Radiohead - King Of Limbs

Radiohead - King Of Limbs
Genre: Alternative/Rock
Rating: 5.5/10

Few releases create as much interest as a Radiohead album in the world of music. The band rose to fame and glory in the early nineties and haven't slowed down in their expansion and growth since. The band reinvented themselves from a basic guitar rock band into something almost other worldly as they began to experiment with electronica in the early noughties. They shook the music world to it's foundations again with 2007's critically acclaimed album "In Rainbows" which they released independently using a "pay what you want" strategy that left big record labels shaking in their boots. So what does their latest effort the "King Of Limbs" have to get excited about? Primarily mystery is the answer. Radiohead purposefully kept all details regarding this album a secret up until a few days before its release. Even by only announcing its release a few days before it arrived on the net shook things up massively.

Now the "King Of Limbs" is out on cd and available pretty much everywhere so now I thought would be a good time to review it. Overall Radiohead have always had a keen ear for experimentation in their music and this new album lands somewhere between their work on "In Rainbows" and "Kid A". For the uninitiated this means they have blended all the drum loops and ambient electronica aspects of "Kid A" with the immediate and accessible rock of "In Rainbows". What you are then left with is a blurred experimental elctronica/rock record that seems all a little too unintelligible in places. The album isn't a complete loss "Little By Little" would fit in nicely on any of the bands LP's with it's rattling rythm eerie guitar work and falsetto plaintiff howls. "Lotus Flower" again proves a worthy listen with its sparce haunting qualities. Unfortunately these highlights are too few and far between. Other sections of the record like "Feral" feel like interludes where blurry overdubbed synths battle with purposefully off beat drum loops providing nothing more than padding. This wouldn't hinder the record if it wasn't just eight tracks long. Still the record has recieved mixed reactions from critics and fans alike. I personally feel that after a 4 year wait King Of Limbs feels almost unfinished and is a bit of a disappointment in that regard.

Many fanatics have poured hours into development of theories surrounding the release of the much covetted Newspaper album (a deluxe package with a newspaper cd and vinyl combo) which is still yet to be released with many convinced that extra content will be included. Whilst Radiohead may be holding things back as another marketting ploy the mainstream version of the album that the majority of people will recieve unfortunately lacks more than it delivers.

Download: "Little By Little" "Lotus Flower"