In Rainbows

Untitled

Radiohead's seventh studio album is in production and is expected to be released sometime during 2007. The band have been working on it for about two years, starting in early 2005.

Contract issues

Radiohead are currently unsigned, having fulfilled their six-album contract with EMI. In interviews in 2006, the band said that "for the first time, we have no contract or release deadline to fulfill - it's both liberating and terrifying". The band have stated that they will not make a decision on how to release their new material until it is finished. Yorke has also hinted at the possibility of releasing EPs rather than an album, but ruled out the possibility of Internet-only distribution. It is unknown whether the band has plans to negotiate a new contract with a label for release of current and future recordings.

Yorke, commenting on the band's relationship with EMI, said, "We have no record contract as such. Any offers?..What we would like is the old EMI back again, the nice genteel arms manufacturers who treated music [as] a nice side project who weren't too bothered about the shareholders. Ah well, not much chance of that."

Musical influences

Radiohead's new music has been characterized by the band as "almost embarrassingly minimal," "sparse with lots of bass," and, more recently, "lush", according to Stanley Donwood, who is working closely with them on the artwork of the new album. Yorke described the lyrical concept of the album as, "It's about that anonymous fear thing, sitting in traffic, thinking, 'I'm sure I'm supposed to be doing something else'... it's similar to OK Computer in a way. It's much more terrifying. But OK Computer was terrifying too - some of the lyrics were."

On recent postings on Dead Air Space, the band's blog, Yorke has posted extracts of J.G. Ballard's anti-consumerist book Kingdom Come and links to sites against the use of nuclear power and for the promotion of knowledge about global warming providing a possible glimpse at the lyrical content of the album.

Recording history

After a break in 2004, Radiohead began work in early 2005. Yorke and Jonny Greenwood debuted a new song, "Arpeggi", at London's Ether Festival in March 2005; Greenwood also debuted two of his own classical pieces, one written for the Ondes Martenot. Later that summer, Yorke performed an acoustic set for the Trade Justice Rally, playing the never-recorded "Nude" and "Reckoner", debuting the new song "House of Cards", and introducing "Last Flowers [Till Hospital]", a previously unheard remnant from the OK Computer period. In September 2005, the band recorded a new piano-based song, "I Want None of This", for the War Child charity album Help: A Day in the Life. This album was sold online, with Radiohead's contribution being the most downloaded track, although it was not released as a single.

Regular recording sessions began late summer 2005, with the band posting intermittently on their progress in their new blog, Dead Air Space. Recording continued into early 2006. In the initial sessions, they chose to work with Mark "Spike" Stent instead of their longtime co-producer Nigel Godrich. As revealed by Ed O'Brien in December 2005, the switch was made amiably because the band felt too comfortable with Godrich and wanted to challenge themselves. The band finished work with Stent in April 2006.

In May and June 2006, Radiohead toured major cities in Europe and North America, returning to Europe for several concerts in August. The tour, their first in several years, drew sold out crowds to smaller venues such as clubs and theatres, including a benefit performance in London for Friends of the Earth's campaign to stop climate change. They also played some big music festivals such as the massive Bonnaroo and V Festival; they headlined both lineups of V and played a 28-song set at Bonnaroo, their longest live concert in years. In addition to playing old songs and re-arranged band versions of "Arpeggi", "Nude", "I Want None of This", and "House of Cards", Radiohead premiered 10 new songs. This tour coincided with the release of Yorke's solo album, The Eraser, from which the track "Cymbal Rush" was performed at the environmental benefit, but otherwise the band did not play Yorke's solo songs as a group.

After the tour, the band restarted recording sessions in September 2006, this time with Nigel Godrich. Yorke said on Dead Air Space that the band have "started the record properly now... starting to get somewhere I think. Finally." By late December 2006, they finished their third month of recording with Godrich at several rural locations in England and had a three-week holiday break. In mid-January 2007 Radiohead resumed their recording sessions following their holiday break and also started posting photos, lyrics, videos and samples of new songs on DAS, which status is yet unconfirmed.

In late March 2007, the band posted the words "Mixing it" on Dead Air Space, and a picture of Stanley Donwood working on the artwork for the album, leading to speculation that Radiohead are close to completing the album.

Potential songs

These songs were played live on the 2006 tour to introduce new material, so each is a possible candidate for inclusion on the album. However, according to interviews, not all may be included, and these represent only a portion of the newly written material.

• "Bangers 'n' Mash"
• "Nude", formerly known as "Big Ideas (Don't Get Any)"
• "Open Pick"
• "Go Slowly"
• "4 Minute Warning" - This is probably the song formerly known as "Bombers" or "Neil Young #9," mentioned in Ed's diary from the Kid A sessions in 2000, as one of the blackboard images on Radiohead's web site had it listed as "Bombers/4 Minute Warning."
• "Spooks"
• "Bodysnatchers"
• "Videotape"
• "Down is the New Up"
• "All I Need",
• "Arpeggi"
• "House of Cards"
• "15 Step"
• "I Want None of This", released on the "Help-a Day in the Life" album.

There exist some older and unreleased live and webcast songs that may appear on the album, though some are considered highly unlikely:

• "Last Flowers till the Hospital"
• "Burn the Witch"
• "Lift"
• "Morning Mi lord", aka "Good Morning M'Lord", aka "Good Morning Mr. Magpie"
• "I Froze Up"
• "Ed's Scary song"
• "Reckoner," formerly known as "Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses"
• "Follow Me Around"
• "Big Boots", aka "Man O War"
• "Up on the Ladder"
• "I Promise"