Radiohead King Of Limbs

 This release took most people including myself by complete surprise.

This in itself I suppose should come as no surprise at all, being that Radiohead are well, full of surprises.

Quite unprovoked, ‘The King Of Limbs’ announced itself quietly and without a fuss, slipping out onto the web like one of the spectral figures that adorn the album’s ghostly cover.

Every Radiohead release since The Bends has been the subject of huge amounts of hype, and whether revered or condemned, have one way or another made their huge untouchable mark on music.

‘The King Of Limbs’ might just be the exception.

It’s predecessor ‘In Rainbows’ was certainly a more relaxed affair than anything previous.

The album seemed to subconsciously draw a line under the band, as an accumulation and release of over a decade of striving.

It had the air of the band content at finding a balance musically, texturally, personally and collaboratively.

So what next?

The King of Limbs has the air of a band who have been freed from whatever shackles they had previously placed on themselves.

It projects a freedom that they can do exactly as they please and the result is what I will jestfully dub ‘Radiohead’s funkiest release yet’.

This might sound ridiculous, but there is an almost unrehearsed looseness, particularly in the first half of this record which I have not heard in a Radiohead album before.

In opener ‘Bloom’, Thom Yorke’s ever-improving voice rises majestically out of the some Selway-style electrified breakbeats, looping piano, electronic crackles and loose, wandering bassline.

It is a hectic combination which threatens to spiral out of control at any moment, before being reigned back in by Yorke’s smooth crooning tones.

When it eventually does break away, a grandiose and full sound surrounds the senses, a flugelhorn rises out of the swirling debris to beautiful effect.

It has a certain irresistible groove. So much so that midway through your second listen your head it may even invoke some dancefloor shoulder lunges. I kid you not.

‘Morning Mr Magpie’ follows in a similar vein, with a jagged guitar and rolling bassline leading the way, while tinny drums (breakbeat again) liven up the gloomy vocal Yorke effortlessly projects.

These two tracks, and in particular ‘Feral’ show perhaps the influence of the twin peaks of dubstep’s sound, being as they are downbeat, yet strangely uplifting.

In the hands of Skream or Burial, I could imagine the remixes becoming gloomy dubstep epics.

From here on the album gradually begins to change into an altogether more melodic beast. ‘Lotus Flower’ begins in a similar vein to the previous tracks, but a clearer, more structured song emerges, with a distinct, almost hummable melody backed up by a tight and consistent rhythm section.

The melody is another slice of Yorke-gold, and is most reminiscent of In Rainbows in the way it broods moodily before breaking out into a brief, fleeting moment of melodic majesty.

‘Codex’ also would not have looked out of place on In Rainbows, and is in a similar vein to Videotape’s quiet and haunting beauty.

It also provides another cameo of Thom Yorke’s stunning vocal talent and will be one to savour at live shows.

Gentle strings and the return of the flugelhorn enhance an entrancing piece of music which ends with birdsong and transports us somewhere very different from three or four tracks earlier.

We are suddenly in a field, perhaps by a stream under a tree, listening to the gentle acoustic driven ‘Give Up The Ghost’.

A definite highlight, it has the feel of a Fleet Foxes number. It shows a delicacy and simplicity again more akin to In Rainbows, yet somehow it feel a million miles from it.

Separator rounds of the mellower half of the album, building slowly from a simple beat and bassline, to the addition of gorgeous soaring guitar riffs, with Yorke’s vocal of ‘wake me up, wake me up’ drifting through the drowsy melee. If it is a dream, it’s one I’d be happy to not wake up from. 

There is nothing particularly new or revolutionary going on here, and I fear that this may disappoint some who always expect something new or different from a band who have come so far and developed so much.

Yet this is just a band who have reached a point where they are free to express themselves as they wish. A band with nothing to prove.

And with that in mind, without expecting too much from them, I think ‘The King Of Limbs’ is a great success.

There are subtleties and nuances that I have never heard from this band before, so while it will never go down as one of their greatest albums, it still warms my heart to hear a great band still evolving, and perhaps enjoying themselves more than ever in the process.