The King of Limbs.

The King of Limbs.

So, it's here, The King of Limbs, Radiohead's eighth full-length effort, a day early, because the band felt they could just as well. All right then, we'll all change our plans guys - I had originally planned on doing an introductory, expectations-kind-of post tonight, but I guess not. But just to introduce briefly; this is very exciting. Since In Rainbows came three years and a bit ago, I've been through the compulsory Radiohead-period almost every music enthusiast goes through at some point in time. My knowledge of and relationship with Radiohead was all but non-existent prior to In Rainbows, so since then, I've been through OK Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac and Hail To The Thief at varying points in time and to various degrees.


But the new one's here now, and what's it all about? Well, it's very electronic. As much as Radiohead is a band, whose "sound" is hard to define, this album is unmistakably Radiohead. There are hints and elements of each of its four closest predecessors, from Kid A to In Rainbows. I think the one it perhaps reminisces the most might be Hail To The Thief. The first few tracks, 'Bloom' and 'Morning Mr. Magpie', remind me a lot of some of the more electronic Hail To The Thief-tunes such as 'Backdrifts' and 'The Gloaming', with the uneasy, pulsating electronics and skittering, buzzing drums.


With 'Little By Little', there's a bit of a change in sound, as actual guitars enter, but with 'Feral', we're back to what seems to be the general sound of this record: A mumbling Thom Yorke over electronic drums, ambient noises and dominating bass-lines. There are scattered guitars, on the above-mentioned 'Little By Little' and on the folksy 'Give Up The Ghost', and in general, the back half of the album is a bit more band music and a bit less programming music than the first part, even if it is still very mellow.


I don't know what I think of this yet. It's got the same conceptuality as each of Radiohead's three masterpiece albums, OK Computer, Kid A and Amnesiac, all of which have some sort of pervasive spirit an atmosphere. Hail To The Thief, although containing its fair share of the bright spots you would expect from any band anyone has ever dared label as the "best band on Earth", was a bit too long and schizoid, and while In Rainbows is a collection of almost exclusively brilliant tunes, and in many ways much brighter than Radiohead have ever been, there isn't much of a common denominator. There's a long way from '15 Step' to 'House of Cards' and 'Nude' to 'Bodysnatchers' and 'Jigsaw Falling Into Place'.


So, it seems Radiohead have once again managed to confine themselves to some sort of sonic box, that doesn't limit them, but rather strengthens the creative output and the overall impression. Or does it? I don't know. The thing with an album like Kid A is that for all the navel-gazing, it has pure excellence written all over it because it's not navel-gazing, but rather some sort of actively chosen absence. Same goes for Amnesiac.


It doesn't seem that The King of Limbs has got quite the same quality. Not yet, anyhow. It might end up truly excelling in it's less-is-more'ness after a dozen of listens, but honestly, after having been through it twice, I'm slightly left with the feeling of: "OK, we waited three years, and we get this?" - I mean, for all they could have done, it seems The King of Limbs just never really rises to the occasion. 'Codex' is very nice, it's a nice ballad in the mold of 'All I Need' or 'Videotape', but all in all, this is a very introvert record. Thom Yorke is mumbling more than ever here, and all in all, this record is a bit like the weirdo dude someone brought to the party. You never know, he might be the wittiest and most interesting of the bunch, but he sits in the corner with his arms crossed and his gaze wandering planlessly round the room in a paranoid, sociopathic way. He might win you over, but he's not exactly inviting at first glance.


I reserve every right to change my mind completely. Maybe I'm just not in the right mindset for Radiohead right now. I'm in a period of baritones singing intelligible lyrics and music with a lot of passion and emotion and feelings all over it, which is pretty far from Radiohead. I'd say right now I'm satisfied, but not impressed. I need to get this into my headphones, and I need to get a grasp on the lyrics. I hope this album will grow on me though. Of all the albums in the world, it really could.