CD Review: Radiohead – “The King Of Limbs”

Dark and rhythmic new work emerges from UK greats

By Jay Grant

Posted on Feb. 20, 2011, at 10:25 p.m.

Radiohead are hard to write about. Some people find them off-putting, too weird and mellow to make for any sort of casual enjoyment. Others swear by the band, proclaiming their brilliance and ready to give daily penance to their closet altar dedicated to frontman Thom Yorke.

While one might be able to temper their words depending on which camp they’re among, it is difficult to set forth any kind of substantial assessment to a heterogeneous group. The major obstacle is that, no matter where your allegiance lies, the mostly indifferent — myself and presumably many of you — and the detractors are forced to admit what the fanboys are so ready to point out: These guys sound almost nothing like any rock band ever. So, here goes.

Radiohead’s latest, “The King of Limbs,” carries on in the bizarro release fashion of previous record “In Rainbows.” It was digitally released Friday after being announced at the beginning of the week. It will see a physical release in March and a “newspaper” release in May, though no one knows exactly what that means.

While many are predicting additional tracks on the upcoming releases, I delved into the eight digitally released tracks. What I found was a kind of musical transportation into a dark abyss, a realm of startling nihilism for one of the most liberally minded and “optimistic” bands in the world.

It may seem cliché to some to call Radiohead’s music sad, but “The King of Limbs” moves beyond mere sadness. There is a kind of information-age hollowness to it — more of a stone-faced darkness than somberness.

The first few tracks are almost distractingly upbeat. Opening track “Bloom” rides on piano play like raindrops and off-kilter marching drum percussion. With a grandiose string climax three-quarters through, high-reaching horns lend to the finale. Atop all the high velocity and complex instrumentation, Yorke grounds the mood, using his voice like it were some bizarre inanimate entity, more for harrowing sounds than words and ideas.

Yorke keeps this trend going for a couple more tracks, notably “Morning Mr. Magpie” with its funky guitar line and “Little By Little,” a track that plays like a version of the Beatles’ “Within You Without You” for the 21st century. The latter bears all the exotic, eastern flavor of the Fab Four’s song, but attaches a bitter sounding guitar and an industrial shadow that never cast itself on Lennon.

Moving forward into tracks like lead single “Lotus Flower,” the album takes a particularly old-school hip-hop-like flair with repetitive but biting drum beats. Yorke’s voice and Radiohead’s studio effects remain unchanged though, continuing the otherworldly gloom that dominates the album.

The final songs on “The King of Limbs” expose Radiohead’s classical education, teeming with beautiful piano ballads, campfire-folk guitar lines and orchestral backdrops. The sound remains relevant though, with bellowing reverb and fuzz effects. Second-to- last track “Give Up the Ghost” might as well have been recorded in the depths of a cave.

All of the songs’ possess a slightly retro flair that is the core of what sets “The King of Limbs” apart from preceding “In Rainbows.” Where “Rainbows” was a glitchy foray into sounding completely new, “Limbs” often feels like an attempt to bring the lessons of classic pop artists into a new high-tech era.

Perhaps it was this very attempt that gave Radiohead such an empty feel — maybe the electronics of our day tainted their try at updating the idealism of past pop musical forms. Either way, “The King of Limbs” is satisfying for the adventurous and a darkly beautiful must-have for the bored looking for a band that might surprise them.

Grade: A-

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 20th, 2011, 10:25 pm. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.