Eighth studio album by the critically accled alternative rock
group. Produced by Nigel Godrich, the album was announced just
five days before its release and includes the track 'Lotus
Flower'.
BBC Review
----------
Radiohead’s sense of timing is quite something. Just
when it looks like Arcade Fire, on a high after victory at the
Grammy and Brit awards, are set to become The Biggest Band In The
World, the Oxford five-piece confirm that their eighth album
isn’t only done, but yours for a few bucks in mere seconds – no
need to get dressed, let alone leave the house. When it looks
like teenage hip hop crew Odd Future are going to send Twitter
into meltdown on the back of an alarming video, these old-timers
position their own promo clip online, sit back and watch social
networks collapse under the weight of a million
thumbs-in-a-frenzy sorts expressing their adoration.
Their grasp of timing, in an arrangements-versus-attentions
sense, is equally remarkable. Just as 2007’s In Rainbows shaved
several minutes from the run-time of the preceding Hail to the
Thief, so The King of Limbs cuts the(ir) full-length form down to
a concise eight tracks and 37 minutes. It’s the band’s
shortest-ever album, perfectly tuned to the listener of the 21st
century – perhaps more likely to listen to music on the way in or
out of work, on a commute, than at their leisure with a nice
glass of red. Of course, the digital distribution of the band’s
previous LP was so successful that this set was sure to follow a
similar release pattern – something tangible will follow in March
– but this is a remarkably neat-and-tidy package. Perhaps it
wasn’t sequenced with succinctness in mind; but that it does its
job in a short space of time is important.
Because if The King of Limbs dragged its… limbs… for too much
longer, the impression left might be very different. For five
tracks this album unfolds in a manner very similar to In
Rainbows’ memorable array of electro-chirrups and synth-sweeps,
all glitches and groans where, a decade previous, Radiohead were
very much A Guitar Band. The staggering, off-kilter step of
opener Bloom might not click with those holding a candle for The
Return of the Gallagher a week from this record’s release, but to
anyone with even half an ear tuned to In Rainbows it’ll seem very
(although not over-) familiar indeed. Morning Mr Magpie plucks
its way into a Foals-ian spin, the masters seemingly taking on
board a few tips from their hometown pupils. Lotus Flower – the
source of #thomdance Twitter activity once its video was unveiled
– is another piece that looks backwards rather than projecting
into bold, new sonic territories. It flails and flaps, but in a
manner entirely in keeping with its makers’ predilection for the
metronomic – to the wrong ears, it’s five minutes of the same
beat, utterly unremarkable.
But that’s the beauty of Radiohead – they’ve never, certainly not
since the breakthrough days of Creep, been a band for the people.
They’re too idiosyncratic for that, and even though there are
moments enty here that suggest the band hasn’t furthered their
vision, subtle differences to a tested formula ensure The King of
Limbs is another great album from Britain’s most consistently
brilliant band. And come Codex, it truly strikes the listener
dumb. Like Motion Picture Soundtrack, Street Spirit, Sail to the
Moon, Nude – insert your own favourite slow-paced Radiohead
numb-er here – it’s a piece of rarefied beauty. Thom says
something about dragonflies, something else about nobody getting
hurt; the words blur and blend, though, as beneath them the
simplest, most strikingly gorgeous piano motif bores its way into
the heart. And it’s here, not any of your limited-character
blogging or video-sharing sites, that Radiohead trump all comers,
again.
--Mike Diver
Find more music at the BBC ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/syn//albumreviews/-/music/ ) This link
will take you off in a new window