RADIOHEAD: THE KING OF LIMBS

[rating:4]

Radiohead: The King of Limbs

Label: TBD Records

Release date:February 18, 2011

Radiohead’s many achievements are so rich that the group is no longer in a class among peers. They haven’t been for quite a while, really. In much the same way The Beatles discography is compared to itself rather than to albums from other artists of the same era, we draw lines from OK Computer toAmnesiac and Kid A to In Rainbows because these are the only comparisons that make even the slightest sense. Sure, Radiohead borrows concepts from other artists — this is what allows them to take on a new identity with each release — but the music they make is, even objectively, unlike anything else being done. It just is.

Even the band’s peripheral business is unmatched. In 2007, the lads famously utilized a short notice, pay-what-you-want method to release In Rainbows. While giving away music for free (if that’s what you chose to “pay”) wasn’t such an unheard of practice, it certainly was coming from the biggest band in the world yielding a highly anticipated record. But it worked. And so one week ago, the band went down a similar path: they announced via their official website that a new album, The King of Limbs, was not only finished but would be available for digital download (for nine bucks this time) in just five days. Of course, later in the week they audibled and the record was downloadable 24 hours early. For the second time in as many records, the band had rather remarkably dodged the advance leaks that plague so many — practically all — of music’s heaviest hitters. It also set the stage for fans from all over the world to share in a frantic collective listening experience full of swooning, knee-jerk analysis, and even optimistic code cracking.

For many listeners, those first spins were justifiably surprising. Aside from the somewhat confounding fact that The King of Limbs spans only 37-and-a-half minutes across eight songs — Pablo Honey was previously the band’s shortest album at 42 minutes in length (but it had 12 tracks) — the music, which matters above all else, proved something of a perplexity even for a group known for turning any previous sound they’d established onto its head. Even after many, many more listens, there’s still a baffling quality to it all. Beginning with “Bloom”, which is fueled by an uncharacteristically repetitive percussion-heavy beat that reminds of Flying Lotus, this is a record that feels startlingly minimal. In terms of immensity and texture, it sounds a lot closer to Thom Yorke’s solo effort, The Eraser, than it does a full-fledged Radiohead outing. “Separator” (formerly “Mouse Bird Dog”), for instance, sounds like it could have just as easily come from the same sessions where Thom recorded his extraordinary cover of Miracle Legion’s“All For the Best”.

The album is heavily indebted to electronics, but the way in which everything is arranged, produced, and mastered gives it a pleasant organic feel. When you listen to “Idioteque” you can actually hear the carnage of a busy dance floor: sweaty bodies bouncing off one another like bumper cars, the erratic flash of strobes. Aside from the fantastic pairing of “Codex” and “Give Up the Ghost” (both softer cuts), every song here is thick with electronics, but rarely does it feel like music you’d hear in a club. Instead, it sounds like something you’d play loudly through headphones while inebriated somewhere in the middle of the woods. Its disjointed, visceral, and extremely environmental. Purported to have been inspired by a 1,000-year-old oak tree in an English forest, The King of Limbs sounds appropriately like nature, twisted up and skewered through drums, synthesizers, sequencers, and miscellaneous electronic smoke and mirrors.

That the band has taken on electronic music in such a head-first manner isn’t a surprise. It is, however, a shock that they’ve left so many of their trademarks on the cutting room floor. The exquisite guitar work of Jonny Greenwood and Ed O’Brien seems heavily restrained, if not snuffed out altogether. The smooth strums and accompanying palm slaps against the face of the instrument on “Give Up the Ghost” make for a beautiful composition, but Thom could have pulled this off on his own. While it isn’t uncommon for Thom to take center stage and the band to serve a lighter, more complimentary role, on The King of Limbs that practice is the standard rather than the exception. The sheer lack of the band’s usual scale makes it difficult to digest, as if at any given moment there’s something absent.

The King of Limbs is also unapologetically devoid of the band’s signature pins and needles emotion. The build-up-and-break-down moments are nowhere to be found and the range of sentiments is noticeably compact. It often moves in a linear direction as if the whole thing is one giant stream — surprising given that it wasn’t too long ago that these guys seemed frustrated and bored by the generic album format, which breeds the type of even-keel cohesion on display here. The beat and rhythm of “Bloom” meld directly into “Morning Mr. Magpie” as if the tracks or feelings hardly changed at all. “Feral” plays like an extended introduction to “Lotus Flower”, one of the few moments where it sounds like all five members showed up at the studio. Without the hysterical meltdowns and assortment of affecting moods that are usually brimming from a Radiohead album, its just an emotionally meager presentation.

After 1993′s average-ish Pablo Honey, Radiohead reeled off six diverse, revolutionary records in a row. In each case, the results were about as life-altering as music can get. In the case of OK Computer and Kid A, at least, the entire music industry was sent reeling. The King of Limbs lacks that mystique and, for the first time in almost two decades, has dented the five-piece’s astonishing invincibility. Still, in the grand scheme of things, this is a triumph of its own variety. That it can be so puzzling, so removed from their legendary arsenal and yet remain engaging and enjoyable is an unparalleled testament. Truly, Radiohead has a Midas touch all their own — even when they miss, they somehow manage to excel.

The King of Limbs isn’t exactly the grand unveiling of a new sound, but rather a deeper exploration of a place that the band has already gone, this time toned down and smoothed up around the edges. It could grow to be terrific by almost any standard, but up against the astronomically high bar that Radiohead have set for themselves — masterpiece after masterpiece after masterpiece — its difficult not to feel somewhat let down.

-Andrew bailey(Binge Listening)