In Rainbows
2007 studio album by Radiohead
In Rainbows is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was self-released on 10 October 2007 as a download, followed by a retail release internationally through XL Recordings on 3 December 2007 and in North America through TBD Records on 1 January 2008. It was Radiohead's first release after their recording contract with EMI ended with their album Hail to the Thief (2003).
Work on In Rainbows began in early 2005. In 2006, after their sessions with the producer Spike Stent proved fruitless, Radiohead re-enlisted their longtime producer, Nigel Godrich. They recorded in the country houses Halswell House and Tottenham House, the Hospital Club in London, and their studio in Oxfordshire. The lyrics are less political and more personal than previous Radiohead albums.
Radiohead released In Rainbows on their website without prior publicity and allowed fans to set their own price, saying this liberated them from conventional promotional formats and removed barriers to audiences. It was the first such release by a major act and drew international media attention. Many praised Radiohead for challenging old models and finding new ways to connect with fans, while others felt it set a dangerous precedent at the expense of less successful artists.
“In Rainbows” enters the record as 2007 studio album by Radiohead. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Rainbows, studio and album can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“In Rainbows” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Rainbows, studio and album provides the most credible route into that argument.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q223295. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2007, 2008, 2003 and 2005.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “In Rainbows”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow In Rainbows primary sources, In Rainbows archive and Rainbows research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “In Rainbows” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.