The first disc of In Rainbows was famously released in October as a digital download for which fans could pay as much or as little as they liked. Whether Radiohead overestimated their earnest devotees’ sense of responsibility is debatable. What is certain is that the vast majority paid zero pounds, which represents arguably the best deal in rock’n roll history, because the Oxford band’s seventh album is one of their finest yet, a deftly assembled mosaic of piano-led introspection and woozy guitar eruptions underpinned by mordant electronica and a marvellously twitchy rhythm section. Thom Yorke’s voice is at its doppelgänger best, shrivelled and wretched on Nude, expansive and almost rapturous on Jigsaw Falling into Place. It will be interesting to see how many of the freeloaders upgrade to the full double-CD package when it is released this week. They should, because the second disc contains some exquisite moments, notably Up on the Ladder, in which the eldritch frontman seems to be speaking in tongues over a murky synth undertow.

It has even been said that In Rainbows is the work of men who are enjoying themselves – the sweet sting in the tail of All I Need and the melodic tidal rush of Weird Fishes/Arpeggi certainly suggest a band with a spring in their step.

But let us not get carried away – Yorke is not about to record a duet with Jessica Simpson. For all its verve, this is still a serious and troubled record. “It’s about that anonymous fear thing, sitting in traffic, thinking: ‘I’m sure I’m supposed to be doing something else,’ ” Yorke said recently. He posted extracts from J.G. Ballard’s anticonsumerist Kingdom Come on the band’s blog, Dead Air Space, and appears to be tearing into the feckless Heat generation on Down is the New Up, with its killer couplet: “Your future’s bleak/ You’re so last week”.

The angst comes to a head in the deliciously weary Videotape, on which he sighs: “Mephistopheles is just beneath/ Reaching up to grab me.” Is Yorke really casting himself as a Noughties Faust, a man who has flogged his soul to the devil in exchange for a life of musical brilliance? If so, it is beginning to look like another good bit of business.

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