Thanks go out to Gorilla vs. Bear for spreading the exciting news that Radiohead’s new album is done and available to pre-order. It’s called In Rainbows and it will be available to download starting on October 10th. So far you can only order it from Radiohead’s website. You can choose to download it or to purchase the “discbox,” which is describe thusly by Radiohead:

THIS CONSISTS OF THE NEW ALBUM, IN RAINBOWS, ON CD
AND ON 2 X 12 INCH HEAVYWEIGHT VINYL RECORDS.
A SECOND, ENHANCED CD CONTAINS MORE NEW SONGS, ALONG WITH DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS AND ARTWORK.
THE DISCBOX ALSO INCLUDES ARTWORK AND LYRIC BOOKLETS.
ALL ARE ENCASED IN A HARDBACK BOOK AND SLIPCASE.

THE ALBUM DOWNLOAD AUTOMATICALLY COMES WITH THIS PACK.
YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE FILE DIGITALLY FROM THE 10TH OCTOBER 2007.

DISCBOXES ARE BEING MADE TO ORDER AND ARE PRICED AT £40.00 INCLUDING POSTAGE.
SHIPPING WILL BEGIN ON OR BEFORE 3RD DECEMBER 2007.

It looks like this:

An exciting twist: while the discbox costs a whopping 40 pounds, it appears that you get to name your own price for the download. Observe:

After all the build-up, I think Radiohead has still managed to surprise everyone–I would expect no less from them. Who knows what the album will be like, but the way they’re going about releasing it already appears to be pretty innovative and ground-breaking. I’m looking forward to reading the mountains of hype and analysis that are sure to follow in the upcoming days. Not to mention listening to the album itself–my pre-order was confirmed by W.A.S.T.E. a few hours ago…I’m giddy.