King of Limbs, a review.

In the last few days I've filled up my friend’s news feeds on Facebook with potentially annoying fan boy mutterings about 'King of Limbs', the new Radiohead album and how I was excited like a small child at Christmas. So I guess I better get round to it and actually review it right?



The thing about a band like Radiohead, who as part of their very mysterious little persona seem to find weirder and wackier ways to release their music as ever album goes by, is that reputation is sometimes in danger of overshadowing the music. For the second time in a row they have released an album on the internet, with no advertising campaign or build up, with a physical version to come later and a special edition box of fairly ambiguous goodies (what IS a 'newspaper' album??) for die-hard fans. All of this is very exciting if you want to, as many have, turn it into a starting platform for a debate on the music industry’s future, but is the music any good?

Well firstly, if you are a fan of early Radiohead, all buzz-saw guitars and a Thom Yorke set to angst mode, don't get excited. There is no return to the 'Bends' era here; 'King of Limbs' stays firmly in the channel the band have been ploughing since 'Kid A', electronics beat guitars all the way.

This in itself isn't a bad thing in my opinion, there is real beauty here, as opening track 'Bloom' emerges from a sea of overlapping electronic beats and ambience you can tell instantly that this is not a bad album. The next track, 'Morning Mr Magpie' is in a similar vein, almost laid back with its spare percussion and repetitive, muted guitars. In the run up to the album release a number of internet bloggers (professionals that is, not grubby little students like me) noted that Thom Yorke is very much into Burial and The xx these days. Look no further that the aforementioned track to see proof of this.

These are by no means the albums high points either; the mid-album pair of 'Lotus Flower' and 'Codex' provide a real high point. The first track builds and builds with beeping electronics and a steady, sparse beat as Mr Yorke sings 'there's an empty space inside my heart'. It moves in waves, reaching small musical climaxes before falling back into the groove. 'Codex' on the other hand sounds more like a solo Thom Yorke song, slow piano and synth ambience that slides into the song half way through. You may well get goose bumps when you first hear it and as the songs fades out to the sound of birds singing you get a genuine feeling you’ve just heard something beautiful.



However, the problem with 'King of Limbs' is that outside of these moments of beauty it can sometimes feel a little cookie cutter. The next track along from 'Codex' is an acoustic guitar featuring croonfest by the name of 'Give Up The Ghost'. It’s a good song, I especially like the multi layered vocals in the songs later third. But it, like much of the album, sounds almost as if it’s been pulled off 'In Rainbows', Radiohead last album. In fact a good number of these tracks could fit quite happily into any of the last three Radiohead albums. On my iPod the last track, 'Separator' is followed by 'Knives Out' from Amnesiac, listening earlier the song changed and for a few moments I didn't realise that 'King of Limbs' had stopped playing. For a band that have a (rightly earned) reputation for pushing genre boundaries, things sound a little stagnant.

Don't get me wrong, this is still a good album, very very good in places. It may be a slightly 'samey' record but that 'samey' is still a country mile better that many other bands could hope of achieve at their best. However next time round maybe Messer York, Greenwood and all could push the boundaries a bit further, make a few too many records without change and you start looking like Oasis...