No albums and mo' surprises: Radiohead to ditch the LP?

The world moves fast, it seems. Just days after Radiohead released their download-only Harry Patch tribute song, band leader and Worzel Gummidge a-like Thom Yorke told Believer Magazine that the band have no plans to release another album.

He said:

"None of us want to go into that creative hoo-ha of a long-play record again. Not straight off...It worked with In Rainbows because we had a real fixed idea about where we were going. But we've all said that we can't possibly dive into that again. It'll kill us."

Internet singles and EPs is the way to go for the band, Yorke believes:

"Obviously, there's still something great about the album – but with the scale and consistency of vision that is required. In Rainbows was a particular aesthetic and I can't bear the idea of doing that again."

Yorke further expanded upon his idea and ethic for the new direction of music consumption, citing Boomkat as a viable business model:

"If you forget about the money issue for just a minute, if it’s possible to do that—because these are people’s livelihoods we’re talking about—and you look at it in terms of the most amazing broadcasting network ever built, then it’s completely different."

He added:

"In some ways, that’s the best way of looking at it. I mean, I don’t spend my fucking life downloading free MP3s, because I hate the websites. No one seems to know what they’re talking about. I’d much rather go to sites like Boomkat, where people know what they’re talking about."

Elsewhere, Yorke also hinted at working on an EP of orchestral works with guitarist Jonny Greenwood, though there are no firmer details of this at present.

DiScuss: Is this a good thing? Sad that there won't be any more Radiohead long players? Do you think that other bands will be going along this way, or does Radiohead's position of already having made a decent living put them aside from the smaller, newer bands? Or, really, could you not care less about what Thom Yorke has to say?

Photo by Holly Erskine