The assumptions we have as listeners can play a significant part in our enjoyent of any given record, more so when it's an album by a band that we love and from whom we've come to expect greatness. No band more personifies this idea of assumed expectation than Radiohead. Through the course of their 20+ years as a band, in one form or another, they've consistently released challenging, though generally accessible, albums which has continually pushed the boundaries of their own sound, while also placing emphasis on the elastic nature of rock music. From the bland alt-rock theatrics of Pablo Honey to the fractured, syncopated rhythms of Kid A and Amnesiac, the disparate narrative discography of Radiohead has been just as discussed as the music itself. And fans have been divisively arguing about these albums for as long as they've been listening. They've been grateful for the releases obviously, but they've come to expect that Radiohead will repeatedly push their music in new and surprising ways, that any meandering or retread would be viewed as lazy or as a band stagnating. And so their last few albums, though full of the creative twists and turns we've come to expect, have been pointed to by disappointed critics and fans alike as a band running out of gas and gradually repeating themselves. The fact that neither of these statements are true only goes to show the high expectations that listeners have come to associate with each new Radiohead release.
The King Of Limbs takes less of an abrupt turn from their recent releases than it does a circular reimagining of those techinques. And despite the shorter, though not unequivocally short, running time of this album, Radiohead allow each song to bend and expand naturally, never pushing it further than its own abilities can handle. Opener "Bloom" borrows liberally from the chopped up beats of Amnesiac and proceeds to run the song through its paces, bringing out the jazzier aspects of Selway's drumming. Lead single "Lotus Flower" dials back the noise and fractured drums to allow what is ostensibly a pop song in disguise to rise to the surface, it's rhythmic lead balanced with strongly wavering vocals from Yorke. It doesn't hurt that it's the most coventionally built song on The King Of Limbs. Other tracks like "Codex" and "Give Up The Ghost" still have the musical fingerprints on their previous albums present but the execution sparkles and gains momentum as they find the cold heart of these songs and allow it to burst forth and envelope the listener. The somber piano that leads Yorke along on "Codex" hits you on an emotional level rarely heard, except maybe on past Radiohead releases, so possibly that is something we've to come expect from them as well. Radiohead are nothing if not passionate about their music and our involvement in it as listeners. Even on an album so delicately sterile sounding on first listen, there are cracks in the bleak facade where they allow even the barest trace of light to filter in. Even when they dial back the theatrics a bit and let the inherent musical creativity of these tracks shine, they never attain anything short of the grand musical intent of their previous releases. And even if these songs don't have that need to be accepted, the need to be canonized, they exist and in a time when a great majority of music is best described as the product of some merchandising schematic, I'll be quite content to let Radiohead have the freedom to do whatever they want.
Tracklisting:
01. Bloom
02. Morning Mr Magpie
03. Little by Little
04. Feral
05. Lotus Flower (listen to the mp3 below)
06. Codex
07. Give Up the Ghost
08. Separator
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