King of Limbs
Really? No posts on this yet?
http://www.thekingoflimbs.com/
I’m pretty fucking psyched for this.
Comments
Fantastic news to start the week! And, we only have to wait 5 days for it’s release!
Album cover:
HOLYCRAPHOLYCRAPHOLYCRAPHOLYCRAP!!!
I had an insane amount of work to do over the weekend, so I modified my router to block access to the scrabbled, bill’s board, and reddit over the weekend. So this is the first I’ve heard of this. FUUUUCK. FUCK!!!
GUYS!! HOLY CRAP!
Actually it was just announced over night. I got the information through their Facebook feed. It wasn’t there last night, but was there this morning.
what are you guys gonna order???
I went with the $48 option because:
“Many large sheets of artwork, 625 tiny pieces of artwork and a full-colour piece of oxo-degradeable plastic to hold it all together.”
Just ordered the $48 one as well cause Radiohead.
And now back to radio-silence. No more funternets for me. Laters!
They released the album a day early! I am at work and can’t download it but if you goto http://www.thekingoflimbs.com/ you can grab it if you preordered.
Also new video:
Yeah, I’m not feeling this too much on my first 2 go throughs. It feels like the band through together some ideas, and Thom just sang some put together lyrics over the top. The last 2 records at least felt more cohesive and organic which is why I liked them both a lot. This feels like they’re back to just relying on a lot of bleeps and blips and sequencing but without any noticeable melodies or anything. I’m hoping it will grow on me, but other than Mr. Magpie, nothing really stuck out to me on first 2 passes.
“Cohesive” is maybe the last word I’d use to describe Hail to the Thief. That album was all over the place. Fantastic, but totally a jumble.
1min in and I’m loving the new one, as expected.
I mean the indivudal songs sounded like the result of a cohesive band rather than a bunch of ideas or sounds thrown together. Guys playing instruments, together, and a guy singing melodies and lyrics that sound like they were written to the songs.
This just all sounds like a bunch of sketches and ideas extended to song length than it does a fully realized vision.
I’ve decided to review the album track by track:
Bloom: Huh! Sounds like they’re quoting Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. Or it could just be Jonny Greenwood being Jonnny Greenwood again. This is fucking fantastic.
Morning Mr Magpie: Oh, this song! I have this song, in a previous incarnation. It’s on their Greatest Lying Mouth of All Time thinger. This version is already much cooler. Ryan might like the old version cause he’s stupid. It’s just Thom and a guitar.
Little By Little: Ok, the beats on this album are out of fucking control. Listen to this thing come together. In a parallel universe where Radiohead was fronted by Madlib instead of Thom Yorke, this would be an incredible hip hop album. And there it is: 2:10 — the heart-melting melody. That’s why our universe is better.
Feral: oh COME ON. THE BEATS. Are you fucking kidding me, Radiohead!? Are you serious with this?! Everyone was worried Kid A was gonna be some sort of techno album cause everyone was going electronica back then. And they didn’t. They just got weird. But this album is maybe the closest they’ve ever been to making a flat-out dance album. I smell a remix-album in the future.
Lotus Flower: I think Radiohead still do the side a/side b thing even though there are no more side a’s or b’s. Though this one is coming out on vinyl, so I guess there are. But this is clearly a start of a side b. The first four tracks built and built to a dance-y cacophony and then we shift moods. Here. Still dance-y, but lower key and sexier — a mode the band seemed to discover on the last album. Glad they’re keeping it up.
Codex: Oh. This is slow. Where’d the beats go? Damnit. Bring them back, guys. . . . Ok, this got pretty gorgeous. Glad Greenwood is still keeping the orchestra in their albums, but I wish they were a bit more present. The few swells gave me goosebumps, but leave me wanting more.
Give Up The Ghost: So I guess we’re done with the beats, huh? Damn. Well, this is definitely the side b, in the Rollings Stones sense of it (fun side/slow side). This one completely lost me. I hope it’ll grow on me, but it’d have to keep my attention for the duration in order for that to happen.
Separator: Another one that lost me. So, side b I’m not as into. Ima go listen to side a again.
I’d like it more if the beats were dance beats. But it’s these herky jerky, warmed over drum and bass type beats.
Yeah, the slow songs just aren’t all that great. I don’t mind slow if it’s something like House of Cards or All I need which have decent hooks to them. But these don’t. At least now. Maybe the whole shebang will grow on me.
There’s a theory that there might be more album on the way:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/arts/music/19radiohead.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
I dunno, man, these dance beats are pretty dance-beaty to me.
Kevin said:I’d like it more if the beats were dance beats. But it’s these herky jerky, warmed over drum and bass type beats.
I agree. These beats make for interesting ambient, background music, but they’d all grind a dance party to a halt methinks.
You guys are clearly going to the wrong dance parties.
Let me put it this way. I like the song, but if you consider what he is doing in that video to be dancing, then I’m most definitely not going to the wrong dance parties.
I thought what he was doing in the video was supposed to be funny; completely tongue in cheek. But that’s beside the point, I thought we were just talking about the albums’ dance beats.
I actually like the beats. It’s not a like or dislike thing. It’s just that like Jay said they’re more of an ambient nature than a “makes me want to get up and dance” thing. When I think of “dance” beats I think of most of what’s behind hip hop songs, or Big Beat electronica or even most pop (Lady Gaga, for example if I’m forced to go that route)
I’ve given this at least 2 dozen more run throughs and it’s still totally “meh”. The beats are good, and some of the sounds are cool but it still has all the feeling of being just a sketchbook of ideas. There are barely any vocal melodies on the whole record. I defy anyone to hum a single melody from this record. Which even at their most weird, Radiohead could always do. Hell, even on something like The Gloaming which is one of their weirder songs ever, I can hum the vocal melody.
I can’t see myself devoting much more time to this thing.
That’s a very good point about the hummable melodies. I’ve listened to it several times now and nothing’s gotten stuck in my head the way they usually do. That said, I am very much enjoying it, but more like I would a noise record than I would a Radiohead record.
Yeah, that’s about right. It’s a great ambient background record. It’s just not necessarily a great Radiohead record.
Hutch, just out of curiosity, what is your favorite Radiohead song and album?
The song varies, but it’s usually something off Kid A. Album is definitely Kid A, which is invariably my favorite album by any band. Beyond that, I can’t really rank things, but that one always sits on top.
See for me, the reason I’m so dissapointed in this new record is because I like each post-Kid A record exponentially more than the last. Kid A always felt like an uncool kid trying to hard to be cool and be something he wasn’t. Then each record mellowed on the “trying too hard” vibe a little bit more and I thought In Rainbows was the culmination of that. Enough organic band sounds still mixed with the blips and bleeps and experimental stuff. And it made me go back and appreciate stuff like Kid A and Amnesiac slightly more I guess in the same way 10-15 years later you see pictures of that teenager first trying to dress and act cool and you think “Awwww….isn’t that cute” and it doesn’t seem as annoying as it did when they were first trying too hard.
This record feels like the 30 year old trying to go back and be that cool teenager with mostly embarrassing results.
While I get and kind of agree with what you’re saying, I find myself still listening to it a few times a day. I’m trying to step outside myself and figure out if this is just because it’s Radiohead and I want to like it, or if Im’ genuinely enjoying it for it’s own sake and I don’t know that I can. Be objective, that is.
I can say that I had Little by Little stuck in my head when I woke up the past two mornings. So that’s starting to happen.
Honestly I’m curious to read reviews of it. I haven’t seen any thus far. I think for you, as you said it’s Radiohead so you’ll convince yourself to like it no matter what. And I think a lot of reviewers will do the same thing. You’re definitely not alone in that respect.
But if I don’t find any or many reviews that lean towards my way of looking at/listening to this then maybe it’s just my own personal take on it.
Pitchfork finally got their review up, they seem to really dig the second half of the record.
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15149-the-king-of-limbs/
That…. was…. actually a decent review. On pitchfork. Weird.
Some band covered and re-recorded the whole album in 24 hours. Less impressive than the time it took them is the actual strength of the covers. Like so many Radiohead songs, they blossom a bit in a next context:
http://robotanists.bandcamp.com/album/robotanists-does-radiohead-the-king-of-limbs-in-24-hours