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Beat Report by Kegan Zema
Before last week, no one knew when the world would receive the next Radiohead album. Fans knew the band had an album’s worth of material finished, but there was no mention of a release date, no album title, no singles — almost no hype.
On Monday, the band announced their album would be released digitally the following weekend. Offering both elaborate and expensive physical copies to be shipped in May, as well as digital files, the race was on for fans to snatch up their freshest work.
After only four days of anticipation — they released it Friday morning instead of Saturday — “The King Of Limbs” became part of our culture.
Compare that to Kanye West’s hype marathon which somehow managed to stretch from the leak of “Power” at the end of May to the album’s release at the end of November. Between the “G.O.O.D. Friday” music series and his media escapades, the expectations for “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” were astronomical.
Both artists delivered great albums — Radiohead after just four days of waiting, Kanye after 6 months. But can the amount of anticipation determine the extent to which we enjoy an album?
As the days went by leading up to “Twisted Fantasy,” Kanye rarely ceased to be a topic of conversation. His work was drilled into the public sphere. Until last week, Radiohead were decisively absent from the media, save for an occasional mention of some solo work by a band member or hints that a new album was done.
The resulting listening experience differed greatly. By the time West’s album hit stores, most of the songs were already available in some format — not to mention the leaked copies that cropped up. This made for a debut listen that was all at once new, familiar and even played out. Songs that had already worked their magic got the skip treatment in order to discover the new works. The album was great, but it wasn’t a cohesive event.
With “The King Of Limbs,” the new tracks fell on virgin ears. The album as a whole unfolded serenely in headphones and stereos across the country. Despite its shorter track list, it has the feeling of a unified work — something distinctly new for the band.
The power of hype is a double-edged sword: Lest we forget the anticipation for MGMT’s sophomore album. When the album ended up being a psychedelic oddball, there was considerable letdown. It took a few months before critical accounts of the album’s true beauty began to surface.
Last summer, my excitement for The Dead Weather’s second album eclipsed my anticipation for The Black Keys’ new release. But it was “Brothers” by The Black Keys that ended up in much heavier rotation.
Now that The Strokes have a new one on the way, how will they live up to the hype? With “Angles” due March 22, fans have a whole month to revisit the glory days of “Is This It” and “Room On Fire,” stacking the odds against this new one.
There is no doubt that buzz and anticipation affect how we first listen to albums. Unfortunately, it usually ends up working against an artist. The higher the bar is set, the more likely it is for them to come in under it.
But if the artist is moving forward, the hype will fade away. Kanye crafted a gem and it will go down as such, regardless of how it felt on first listens. Radiohead continued to evolve and fans will be able to enjoy “The King Of Limbs” long after it has become old news.
Bangor Daily News