http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/music/article-23415258-details/Off%20the%20record/article.doRadiohead's long-term creative partner Stanley Donwood talks to David Smyth on the band's decision to practically give their album away.
RADIOHEAD ARE RIGHT ON THE MONEY
All the talk in the business is of Radiohead's "honesty box" policy for next week's In Rainbows album, and the question of how much you should choose to pay to download new music by one of the world's most important bands.
But perhaps that's missing the point. The group's spokesman reports that so far, not only are fans choosing to fork out a reasonable sum for the download, but the majority are choosing instead to order the "Discbox" - a £40 version, not released until 3 December, that features the album as a download, CD and two 12-inch vinyl records, with eight extra tracks and a lovingly compiled lyrics book full of new artwork by Radiohead's long-term creative partner, Stanley Donwood.
If the download could be a steal, this is a serious financial commitment. Is it worth it?
"It depends how rich you are!" I'm told by Donwood, who has designed every Radiohead release since their 1994 single, My Iron Lung. "If you're on the dole, of course it's a hell of a lot of money. But it costs about that much to go to a Premier League football match, and this project has taken an incredible amount of work. It's been a long journey over 10 months,
with the artwork evolving as the music has evolved. And it weighs about half a kilo."
The artist has become a sixth member of the band, hearing new songs as they are created and adapting his visuals accordingly.
For In Rainbows he's been trying a photographic etching technique, putting prints into acid baths with random results. He keeps the finer details close to his chest, and the band refuse to show off the box properly until the release date, but a small picture at
www.inrainbows.com shows multicoloured, blocky text contrasting with scratchy grey abstractions. "The finished product is quite a lush thing. It's the most over-the-top project I've done with them."
It's an odd position for a major band to be in, where their music could be perceived to be of little monetary value while the artwork costs a bundle. But for Radiohead, Donwood's apocalyptic visuals have long formed a vital part of a complete package. They perfectly complement the songs, from the weeping cartoon minotaur of their Amnesiac album to the grim painted street plans of Hail to the Thief, plastered with words such as "snakes", "poor souls" and "venture capitalism". An impressive new book of his Radiohead-related work, Dead Children Playing (published by Verso on 22 October) shows his progression from the pharmaceutical logos of their greatest album, OK Computer, to the lino-cut cityscapes of The Eraser, last year's solo album by frontman Thom Yorke.
He studied Fine Art with Yorke at Exeter, and admits that the friends share a similar bleak worldview. "We shout at the same bits of the news."
His close involvement is paying off. Unlike bands such as Hard-Fi, who have claimed that artwork is irrelevant in this iPod age, Radiohead and Donwood's success with their latest innovation shows that if it looks great as well as sounding great, music can still be very valuable indeed.
HOME IS WHERE THE ART IS FOR SIGUR ROS
Has a group ever sounded so much like the environment that spawned them as Iceland's Sigur Rós? I found conclusive proof at a preview of the quartet's forthcoming film, Heima, which will be screened as part of the BBC's Electric Proms season at Cecil Sharp House on 24 October.
Part rockumentary but more like the kind of thing that should have a David Attenborough voiceover, it records the quartet's extensive tour of their homeland last summer, playing mostly unannounced free shows in tiny villages.
The images, like the music are hard to top for pure beauty. "I sometimes get this uncontrollable urge to go home," says bassist Georg Hólm, against one of the stunning backdrops.
They are seen performing on a marimba made from natural local stones, playing inside a disused fish factory to draw attention to a struggling local industry, and putting on an electricity-free set beside the Karahnjúkar hydroelectric dam, to protest at the ravaging of Iceland's wilderness.
Even more memorable, though, are the shots of children, grandparents and everyone in between enjoying the music - an entire nation supporting their greatest band.
AN EARLY LISTEN TO...
Craig David
Trust Me (Warner Bros)
It seems such a long time since 2001, when a freshfaced Craig David (right) first burst onto the scene, picking up four Brit nominations in that first year. But even now, he's only .., and in the fickle world of British R&B has done remarkably well to be releasing his fourth album on 12 November.
For his comeback he's got an attention-grabbing single, Hot Stuff, which samples David Bowie's Let's Dance so much that it's virtually a cover. He's also replaced the ludicrously sculpted facial hair with unfussy stubble, but most noticeably he's been recording in Cuba, and given tracks such as Don't Play with Our Love and She's on Fire a lively Latin swing.
Though it was the strongly British sound of his early singles that gave him his biggest hits, if he is to sustain a career into his thirties he's right to broaden his horizons.