Week 4: "The King of Limbs" by Radiohead

English Alt-Rock band, Radiohead, has been pumping out albums since 1985. Their newest and self-released album "The King Of Limbs" has been the subject of debate between Radiohead fans and general listeners since its release.
The King of Limbs is a very unique album and while it would not be my frist pick of something to listen to, it was a pretty fun experience jumping into this new genre. Radiohead was never one of the bands I followed since I found my intrest in music but I was aware of all of their hits and some of their previous albums. So in comparison to previous albums...TKoL was a bit of a let down to me.
The Review:
The King of Limbs is only 8 tracks long, just over 37 mins. and has some of the weirdest instrumentation arrangements I have heard in a long time. Most of the album is very trance like in its writing, so much to the point that during my cognitive listening, there were times when I didn't notice the changing of the songs. Contributing to this trance-like style of music are the rhythms and beats produced by Phil Selway. I am not exactly sure of the process they went through with all the percussion parts in TKoL but the style (especially in "Bloom" and "Morning Mr Magpie") seems to be replicated of Steve Reich. TKoL was also very heavy in effects which I think is a success and a flaw in the production. Vocally, I feel the effects were too wet to the point where it took away from the lyrical backbone that I look for in a song. But on the other hand, these effects really let Thom Yorke utilize his voice as more of a musical instrument.
Notable Songs: The songs that really stood out to me, "Codex" and "Give Up The Ghost" were the black sheep of this album with the exception of "Bloom." "Bloom" is the first track on The King Of Limbs and is the best example of the trance/layered songwriting style I was talking about before when referring to Steve Reichs' style of writing. The reason I note this song is because of how utterly weird it is. Enjoyable? yes...for a while. It certainly might get old. "Codex" and "Give Up The Ghost" were the only two songs that I could see myself playing again after this week. I guess you could say that the style of these were more structured...now don't take that as me being close minded to other genres of writing, I do have great appreciation for different styles....just TKoL was a bit out of my liking.  

The Good: Very interesting album and a fun listen every now and then. The King of Limbs has its place and I might listen to it on occasions.
The Bad:  VERY repetitive, I got bored with it really quick...partially because it was less then forty mins long but all the songs sound the same as well.

Should you get it? If you love Radiohead, if you love trance style music, or if you are really open to new music....give it a shot. I'm glad I gave it a shot but knowing what I know now...I don't think I would have gotten it. But it is totally worth a listen through.


_____________________________________
Next week! Currently deciding between....

"Wooden Heart" by Listener
"The Zombie EP" by TDWP
"Disambiguation" by Underoath
"One Last Century" by The Damnwells
"Mine and Yours" by Cold War Kids

Let me know what you want to hear about on twitter @juddnasty or @ProjectMusicMon