Review Summary: King of Limbs is another sharp left turn from the band who you thought had none left. A fearless record that dares to deconstruct dance music in an EDM age, Radiohead lose themselves in the lush instrumentation and low-key grooves they lay down across thi
King of Limbs is an album that polarized way too many Radiohead fans upon release- The irony in the fact that people who might have grown up on Kid A were now criticizing Radiohead for changing their sound is not lost on this reviewer. The band is infamous for not catering to their fans, mainly because they know that the fans always will come around in five years and realize what they missed out on. Radiohead is about expanding horizons and pushing boundaries- when In Rainbows came out in 2007, it seemed like Radiohead may have finally settled into 'their' sound, but they decided to continue their innovative spirit by releasing the album as a "Pay-What-You-Can" release. Whether the band was aware of it or not, the success of this model would later lead to the explosion of services like Bandcamp and Spotify, and was essentially a bold proclamation of independence from the collective musician to the industry. With King of Limbs, Radiohead decided to drop the album with five-days notice, and release it first on their own website. King of Limbs is a bold manifestation of that independent spirit, but instead of expressing it with the distortion and guitars found in The Bends or In Rainbows track "Bodysnatchers", they instead foray into the realm of dance music.
The album wastes no time kicking off with highlight track "Bloom". The percussion of this album surrounds the listener, and everything that isn't percussion is at least percussive. Synths swirl around in the background, seemingly in different time signatures, and the bassline is powerful and instantly catchy. The real magic of this track is how it all manages to hold together, with instruments all over the place, singing and horns bursting in when they feel like they have to, and field recordings of birds chirping, it somehow all flows perfectly together and makes a fantastic groove. The imagery is dream-like- "The jellyfish float by", sings Thom Yorke, in one of his more present moments on the album. The use of vocals on this album is really a new frontier for Radiohead, for the first time treating the voice as another instrument in the mix, which allowed Thom haunting timbre to mesh organically with the songs. This style was no doubt picked up from Thom's collaborations with instrumental electronic artists like Modeselektor and Flying Lotus.
Unlike the calming "Bloom", the following song "Morning Mr. Magpie" is radiating with a nervous energy which carries on into "Feral". The early climax of the album, "Feral" is possibly the most danceable song Radiohead have ever made, while also being their most unique. A combination of earth-shattering drums bursting out from every angle, and a wide array of noises that sound like they're coming from instruments not yet created. This song takes the "vocals as instrument" technique to another level, splicing up Thom's voice to create vocal lines that sound incredibly close to being words, but are in reality, highly expressive gibberish. The drumming on this song is also next-level, and despite much manipulation, it's obvious that a huge amount of technical skill is required to be able to play the rhythms on the track. (For the tour, Radiohead hired Portishead drummer Clive Deamer as a second percussionist to properly convert the drums to a live setting.)
Having reached it's climax of nervous energy, the album almost parabolically begins it's cathartic decline back into tranquil territory. Twin ballads "Codex" and "Give Up the Ghost" emphasize the piano and guitar respectively, and are extremely minimalistic compared to the front end of the album. However despite being mostly vocals with a lone instrument to support them, subtle digital manipulation and echo in the background compliment the tracks beautifully. Once again, the field recording of what sounds like a forest, bring an organic and natural feel to these songs. In "Give Up The Ghost", Thom can be heard repeating "Don't hurt me, don't haunt me" in the background, with so much reverb on his voice, it's hard to make a distinction between the two phrases. His voice, however subtly, is once again utilized as part of the beat, with hypnotic repetition.
Album closer "Separator" is possibly one of the serene songs even written by the band. A quiet, yet complex drum beat patters away in the background, while Thom croons over top of it. "If you think this over, then you're wrong", he sings, which actually is a bit inaccurate seeing as it's the last song of the LP. Towards the end of the song, it opens up perfectly with a light guitar line, which slowly picks up more and more reverb as it progresses. The song feels like a dream, and the lyrical subject matter matches that, with lyrics about "falling out of bed from a long and weary dream" and "falling off a giant bird that's been carrying me".
King of Limbs feels like a journey from the nightclub to the bedside, able to be separated into two distinct parts. The "awake" portion spans the first 5 tracks, and follows the protagonist through a night at a rave in the middle of a forest. The "asleep" portion follows, until the end of the album, and is an exploration of dreams and the subconscious after the party ends and the revelers are asleep. The album ends with Thom begging, "wake me up", to begin the story arc of the album again, and this phenomenal album has me constantly feeling the same way.
