pop album gets some solid rotation in my car, more rare is when that album can get stuck on my home stereo as well. In Rainbows likely would except personally it's wearing a little thin, and I mean the sound itself. I pretty much knew it would happen. The mp3s just don't come up to snuff against my other records' sound quality, notably the new Robert Wyatt album Comicopera. I, like others, figured that since Radiohead was sanctioning an early digital release of the album we could presume this would count as the official release. With the quickly disposable nature of these mp3s, I think I'll mark this phenomenon as something more of a preview. It would be odd for me to pay full price for an album at the 160 kbps quality they offered it, but for many people this is all they'd ever want so I can see how it would be worthwhile and/or satisfying for them to go ahead and get the monetary support out of the way.
Concerning the music, the main thing that strikes me still is that Radiohead's stature is built upon their excellent taste levels. Not necessarily even the "best band in the world" as many in high places will say, they may just deserve that title because the integrity of their experimentation is on par with that of the Beatles for their age (i.e. one of the most popular bands also being one of the most adventurous). It simply seems, too, like no one else is paying as close attention to their craft as they are, either that or Radiohead's craft really is just more excellent. They are able to express boredom with the elements of a rock song without being exactly jaded, and few if any of the effects seem cheap or carelessly added. In Rainbows is a fairly stripped down album for Radiohead to release at this point in their career, yet the careful curation of the sounds carries it beautifully.
I look forward to hearing it in a more full sound.
