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Radiohead's eighth album, The King Of Limbs, was digitally released in February 2011 through the band's web site. The announcement of the album on Valentine's Day was followed by the Internet release four days later, along with a music video for the song "Lotus Flower". The King of Limbs was released in CD, vinyl and standard download formats in March, and in a "newspaper album", which included art, writings, and a CD as well as vinyl edition of the record, in May. In March, to coincide with the retail release of the album, the band also issued "The Universal Sigh", a different edition of the custom newspaper, featuring poetry, stories, essays, lyrics, and art, for which the band employed people to distribute it free in the centre of select cities throughout the world. On its commercial release The King of Limbs charted at number six in the United Kingdom, becoming the band's first album since The Bends not to debut at number one in the UK. In the United States it reached number three, on par with the band's last major label release, 2003's Hail to the Thief. In July 2011 The King of Limbs vinyl edition was reported to be the best-selling vinyl of the year so far by a large margin, and Radiohead were credited with helping an ongoing surge in vinyl sales. |
