In news that will make all of those hipster Arcade Fire wins album of the year Grammy headlines go away (and likely irk Win Butler), Radiohead will release its eighth studio album, The King of Limbs, Saturday Feb. 19.
The record will be made available from the band’s website in two formats, a digital download for $9 or $14 and a “newspaper album” for $48 or $53. The cleverly named “newspaper album” is a deluxe version of the record containing two clear 10″ slabs of vinyl, a CD, digital download, many large pieces of artwork and 625 “tiny pieces” of artwork. The record was produced by longtime Radiohead collaborator Nigel Goodrich and is being released on Radiohead’s own Ticker Tape label.
This somewhat guerrilla release is nothing shocking for Radiohead fans considering the pay-what-you want model (aka the “Radiohead model”) the band pioneered for the release of In Rainbows. The digital-only option gives the casual fans a way to get the record in a quick and easy manner they are familiar with while the deluxe version gives something to the fans by offering plenty of goodies. The band gets bonus style points in my book for referring to the seemingly antiquated physical release of the record as a “newspaper album.”
According to the NME:
The name of the new album relates to an oak tree in Wiltshire’sSavernake Forest, thought to be around 1,000 years old. The forest lies around three miles away from Tottenham House, a listed country house where Radiohead recorded part of In Rainbows.
The tree is a pollarded oak, referring to an ancient technique for harvesting timber for fencing and firewood. The phrase also appears in the 23rd chapter of the Qu’ran.
Here are the full details of both purchase options for The King of Limbs:
Newapaper album
- Two clear 10″ vinyl records in a purpose-built record sleeve.
- A compact disc.
- Many large sheets of artwork, 625 tiny pieces of artwork and a full-colour piece of oxo-degradeable plastic to hold it all together.
- The Newspaper Album comes with a digital download that is compatible with all good digital media players.
- The Newspaper Album will be shipped on Monday 9th May 2011 you can, however, enjoy the download on Saturday 19th February 2011.
- Shipping is included in the prices shown.
- One lucky owner of the digital version of The King Of Limbs, purchased from this website, will receive a signed 2 track 12″ vinyl
Digital only
- MP3 version is a 320K constant bit rate file.
- WAV version is a full CD quality uncompressed digital audio file.
- One lucky owner of the digital version of The King Of Limbs, purchased from this website, will receive a signed 2 track 12″ vinyl.
