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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
227 of 264 people found the following review helpful
Format: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.
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.
36 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
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!
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!
63 of 81 people found the following review helpful
Format: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.
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.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Becoming my favorite Radiohead album
This album grooves so fantastically I really got into it after watching their "Live from the Basement" stuff. Can't say much more because music is subjective, thanks!
Published 7 days ago by Nick
Why?
This album makes Linkin' Park sound like they have talent. Like U2 of recent, it shows that stellar bands stop trying and only look for the paycheck in the mail. Read more
Published 14 days ago by Jennyigot
Beautiful, Fantastic, Thought Provoking
Radiohead, as always, manages to flawlessly blend together many different aspects of music into a beautiful and captivating album with intriguing artwork. Read more
Published 24 days ago by Troutheadphoenix
Disjointed and Indistinct
King of Limbs has only 8 songs on it, which suggests that those 8 songs form a strong whole. Sadly, they don't. KOL is probably Radiohead's weakest release. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Atli Hafsteinsson
Patience
'The Bends' is a great album. I couldn't believe the popularity of 'OK Computer'. I stuck with Radiohead through 'Kid A' and 'Amnesiac' when many didn't, though skeptical myself at... Read more
Published 1 month ago by bronco429
New Fan
I am coming to Radiohead from the back end. Growing up an 80's kid with U2, Echo and the Bunnymen, REM, The Smiths, The Cure, Lloyd Cole, etc. Read more
Published 1 month ago by 50m6
LOVE!
Radiohead = happiness! I just saw them live and a majority of it was repertoire from this album! My favorite so far: Lotus Flower, Codex and Little By Little! Read more
Published 1 month ago by Maya V. Murthy
A few words ...
For a long time now i've considered Radiohead a classic band, a band whose consistancy, experimentation and influence in rock music is probably unparrelled by any of their... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Kenneth
Great album
At first listen I didn't like this album much, but as with several other Radiohead pieces it takes time for some to come around. Now it is one of my favorites. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Dan S.
Probably Radiohead's least accesible album
The first 3 times I listened to this album, all the songs seemed to kind of blend together into one body of work. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Shelley D. Bowen
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