How much did you pay ?

A new Radiohead album. But this one's good, we're told, it's not like the experimental releases of recent times, Kid A for example, but back to their best.

Blah blah blah, heard it all before.

I mourn Radiohead, really mourn them, proper feelings of loss.

Pablo Honey & The Bends are two of the best albums ever made. A band that can make those two albums should, by rights, be bigger than Christianity.

But then they stopped. The only decent track on OK Computer is 'Lucky', and that was recorded during The Bends recordings, so doesn't count. Everything from then on is just rubbish.

But I bought them, I bought them all. Every time on the promise that the next album was a return to their former glories.

So how much did I pay for 'In Rainbows' ?

Diddly squat. On the basis that having paid good money for three studio albums and a live CD, none of which I've been able to listen to more than once each since purchase, I figure I've already paid enough.

* Before anyone complains, I buy countless CD's a year, more than covering costs for up-coming & established acts, as well as the lesser talented record company executives.

** In Rainbows actually isn't that bad, so I will more than likely buy it when it's released 'properly' on CD. Like a sucker.

*** Although I'll probably wait until it's a fiver in Fopp.