At the risk of looking like a fanboi, I’m offering my thoughts on the new Radiohead album about eight hours after it dropped last night.

• This is summarily a Radiohead album. The very first track, “15 Step”, is an adept melding of Kid A fuzz and ambiance with Amnesiac timing (5/4 is my guess, 5/8 is my son’s… and on further listening, I think he might be right) with melodies reminiscent of “Talk Show Host” or “Paranoid Android”.
• Speaking of melodies, they are fabulous and, in many places, simpler than on past albums.
• I’ve never been a huge fan of Thom Yorke’s voice by itself, but this album reminds me how well it cuts through the thick, luscious layers of sound in the music.
• Of the ten songs, only one stood out to me as a particular “throwaway” (”All I Need”). On the other hand, the breadth of sound is simply astonishing. The band shows that they don’t need to rely on hyper-produced songs with 32 tracks of noise to make great music; “Faust Arp” is a beautiful track with nothing more than voice and two guitars, while “Videotape” is just Thom at a piano, playing hypnotically along with minimal, almost ambient drums.
• From time to time, I could use a break from the “singing in the middle of an empty Albert Hall” vocal effect. Also, if the dude who does the voice for Herbert ever needs a break, Thom can surely step in. (Seriously, listen to something like “Nude” and tell me he couldn’t do a great, “You like popsicles?”)
• Early favorite tracks: well, just about all of them. I immediately love “Bodysnatchers” and “Jigsaw Falling Into Place”, but so much of the album feels fresh, yet familiar.

I got to the end of the album ready and excited to listen to it again. I didn’t skip any tracks and didn’t get anxious during any of the songs to do so. Four (preliminary) stars.