Radiohead - King of Limbs Review

Credited to Ned Seager.
Brilliant review which however late must be posted. and read. and appreciated.

At least since OK Computer in 1997, Radiohead has made music that sounds like it comes from another planet, but never more so than on King of Limbs. It seems as though the musicians are following rules of music, they just aren't following our rules. This otherworldliness creeps in through the eccentric beats and haunting electronic noise, but the most alien sound here is Thom Yorke's voice. His melodies wheel about in endless circles, slipping constantly between falsetto and normal ranges. The notes held to their breaking point in "Bloom," and the verses in "Separator," "Codex," and the single "Lotus Flower," make it clear that nobody else can write melodies like this, let alone make them catchy.

There's a lot of praise to heap onto this unique album, so I'll get a complaint out of the way first. One song (and only one song) approaches disappointment: the penultimate "Give up the Ghost." If Limbs is a trip to another planet, then "Ghost" is a spaceship carrying Grizzly Bear and Fleet Foxes crash-landing on its surface. Taken on its own it's a fine song, but it's out of place next to more ethereal songs like "Codex," which sounds like the musical accompaniment to a space funeral. Minor piano chords and eerie horns back up Yorke's melancholy howl on this twisted version of a rock album's piano ballad.

Radiohead is unique not only in sound but in business too. They were hailed as visionaries when they released 2007's In Rainbows online and allowed the buyer to choose the price. Though this album was still released exclusively online (although a "newspaper edition" is coming), for King of Limbs the band abandoned the pay-what-you-will model in favour of a fixed price of $9. Perhaps they were tired of the freeloaders. "Morning Mr. Magpie," with its dark, driving rhythm section and refrains of "You stole it all / Give it back," "You know you should / But you don't," and "You took my melody," seems to demand that its listeners actually buy albums rather than pirate them. I suppose if any band deserves our money, it's Radiohead - they're just about the only ones actually testing out alternatives to a broken system.

Throughout Limbs, the listener can't shake the feeling that this is the Thom Yorke Show (perhaps with special guest Jonny Greenwood). Since Kid A in 2000, it has seemed to be Yorke's creative ambition steering the band, but the other members get their moments here as well. "Separator" is driven as much by the wandering presence of Colin Greenwood's bass as by the absence of it. When the deep notes drop away, it's as if the ground has been pulled out from under both the song and the listener. Phil Selway shines throughout the album in both his live drum work and his drum machine programming. The first five songs are all focused intently on their beats, which tend to be magnificently crowded and fast, especially on the Dubstep-influenced "Feral."
King of Limbs is an album (and Radiohead is a band) that doesn't sound like any other existing. That in itself is admirable, but it helps that Radiohead's members are all exceedingly talented and brilliant musicians. Really the only negative thing to say about the album is that it's too short - but maybe there's more to come. After all, closing track "Separator" tells us, in Yorke's ethereal voice, "If you think this is over / You're wrong."

ADDED: There wasn't a second album, as some fans had hoped for, but there were two more songs. And they were awesome. Dreamy and synth-y "Supercollider" is as good as anything on the actual album.