Radiohead fans will need to wait for the actual CD
May 9, 2016
On May 1, the official website of the band, radiohead.com, turned blank. All tweets were deleted from its Twitter account - created in 2010 and counting some 1.58 million followers. The band's Facebook page was also void of posts.
This had fueled speculation surrounding the release of the band's highly anticipated ninth studio album. Their previous one, "The King of Limbs," dates back to 2011.
Two tracks were released on Youtube throughout the week - and immediately went viral. On late Sunday (08.05.2016), the 11-track album "A Moon Shaped Pool" was released online through the website www.amoonshapedpool.com and a variety of online music providers.
Not on the list of providers, however, is the streaming service giant, Spotify, which the band has boycotted, with frontman Thom Yorke long an outspoken critic of the streaming service. In 2013, he described its role in the music industry as "the last desperate fart of a dying corpse."
Although CDs can already be pre-ordered, physical copies of the album will only be available in stores beginning June 17.
With their innovative album "OK Computer" writing music history in 1997, Radiohead has been reinventing not only musical forms but also ways to release albums. In 2007, the band took the unusual measure of inviting listeners to pay whatever they wanted to download "In Rainbows."
Radiohead begins a world tour May 20 in the Netherlands.
eg/ct (dpa, AP, AFP)