Amazingly, many people chose to pay nothing for the new Radiohead album, rather than pay something.

I don’t think any economist could have seen that coming.

Ain’t no way that Sneaky Sound System track was better than the TV Rock track.

Go here and click on ‘Best Dance Release’ to see what I mean.

How much would you pay for the new Radiohead album?

Then that’s what you’ll be paying.

The new album ‘In Rainbows‘ will be available only from the website, and if you opt for digital download, you may pay exactly what you like. You enter the amount you’ll pay in a field. If you click on a question mark link, it simply says, “It’s up to you.”

Would you pay less than usual, since Radiohead has a lot of money anyway, and, well, they’re offering? Or would you pay slightly more, figuring that other artists are watching, and you’re hoping they’ll try it as well?

I settled on ten pounds. You can decide from that which group I’m in.

For me, it’s a little ditty by Severed Heads entitled ‘New Explosions’ off the Stretcher album. A disturb-o-rific slice of early IDM, which you can listen to here. I already downloaded the CD version of Clifford Darling, Please Don’t Live in the Past because I thought my (extremely rare) vinyl version was grievously scratched. Turns out the song just sounds like that. Never mind; I should have known.

After that, I’m going to listen to the new track by Stephen Duffy and the Lilac Time. It’s called Desert Shore, from the new album Runout Groove. Reward your ears, but not before you tell what you’re listening to this very second.

Last Sunday’s performance of the Fauré Requiem was glorious. I felt emotionally wrung-out afterward. I’d always been partial to the Duruflé Requiem for listenability — I always found the Fauré a bit flat and featureless. But whenever I perform a piece, I always magically like it more. (Do people ever really enjoy a piece of music without performing it?) So now I see the Fauré differently. I think Fauré was trying to do more with less: a limited orchestra (with only one violin), a stripped-down text, and only two soloists. It’s not a difficult sing. But such emotion he gets out of the simple tunes.

While singing the Requiem, I had the same feeling I got doing Carmina Burana: the feeling of mortality. One theme for Carmina is the Wheel of Fortune (and it even appears on the cover of the sheet music). Sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re down. But during the performance of the famous ‘O Fortuna’, I imagined the image of the Wheel as a torture rack. An infant is born, pitched helplessly into a world of noise and pain and fear and glorious sensation. You can’t stop it. You’re carried along, and sometimes riding the Wheel is horrifying and confusing, and being alive always leads to death.

That feeling came to me during the Fauré ‘Agnus Dei’. It’s about two minutes in. The choir sings ‘lux aeterna’ in fervent and melancholy descending chords. Now we’re at the end of our ride on the Wheel, and the music mirrors our descent to bed and to the grave. To extinguishment. It’s fearful and helpless. The organ and orchestra convey the plangent, almost overbearing sensation of standing at the end of life. Who will save us?

But Fauré ends with the ‘In Paradisum’, with its sumptuous vision of the rest and peace of an afterlife. There’s one part that I always listen for — it’s where the men join the sopranos on the word ‘Jerusalem’. Simple chords, but so lovely. There I was, between two first tenors, and me a second, and the sound was just right. It became difficult to sing because I was getting verklempt.

So — a good show. I’m glad I sing. It keeps me in touch with my life and my humanity.

Surely you’ve heard the velvet voice of Ken Nordine, whose sonorous baritone has graced advertisements for years. But he’s also Spoken Word Artist extraordinaire. His shows ‘Now, Nordine’ and ‘Word Jazz’ provide stories and music, along with a unique interior dialogue.

Years ago, Ken was approached by a paint company to do some adverts about colours. The results can be found on his “Colors” album, and here’s a video that’s been made for one of them, “Yellow”. Hope you enjoy.