The King of Limbs

Radiohead | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 29, 2011)
• Original Release Date: 2011
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: TBD Records
• ASIN: B004NSULHM
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (248 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #272 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #18 in Music > Pop > Adult Alternative
  • #34 in Music > Alternative Rock

Editorial Reviews

2011 release, the eighth album from the enormously successful and influential British band. As usual, the album was produced by longtime co-hort Nigel Godrich. Recorded on and off throughout 2010, the album is a cohesive collection of songs that were laid down by the band in a more relaxed fashion than their ambitious In Rainbows long-player. The album's title refers to an oak tree in Wiltshire's Savernake Forest, thought to be 1,000 years old.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

216 of 253 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Album of Secrets - just listen and learn (*Updated 3/29/2011), February 19, 2011

By 

Bardwire777 (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The King of Limbs (Audio CD)

Yes it is atmospheric. This in no way resembles OK Computer or the Bends or any of their proper "rock" albums - but then Radiohead told us not to expect he same approach after Hail To The Thief. And what is the result of this new phase? I'd say it's better music to paint to than blasting in your car with the windows down (yet I do suggest blasting it loud or with so you can hear all of the subtle shifts and changes - it will kill you with a whisper) Most of these songs are centered around loops like Everything in It's Right Place, and from those initial loops other loops are borne, layers are added, drum loops become live drums, chanting begins and the record indeed ends up sounding both innovative as well as ancient as the King of Limbs' namesake - with different limbs of musical ideas twisting out into different directions. Clearly a bold thrust in a direction that they had only been tinkered with before (except if you don't count Yorke's the Eraser.)

This album feels like the follow up to the Eraser more than In Rainbows. The tracks on this album also has the feel of Radiohead's more interesting B-sides, which usually was the arena where they put their more experimental efforts and let themselves hand loose. In the case of this album, all the tracks feel like honest innovations, like the band is seeking new territory, and so in a way it feels like an album of b-sides which in my book is an excellent thing.

This review was originally written only after a few listens, however, after living with this album for a week here are my *personal* thoughts on the individual tracks;)

Bloom - a sonic welcome mat, with some surprises - the Yes-like synths over-arching like the Northern Lights are a nice effect. These are definitely sounds we've never heard from them. Thom's voice swells in an attempt to swallow the cosmos, like the song says, "Open you mouth wide" he could be asking us to think larger, to take in more...

Morning Mr. Magpie - Here we're catching a hint of the muted guitar swagger that began on Amnesiac with I Might Be Wrong and went on to be more apparent in Hail To the Thief. Like strutting through a haunted house. Sexy. Twisted groove.

Little By Little - As with the rest of the album, this song plays with your expectations of what the beat should be. The guitars stand out but are never overstated, feels very Kid A to me, especially with the sounds that lace the last minute of the track, very Everything in its Right Place. This song goes on a tad long for me, but it's so interesting the relationship between the guitar, vocals and beat that it is hypnotic as heck.

Feral - this is SO Amnesiac it kills me, raw and expansive. It feels like digital drums but THESE ARE LIVE DRUMS that go back into digital again! Amazing. Colin's bass work which is especially fascinating on this album weaves in an out of focus. Thom Yorke meanwhile paints us a sonic tapestry with his vocals, sounding like a creature that has been infected by technology but (like well...a feral) is returning to a primal state, a forest where words are not necessary.

Lotus Flower - is the re-invention of the pop song. Tom Yorke released a video for this on his website where he's dancing around like Prince, enjoying the dancability of his music...YES HE INVENTED A LOTUS FLOWER DANCE. Its an amazing video with just him dancing on an empty stage, black and white, that could be construed as part piss take but is certainly celebration of Radiohead's new sound and direction. He has so much hip swinging swagger! The song is so bad ash, he hangs on notes like a junky, addicted. And when he goes to the chorus your heart wants to burst from your chest. Very Idiotech. I also love the sincere. This song is surely about addiction (hence the Odyssey reference) but the lyrics here as well as the other songs are so sincere and poetic. I'm in awe.

Codex - The most devastatingly beautiful track. I can't even find words. The first listen was a holy moment. Even the nay-sayers will have to give that one to the band. Like the dragonflies Thom Yorke mentions here, the horns section swoons over the top of the songs promising the divine. As for the theme of the album, (and I realize I may be overreaching) this song proves that the technology-addicted human can still return to raw beauty of our natural world, enjoy it and hopefully even save it. I also love how the album's beginning wanders into a blippy bloopy forest of darker more mysterious songs but after Codex the final two songs lead us to closure, and reconcilement with the artist's more experimental methods.

Give Up the Ghost - "Don't haunt me...Don't hurt me" chant the boys as if they were five year olds facing down their Boogymen. The song could be seen as a person-to-person plea from one lover to another, but like many songs on this album the romance of this song feels connected to a greater love for the endangered enviroment..... Like the best of Radiohead's work it is hard to nail down, which is wonderful. As for the sound, this is a perfect accoustic Radiohead track akin to the B-side 4 Minute Warning as if they band is all sitting around a circle beating on their acoustic guitars....The song's bridge here is soaring and stupidly beautiful. (The sonic noises at the end sound like insects in the night.)

Separator - What an uplift! The way the other tracks grow in a thoughtful way, this song lifts like an R&B track off the ground, swagger intact. It manages to showcase Phil's drumming, Thom's lyrical genius....by the time the guitars come in with their up-beat lilts, you will be in heaven and that's when Thom promises, "If you think this is over then you're wrong". The final layer is Johnny's spooky reverb guitar that comes out of the 1980s and wipes the plate clean.

---I gave this album 5 stars because, even now having heard it 100 or more times, the album keeps revealing itself to me and is such a potent personification of the new direction the band talks about.

To the naysayers I only suggest listening to it again. Though not using such drastic changes as Paranoid Android, the album will surprise you with its different levels and subtle shifts. They have built a solid world here and it is full of secrets and and sincere beauty for the patient ear. These guys know what they are doing and they are delivering on levels that I have only begun to uncover here. Thank you Radiohead.

30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Be glad they never conform!, April 14, 2011

By 

David Lynch "Low-Strung" (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The King of Limbs (Audio CD)

Definitely worth the wait!

Whenever I see or hear derisive commentary on Radiohead's latest release it lets me know that all is still well with one of the greatest bands in Rock history. Stravinsky provoked a riot when he premiered The Rite of Spring, in 1913, and we can all be thankful that his monumental work outlasted the collective breath of the naysayers. Be thankful that there are musicians like these today who refuse to conform to an agent, a producer, or even public opinion, as they stay true to themselves and defy all the forces that would work to package their genius into a nice tidy, market-ready box. All the notes were made ready hundreds of years ago, and the lines have been created, worn-out, and recreated time and again. I revel in the fact that this band still has what it takes to shock and stun a world that is largely jaded and programmed to the point of numbness.

So, you say, The King of Limbs is not your Radiohead? (Just like the New Coke wasn't the Old Coke) Well, I hope they will never be anyone's Radiohead.

If this were visual art, I might call it Impressionism, or Post-Impressionism. With those, you don't walk up too close to the canvas, or you'll only see the blobs of paint. Same thing here with KOL. Don't listen too closely at first; you might be turned off! But, give it a chance, and absorb it gradually. It is immensely rich stuff!

62 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Can't stop listening to it, February 19, 2011

By 

I. Lynch "Penchanski" (Ennis, Ireland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The King of Limbs (Audio CD)

Got this about six hours ago and its been on repeat since. Can't stop listening to it. It reaches the end and I just have to hear it again. That's got to be a good sign, right? I guess, but on first listen I must say I was disappointed. I was expecting/hoping for some brave new mindblowing direction after nearly four years, something to turn popular music on it's ear, stop me in my tracks. This ain't it. But like most Radiohead records, it is a thing of beauty that grows more beautiful and intricate with each listen.

Like many other reviewers suggest, if you like Kid A onwards Radiohead then you will like this. Eventually. If you are longing for the days of Creep or even Paranoid Android, then you need to back away now before your feelings get hurt. But maybe instead you should decide to trust who Radiohead are now, crack your mind open a little and let them take you somewhere no other band can. Having been listening to this album for six straight hours that's what I would do.

Much as I like it though, I can't give The King of Limbs 5 stars. I believe Radiohead are well capable of producing a mindblowing, stop me in my tracks, rock record and until I get it I'm withholding the 5th star. I guess I'm one of the Paranoid Android crew after all.