Radiohead's latest and greatest album, The King of Limbs, is a testament to a band that refuses to stay stagnant. Album to album Radiohead is known for reinventing their sound and never letting themselves just coast off a previous effort or build off of an already established sound. They find new ways to produce uniquely amazing music and influence the entire music industry time and time again.
The King of Limbs has actually somewhat broken from that mold. Breaking from a mold of always breaking your mold may seem counter-intuitive or even just like broken logic, but that is the beauty of this latest effort in that it is by far the most unified and diverse Radiohead album yet released.
The King of Limbs brings together elements from everything that came before it. At a scant 37 minutes and just eight tracks it will leave you yearning for more. The opening track, "Bloom," enters with some of the a-melodic piano we got used to in Kid A, then starts to merge with a sound more reminiscent from In Rainbows, before later in the song getting in to the more faded electronic style of The Bends with long held discordant notes built over with layers and layers of movement.
The track fades immediately then into "Morning Mr. Magpie" which sounds much more like a mixture of the sounds of Hail to the Thief and OK Computer. It is the spirit and feeling of" 2 + 2 = 5" from Hail to the Thief with the subdued energy of "Let Down" or "Karma Police" off of OK Computer.
My favorite song thus far has to be "Separator" the eighth and final track on the album, as well as the most emotionally powerful. At 5:20 it is the longest individual song, and it is definitely markedly slower paced than much of the rest of King of Limbs. I like this song so much because it is lighter, happier, and is an excellent mixture of successful Radiohead formulas of the past.
The absolutely gorgeous light, electronic guitar riff that shows up in the middle of the song to accompany the layering of Thom's whimsical vocals puts a smile on my face every time, and reminds me of the style of Amnesiac. The lyrics speak of dreaming and waking, and of course are open to a million different interpretations as I'm sure Thom wanted. I like to think though that when he says,
"If you think this if over/Then you're wrong/ Wake me up, Wake me up/ If you think this is over/ Then you're wrong/ Wake me up, Wake me up/ Like I'm falling out of bed/ From a long weary dream/ The sweetest flowers and fruits hang from trees/ When I ask you again/ When I ask you again/ Wake me up"
that he is revisiting ideas of perpetual societal sleepwalking and that the sweetest thing in life is the "forbidden fruit" of knowledge that so many will try to keep you unaware of and "asleep." This song is very powerful and brings to mind "Paranoid Android" off of OK Computer.
The accomplishment of The King of Limbs is that in their shortest album yet, in an album that did was produced in on again, off again studio session in much different manner than their previous long play records, Radiohead still managed to carry a different kind of message and tone through the entire thing with another unique concept.
The album is said to be named after an ancient oak tree deep in the Savernake Forest of Wiltshire that is over 1000 years old. (NME) The focus is based on fanciful Northern European fairy tales of forest creatures and monsters that spawned classics like "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Hansel and Gretel." (Creative Review) You can see this theme in each song, and it gives the album a unique tone.
Thom Yorke said of the album in a recent interview, "None of us want to go into that creative hoo-ha of a long-play record again. Not straight off. I mean, it's just become a real drag. It worked with In Rainbows because we had a real fixed idea about where we were going. But we've all said that we can’t possibly dive into that again. It’ll kill us." (Believer Magazine)
Whether you are completely new to Radiohead, have been listening to them since Pablo Honey, or are anywhere in between, you will find something to like about The King of Limbs. If you have never heard anything before, you have found the perfect sampler platter to see if this could possibly be the band for you, and if you are someone who has seen the musical progression of Radiohead over the last 20 or so years, you will really appreciate how they have seamlessly fit together so many of their different iconic sounds into a really interesting concept.
Give it a listen today; you can download it straight from their website for just 9 dollars and not give a single penny to a greedy corporation that rips off its artists. Instead, directly support the band and show the industry the right way to release an album.
SCORE: 9.6/10
Sources:
- Creative Review: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/february/stanley-donwood-outsider-gallery
- NME: http://www.nme.com/news/radiohead/54951
- Believer Magazine: http://www.believermag.com/issues/200907/?read=interview_yorke
Adam Cignatta - I am currently a sophomore at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT. I am studying English and Political Science and love writing of ...
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