The King Of Limbs is Radiohead's 8th LP
Fionn Fitzpatrick-
The next few months will bring us a number of big-name albums from the likes of The Strokes, Foo Fighters, Arctic Monkeys and Coldplay, to name a few. We’ve known about all these for some months now. We’ve had studio footage, press releases, photo shoots, exclusive interviews, track-samples, etc. etc. This is how the music industry works for heavyweight bands. They trickle news of their album as its being made over Twitter, pose for magazine covers in the weeks leading up to the release-date, and then plaster their name over every billboard and bus-stop available when it’s ready to buy in HMV. The band gets maximum exposure, the magazines get maximum sales, and the fans are left exhausted of the album before it even arrives.
Step forward Radiohead.
On St. Valentine’s Day, Radiohead informed their fans on their website that they’d finished their new album, The King Of Limbs. Not only that, it was to be made available for download (or as part of a vinyl package) in 5 days’ time. Fans and music critics around the world were shocked; it was the first they had ever heard about it.
Of course, this secrecy and mysteriousness is nothing spectacularly new for the five-piece from Oxfordshire. 2007’s In Rainbows was released in similar fashion, famously allowing fans to pay however much they wanted for the album; their management insightfully advised them against such a strategy this time round. However, the manner in which The King Of Limbs has been released is still a delightfully refreshing two-fingered salute to the music industry, from a band that has constantly broken down the barriers between themselves and their fans. Ever since the claustrophobic swirling beats and synthesised vocals of Kid A split critical opinion in 2000, Radiohead have played the media game by their own rules.
However, this album is about more than its lesson for bands on how to bypass the hype-machine. After all, there are only a few bands big enough to get away with such a stunt. Make no mistake, Radiohead are one of them. The excitement around Trinity campus last Friday was palpable as news broke that the band had decided to beat their own release date by 24 hours. Soon, every other laptop in the Lecky and Ussher was streaming the video for ‘Lotus Flower’ as people were offering their first impressions all over Facebook.
Many online reviewers (after a disrespectful one or maybe two listens), have expressed disappointment in the overall sound and atmosphere of the album. They mark it too close to In Rainbows; lacking that tweak in direction we’ve come to expect from every new Radiohead project. With its typically jerky rhythms, disjointed bass-lines and falsetto-delivered abstract lyrics, this is not a change in direction for the band. However, that shouldn’t be held against them. What Radiohead have delivered is the first great album of 2011.
Opening with a delicate piano-line, the first-track ‘Bloom’ quickly descends into an unsettling relentless jazz-rhythm while a double-bass pokes away underneath the atmospheric synths. Differing from the urgency of In Rainbows opener ‘15 Step’, it’s a statement for how the album will follow. This is Radiohead’s most subtle and nuanced record yet.
‘Morning Mr. Magpie’ steps up the pace slightly, a track very reminiscent of Yorke’s solo-material on The Eraser. Jonny Greenwood’s influence is discreet on this album, though the huge range of sounds and instruments are certainly attributable to the multi-instrumentalist. Every listen offers a subtle piano vamp or blast of brass not heard before, helping everything breath beneath the claustrophobic beats.
Yorke has always been a champion of rhythm over melody, never more noticeably than on ‘Feral’, which recalls the synthesised vocal-effects of the Kid A era. It’s infectious and exciting; something to look forward to at their live shows for sure.
‘Lotus Flower’ is a definite highlight, but it’s with ‘Codex’ that the band have found a real gem. Beautifully constructed, it’s got an intimacy and sense of hope that transcends the whole album. A close cousin of ‘Pyramid Song’, it’s certain to be a fan-favourite. The most obvious conveyor of the album’s overall theme of nature, Yorke invites us to “Jump off the end/into a clear lake/ no one around”, before the track fades out to birds singing.
By the time ‘Separator’ drifts pleasantly to a close, you’re left itching to experience it all again. As all great albums should do, the melodies and rhythms grow organically in your memory before you’re tempted back to the play button. Many will argue it is to In Rainbows what Amnesiac was to Kid A; an extension of that production sonically—electronic, but emotionally engaging. However, I believe The King Of Limbs will eventually transcend that opinion to be admired outside of that context. It’s not ground-breaking, and it may represent a transitional phase for what has been one of the great influential bands of our time, but it stands up.
While it won’t convert any sceptics, it’s probably Radiohead’s most positive album to date. Beautifully crafted, perfectly track-listed and more rewarding on every listen, thank god we have them back.
4/5
