So, as of late, people that know me (all 12 of them..) are aware that I’m a big Radiohead fan and keeep asking me the same question “What do you think of the new album”?
… You’ve heard about it, you’ve talked about it. The dust has settled since its release; let’s discuss it.
So, from a high level overview level summary – I quite like it.
That said, it’s hard for me to categorize it and rank it among the other stuff that’s been made from these guys. Each of their album is pretty concise, more of a work of art as a whole.
The main reason why Radiohead are my favorite group is beceause if you look at all of the albums, works, b sides, artwork, live perfmances over the past 20 years, the band has probably the most colorful specturm of music that differs from any other group, artist, or band I know. There’s a little bit of many different music styles from each album that they have produced. There’s the sappy love pop songs from their early career, crunchy guitar solos from thier high points in the late 90s, and more unique, experimenetal trip hop and techno based jams from thier 2000 – 2003 phase. My personal favorite from Radiohead’s pallete is from 2007 and their realease of In Rainbows – sort of a culmination of the best things that they have made : weird, atmospheric, electronic, sappy love songs, inspirational jams, wonderful outros, wonderful intros, etc.
Now, moving on to the here and the now, Radiohead have yet again taken a sidesetp from what the masses think of them with thier newest release “The King Of Limbs”
…
My biggest take from TKOL is that Radiohead have taken sort of a step into something very familiar, exploring more experimental electronic based music from 2000’s Kid A phase; yet at the same time, these new songs are something not really charted before. More dubstep driven tracks like “Feral” and even “Lotus Flower” suggest something more post-modern. Other looping tracks like “Give up the Ghost” and “Seperator” are a diverge from what they’ve done before, with more Neil Young influence than anything.
The first time I heard TKOL, my biggest thoughts were that “Thom Yorke has definitely been listening to way too much Burial or Flying Lotus….” Which is something I’m all to familiar with as that’s the stuff I’ve been digging very much for the past year, so this album was right up my ally. Not sure if that kind of thing is for everyone though, as when I listen to artists like those, they are meant to be more “background music” to help me when I’ve got a very substantial website to make or a very tedious project.
So yeah, without boring you even further, and to sum things up – I like the album a lot. However, that said, 8 tracks is sooo damn short. Now, some of you might be saying “that’s only 5 minutes shorter than in rainbows”. However, the difference is that IR had b sides with that album, 10 tracks, and very concise. Keep in mind that “Bloom” and “Feral” are sort of instrumental tracks anyways – so, essentially, this is a 6 song album. So short. I feel like once this album really starts gettting good around “Seperator,” it’s alll the sudden over. Which might have been the point all along, but it’s hard to find something tangible to listen to when there’s little material to actually reflect on. This album feels more like an ep than anything. A good listen, but I am hungry for more songs. Hopefully they’ll release something else within this year to appease appetites and greedy ears like mine out there.
Ok that’s enough.. Please excuse the mis spellings / horrible grammer above. I wrote most of that while having my eyes closed and don’t really feel like editing 🙂
Fav tracks = Feral, Seperator, Lotus Flower, Bloom
Least fav tracks = Give up the ghost, Codex (can’t get into it), Little By Little (don’t like the “oooooohs” in the chorus)
Tracks not yet released that hopefully are within the next release:
-The Present Tense
-Open the Flood Gates
-Walk Up the Staircase
-Judge, Jury, Exectutioner
-True Love Waits (hopefully)
-Chris Hodge
-Wake Me
-Riding a Bullet