The King of Limbs
Radiohead
The point of this review is this: Radiohead’s new album is not a waste of your money. The King of Limbs is fine.
Yes, fine — because that’s all it is. When you think about the grand scheme of modern music, purchasing a Radiohead record will never, ever be a bad thing. What you get from this band is always intelligent — no matter how much you’ve convinced yourself that Hail to the Thief was a bad record.
But when you think about the grand scheme of Radiohead, The King of Limbs is nothing impressive. Let me tell you what was impressive: the jarring synthesis of electronics and wailing vocals on Kid A. The integration of downbeat on “Backdrifts.” Or the drum-driven In Rainbows. Radiohead will sell millions of copies of The King of Limbs over the next few weeks. People will call it genius. But it is hardly the band’s most salient moment. Sorry.
DOWNLOAD: “Little by Little”
The band follows major success of it´s most "catchy" album, In Rainbows, with TKOL. A dark, twisted, groove inspired album that sounds absolutely nothing like In Rainbows.
I would put Lotus Flower up against any track on In Rainbows. Yes, any track. Codex may one of bands best softer tracks. Little by Little is fused with Eastern African melodies and jazz grooves.
Yes, it´s true, this album is as genius as everyone is saying. It may not be the band´s most "salient moment", but it is not inferior to any of the prior outings. Kid A was Kid A, and will never be again. If someone is looking for a prior record on release day, they will be disappointed. This is the new, it´s nothing like the old, and it´s absolutely brilliant.
Feb 23, 2011 | Reply to this comment
There are two types of people; people that understand Radiohead, embrace their uniqueness as a band, and celebrate their every work. And the people that walk in on those people listening to Radiohead and think, “What the f**k are they listening to?” As a recent converter to the former, I understand where both come from. Before In Rainbows I had never heard a Radiohead album (-gasp-). Other than knowing of a few songs I had heard now and then since the early 90’s, Creep, Kharma Police…etc, I didn’t know of the great music I had been missing until In Rainbows was offered as a “pay what you want” album on the band’s website. Naturally, I said, “I want to pay nothing,” and gave Radiohead a chance. Since then I have become a huge fan, acquiring all the albums I had been missing.
That being said, the King of Limbs isn’t the best starter album. It certainly is worth listening to, and for a Radiohead fan it is a must. It is one of their shorter recordings, at just under 40 minutes. King of limbs is a lot of ambient-mesmerizing sound, many repetitive drum patterns, gentle synths, low jazz bass, and light guitar combined with Thom Yorke’s sensitively fantastic vocals. The first half of the album seems almost like a warm up for the second half of the album where King of Limbs really comes to life, beginning with Lotus Flower, the first single of the album, the beautiful Codex, my personal favorite, Give Up the Ghost, and Separator.
The King of Limbs is different than other Radiohead albums, where in the past they seemed to try to top the last album with an even better album; this one wasn’t meant to top the last, this one was meant to try something different…maybe even go back to some experimental roots. It is good, some might say great; to me it seemed like a sequel to the 2000 Kid A album.
If you have patience for it, the King of Limbs is a very rewarding and enjoyable experience, but that is the key, you have to have time for it. There is no, “I really want to hear that song…turn it to track 5,” on this record. Put it on while you work next week, it will really grow on you as another great addition to the Radiohead collection. Feb 26, 2011 | Reply to this comment