Radiohead announce new album

Radiohead will release their new album, 'The King Of Limbs', on Saturday (19.02.11).

The 'Karma Police' group made the unexpected announcement through their official website this morning (14.02.11), confirming the album will be available as a download from Saturday, with a physical release to follow on May 9.

The full release of the record will see it packaged as what the band term a 'Newspaper Album'.

According to the group's website, this set will include "Two clear 10" vinyl records in a purpose-built record sleeve, a compact disc, many large sheets of artwork, 625 tiny pieces of artwork and a full-colour piece of oxo-de-gradeable plastic to hold it all together."

The band also said one lucky purchaser of the digital version of The King Of Limbs, will receive a signed two track 12" vinyl.

The album is the follow up to the band's 2007 album 'In Rainbows', their seventh as a group, which was released on a as a 'pay-what-you-like' download basis.

'King Of Limbs' is thought to be a reference to a particular oak tree in Wiltshire's Savernake Forest, thought to be around 1,000 years old.

The forest is located around three miles away from Tottenham House, where Radiohead recorded part of 'In Rainbows'.

In September last year bassist Colin Greenwood confirmed the group had been working on new songs and were pondering how to release them.

He said: "We have just finished another group of songs and have begun to wonder about how to release them in a digital landscape that has changed again.

"Traditional marketplaces and media are feeling stale - supermarkets account for around 70 per cent of CDs sold in the UK, the charts are dominated by TV talent-show acts - and we are trying to find ways to put out our music that feel as good as the music itself. The ability to have a say in its release, through the new technologies, is the most empowering thing of all."

The album download will cost £6, while the Newspaper Package will cost £30.