It dawned on me the other day that in almost every aspect of my life I’m probably in the early majority / late majority hump on the adoption curve, except music.
With music, I need it NOW! A new album gets released and I have to have it inside my skull as quickly as possible. That’s how it was with the new Radiohead album, King Of Limbs. They released it for internet download on Friday and by 2pm I’d already heard the album twice.
What’s my overall opinion thus far? I’m not sure it can hold a flame to In Rainbows. As with all their material, maybe it will grow on me, but my initial impression is that they’ve backslid into Amnesiac territory on this one and musically, guitars have taken a backseat to pianos, electronic blips and beeps and shuffling drum machine beats.
The first single, “LotusFlower†is a great track though and Thom Yorke’s spazzing out is something you gotta see to believe.
Sadly though, the main topic of conversation doing the rounds on the interwebs right now seems to be, “Is Radiohead the most overrated band of all time?â€
I didn’t think so before King Of Limbs, but this paltry 8 track effort has disappointed me on the first few listens and shown an uncharacteristic lack of inspiration from this band, who have always rated highly in my top 10 bands of all time.
What do you guys think? Anyone out there heard the new album yet?
-ST
I’m with you on this one, I think this album may yet grow some legs and inspire me, but after “In Rainbows” it feels whimsical. I appreciate the subtleties on the tech symphony, but for me Radiohead have always soared highest when their strings are in the driving seat.
Definitely dude. The guitar riffs the guys write always blow my mind – “Jigsaw falling into place”, “Subterranean Homesick Alien”, “Electioneering”, those tracks were fucking powerful! Even the more electronic gems like “Idioteque” and “2+2=5” kicked more ass than most of the tracks on King Of Limbs.
But let’s see. Like I said, I haven’t made my mind up yet…
-ST
something to think about:
http://thekingoflimbspart2.blogspot.com/
http://tinyurl.com/48gktym
Aha! Guys, hit the link above that PJ has kindly posted, it talks about different conspiracy theories that the 8 tracks released for King Of Limbs are only the first offering on this project, and there could be as many as three more albums in the pipeline.
Ok, some of it is definitely Radiohead conspiracy-theorist fluff, but there could be some truth in there…
After they released In Rainbows they followed it up with a second album consisting of another 8 tracks that were brilliant, could this be a similar scenario?
Only time. Will tell.
-ST
Well, it is Radiohead guys, so give it time and there’s bound to be three or four tracks on there that you’ll be killing for months to come. They do slow-burners, so let’s just be patient with the music and LISTEN TO IT.
A friend asked me if I would have bought it if it wasn’t a Radiohead album now that I had heard it and I couldn’t with all honesty say that I would. I kept on wondering what the album would have sounded like if Radiohead used a different producer (but there was no change of that happening).
With that being said, it started growing on me once I stopped expecting In Rainbows II.
Yeah, problem is they set the bar so goddamn high with In Rainbows, it’s a tough act to follow. Having said that, as much as I wanted to shelve expectations on this one, I just couldn’t.
It’s Radiohead y’know? It’s the band who wrote much of the soundtrack to my adolescent introspection, innebriation and girl-inspired infatuation.
All those years I spent waiting with a gun and a pack of sandwiches and nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing 😉
-ST
Its Radiohead, the biggest mistake you can make is to write off one of their albums. Yet they are human after all and they might have take a wrong step. Either way I am going to hold my opinion till at least two years from now when I have truly absorbed all the weird noises and my subconscious has had a chance to snack on King of limbs.
I do like Separator, it sounds like it should be on the Fight Club soundtrack.
Love your work, tiger. Keep it up, your old pal.