In Its Right Place

Should you buy the new Radiohead compilation, assembled by their old label? Their new self-releasing career path may mark the end of an era. (Pitchfork)

Radiohead's purposeful retreat from the spotlight-- leaving Capitol Records; the patronage-like, "we leak, you pay" pricing policy that accompanied the announcement of In Rainbows-- returned them briefly to the headlines but did little to place their actual music in the public consciousness on any grand, communicative scale. ("Bodysnatchers" was a semi-hit on modern rock radio.) Less than a decade after Radiohead invigorated critics and many listeners by becoming one of the few contemporary bands willing to both strive to reach a mass audience and cast its eyes to the corners and cracks of the pop landscape, they had become another niche group in a world full of them.