In my humble opinion, "The Bends" is Radiohead's most accessible album. Dare I go against the conventional wisdom and say it surpasses the Grammy-winning "OK Coputer?" Dare I say it is their BEST album? I double-dog-dare it!

The album is a richly textured collage of swirling guitars and multi-layered instrumentation that tips it's hat to the seventies' progressive bands with a modern twist.

This album is a classic, with Yorke's lyrics at their most comprehensible and his singing at it's most passionate. Songs like "Fake Plastic Trees" and "High & Dry" soar to heights that would make U2 a little dizzy. Greenwood makes excellent use of spacy guitar and keyboard effects to add mood.

All in all, this is a great rock album that makes an excellent first listen to Radiohead for the new listener. For die hards who spent $80 on the "In Rainbows" discbox (I did), listen to this one again for old times sake!

Crazy? Maybe not. Radiohead has about a million die-hard fans, many of whom will probably order the limited edition package at forty pounds sterling. Many more will certainly pay at least the suggested price for the downloads (interestingly enough, according to a Billboard article, a couple of artists who have sold their work in a similar manner actually averaged more per unit than their suggested price).

The music is as inspiring as the band's refreshing business model. While many of the songs are sonically sparse when compared to their more guitar-rock oriented work, this stripped down approach makes the material feel more human.

One lyric has Thom Yorke singing "I'd be crazy not to follow/follow where you lead." Musicians are watching to see how this ends financially up for Radiohead and are thinking the same thing.