New Radiohead Album On Way | Bulk Of 'In Rainbows' Follow-Up Already Completed

The last Radiohead album, In Rainbows, was not only musically brilliant, but was also a revelation for the way it was released. Radiohead decided to eschew giving the album its début on physical formats, and instead chose to release it on the Internet for free (or as near as damn it).

But that all happened almost a year ago now, with the download being available from October 10th, 2007. In Rainbows has since been released on CD and vinyl, but it’s now time to move on, and the band are already working on their next album. In fact most of it is already complete.

After losing the Nationwide Mercury Music Prize to Elbow last week, Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien spoke to BBC 6Music about the band’s forthcoming plans. According to the NME, he said:

“We’re still talking about doing some stuff and we’re really excited about it. First we came off tour to do some writing and we wanted to carry on doing it because it was so brilliant.”

Modest as ever, but it’s great news for Radiohead fans everywhere that a new album is already in the offing. If it’s already at that stage of completion, then I’d guess a 2009 release was on the cards. The only question left is whether the In Rainbows model will be used again, or will the follow-up see a much more traditional release?

Thom Yorke has already answered the question, stating in May that “it was a one-off response to a particular situation.” But there is of course scope for a change of mind, and even if the In Rainbows model wasn’t followed exactly, there are other innovations Radiohead could use.

But assuming they go for the more traditional release, it could be that the innovators get left behind. Muse have already indicated that their new album may take a different form than just an album full of tracks released in shops on particular day, while Coldplay have also dipped their toe in to the Web distribution idea.

Then you have both The Charlatans and Marillion giving their new albums away over the Internet as a way of generating publicity and gaining new fans. So while the rest of the bands catch up, it seems Radiohead are going in reverse.

However they choose to release their new album, it’s sure to be as brilliant as all of their others. I just hope it’s given the same kind of hype that In Rainbows managed to generate, even if it is released the old school way.

[Photo Source: alterna2 at Flickr]