When Radiohead announced that they would be parting ways with their long-time label EMI, joining a growing list of pop superstars going the independent route (including Prince, Madonna and Paul McCartney,) the music industry gasped. Having freed themselves from the clutches of the major label corporate machine, the band gloriously rebounded with their masterstroke, In Rainbows.

“15 Step” (Live Performance)

Easily one of the most heralded albums of 2008, the independently-released set was originally offered via the group’s website as an optional-pay download, as well as limited, “special order” deluxe CD and vinyl editions. It was a shrewd move that paid off for the band, gaining them massive press coverage and kudos from fans, critics and fellow artists, alike. When the album was issued commercially a few months later, it proved to be more than just hype, ascending to the top of the charts (in both the US and Europe) becoming one of the band’s most successful releases to date. A sparkling cacophony of rumbling alternapop, tweaked electronics, moody acoustic ballads and cavernous orchestral meditations, In Rainbows finds the iconic post-rock demigods delivering their most hard-hitting, straight-forward and accessible work to date. The band streamlines the complicated arrangements and heady metaphors of Hail to the Thief, the stuttering electronics of Kid A, and the prog-rock conceptualism of OK Computer to produce a slow-burning long player that allows the well-crafted songs and blistering instrumentation to shine through. From the roaring “Bodysnatchers” and soothing soul of “Nude” to the brooding “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” and groove-heavy “Reckoner,” the band leads you on a sensorial journey that waxes and wanes with gripping ferocity and tender fragility. Other highlights include the Beatles-meets-Nick Drake folk ballad “Arp,” “All I Need” (a radiant drone bathed in swathes of piano, glockenspiel, synths and drums,) “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi,” “House of Cards” and the closer, “Videotape.”