Radiohead's revenge is sweet

Nobody knows how many pre-orders were taken or how much fans opted to pony up, but anecdotal evidence suggests the first number exceeds 4 million and the second hovers around $10, the typical cost of a digital album. Every cent goes to the band, which is no longer affiliated with a record label, and the timing couldn't be better: smack on the heels of the recording industry's victory in its first lawsuit against a music downloader.

It's a brilliant goodwill gesture, although the pay-what-you-want model probably isn't viable in the broader marketplace. Only a band with Radiohead's large, devoted fan base and reliably stellar catalog could pull it off. But here and now, in a perfect storm of credible artist, adoring public, and hostile industry, the psychology is sheer genius. Whatever you paid for "In Rainbows," it's going to be worth it because you, the newly empowered consumer, have assigned the value.

The real beauty is that "In Rainbows" is a wonderful, absorbing album. It falls on the subdued side for Radiohead; the lion's share of these 10 tracks are more contemplative than raucous, filled with strings and finger-picked guitars and Thom Yorke's voice front and center instead of buried in a toxic mix. But subdued doesn't mean laid-back. Radiohead finds intensity wherever its members' collective experimental streak leads them, and this ruminative new album is no exception.

Dry, crisp percussion and Yorke's eerie coo kick off "15 Steps," a crackling, sinuous tune that builds to an anxious peak and could have been lifted from sessions for "The Eraser," the singer's solo album. Next comes "Bodysnatchers," built around a thick tangle of distorted guitars and a frantic beat; it's going to be positively epic onstage.