Review Summary: Radiohead - Surprise!!!; Us - Oh, what? I wasn't expecting that....; Radiohead - We know, and we don't care...
It's half past 1AM and I'm listening to the album while all hell breaks loose on me (meaning by that, a storm)... A great scenario I may say so, Phil is making me move my toes, Thom is making me try to singalong the songs whitout even knowing the lyrics and the storm seems so outside of the room... Wait, is there Ed on the rain while Thom, Colin, Phil and Johnny are inside all comfortable? Oh, my mistake, Ed is in all the tracks giving his precise and sharp little details, texturizing, layering and humanizing this strange sound that Radiohead has given to us...
Yes, The King of Limbs is here and suddenly I feel like I'm in 2000 surfing on netscape and trying to napster some Jeff Buckley stuff... I can't help to check how people are reacting to Kid A, saying that Radiohead are done, that Thom Yorke has gone insane and self-proclamatory, Colin died and Johnny let his hair grow so long that because of that, can't play any instrument... But then the Kid became an elder and bold statement to the music universe.
And now we all worship the Kid...
The same happens again with The King of Limbs and that just might be a good sign...
Let me be clear, it's way to early to analyze (no cryptic reference to The Eraser) this album without his full physical release wich will contain the full 13 tracks...
Got your attention know?
See, the only 8 songs seems to get people to, instead of appreciating the album, get people to want an LP9 right away. That doesn't show respect to this band that made so far 3 masterpieces and 4 over the top albums. We all need to listen to this album with an open mind...
It looks that most are following the hype of, not the release itself, but the hype of the urgency we have to find flaws in the Radiohead art structure.
Bloom starts with a smile, the piano leading the way in the first seconds and then Phil kicks of with some neat drumming work while we clearly notice that Radiohead is doing their electronic thing again breaking apart the once piano leading melody into a multi-layered track with the someway "kid A line" "Open your mouth wide". Clearly provoking those who don't enjoy the sound of the new Radiohead. Then comes the strange Mr Magpie with his angry and grudge. The fast guitar resembles the sound of the band Battles, a nice one that probably is gonna be a killer live. Little by little is a pearl with the most sexy lyrics thom has ever produced and the guitar work helps a lot selling the song with immediate comparison to I Might be Wrong and Knives Out. Interesting as hell are the chorus lyrics. And that's maybe because the king of limbs is talking to us saying "I'm such a teaser and you're such a flirt", another one to help the Part 2 conspiracy.
After all that sexyness comes Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors pt2, the almighty Feral, and thom is alone again making music out of loops, distorted voices and serving as a bridge for the second half of the album wich starts with the instant classic lotus flowers. I just wish the voice didn't have that echo effect because I don't want to feel melancholic listening to it.
Remember what you felt listening How to Disappear Completely for the first time? Codex is the goosebump moment of the album, with haunting and desperate lyrics leading to a build up interrupted immediately by the piano melody again and reversing finally to the pastoral Give Up the Ghost in which Thom grabs the guitar and give up to his ghosts like The Hail to the Thief and Amnesiac flaws. He is ready to move on, he made his point, no more trying to correct those albums that most of us tend do underrate. And this album is meaningfull in that sense... It's an inner thought, a battle Thom Yorke had to fight against him, against his own search for perfection...
Did he won? Well, if you think this is over, then you're wrong... Separator tries to wake them up in a way different than the previous endings of their albums.
37 minutes later the storm keeps raging, but my room is in peace now, I clean the dust of my boxset, put all the albums in the table and I can't help to awe as I realize one thing, Radiohead is the most important band ever, period. Of course there is subjectiviness in what I'm saying but this album instead of feeling pulled apart by horses, it's the glue that connects all 8 LP's... It will grow on us for sure... Perhaps not a masterpiece but a genuine Radiohead album and for that I give it a 4.5...
