Radiohead, 'The King of Limbs' - Album Review

Now that the world has had a week or so to live with it, a wealth of opinions have risen up surrounding Radiohead's latest, surprise release The King of Limbs. There's been as much speculation about the way it's been released - very little notice, no preview copies, no promotional singles, brought forward a day at the last minute - as about the album itself and the music within. The band haven't repeated the release strategy for their previous release, 2007's In Rainbows, which was released via download on a "pay-what-you-like" system. The average price ended up being about £4. However, the same innovative attitude was behind the album's release and served to make its arrival something that was genuinely exciting; people scrambling around on Friday to download the album, hear single "Lotus Flower" or watch its hilarious video.

The release strategy has been brilliant, and proven that Radiohead are a band who care as much about the way music is released as they do about the music itself. But how has the music itself panned out this time round? Divisively for sure. Differently to previous releases in many ways. But, I think, wonderfully - as we would expect.

The thing that becomes immediately clear when you listen to The King of Limbs is that it's a dramatic departure from In Rainbows. In Rainbows was so easy to listen to and love, returning to conventional song structures and instrumentation for the first time in a few albums. The King of Limbs is an experimental album through and through. We're back in a lot of the same experimental territory as Kid A, through there aren't lush, electronic based compositions like "Treefingers" all over the place. We end up with a synthesis of the band's electronic experimentation and their instrumental prowess, resulting in an album that sounds strangely organic, despite the fact that acoustic guitar only surfaces once and Thom Yorke's vocals are often heavily distorted.

Phil Selway has returned to drum duties with fervour after picking up the guitar for his solo project last year. His percussion is the dominant force throughout the album's first half. It shifts and skitters, scratches and ticks, creating a wonderfully textured and natural feel, like a forest floor. Standouts for this are "Little By Little" - which boasts the album's most infectious melodies also - and "Morning Mr Magpie", which also shows some stunning bass work from Colin Greenwood, reminding us that Radiohead boast one of the most genuinely innovative rhythm sections for decades. "Feral" however, despite showing a set of musicians clearly at the top of their game, probably sees the band disappear up their own arse a bit too much; the frantic and choppy rhythms mixing with random snatches of distorted vocals to create a fairly redundant piece of experimentation. Much as we love Radiohead, free jazz is not their thing. Ever.

The album's second half opens up wonderfully, coincidentally (though probably not coincidentally) starting with single "Lotus Flower", boasting the barely-a-chorus chorus of 'Slowly we unfurl, like lotus flowers'. There's a definite groove on this track, drums and bass gelling together underneath a classic Thom Yorke vocal. This is perhaps, as many people have been saying across the internet this week, the closest thing to a "Radiohead classic" going on on this album. It's followed by "Codex" which is arguably the album's strongest track. It proves that Thom Yorke is the master of wonky, muted piano ballads with creepy, unresolved chord progressions (think "Videotape" and "Pyramid Song") It's wonderfully downbeat and far removed from the clattering cacophony of the album's opening tracks, and highly likely to become a fan favourite.

It fades out with birdsong, before the gorgeous melody of "Give Up The Ghost" drifts in like a dreary, hazy traveller from the rain. An acoustic guitar appears, hugely unexpected, and we drift into a beautiful song which could very, very easily have been a Harvest era Neil Young track. This track proves that, as amazing as Radiohead's sonic experimentation and envelope pushing is, they are still at their best when they whip out the guitars, a fact which becomes further exemplified in the latter half of album closer "Separator". Both of these songs are beautifully arranged, but yoou can't help fight a little niggling feeling that you want more guitar, more classic Thom vocals, however bad that desire might be.

Lyrically, this album fully cements Radiohead as a band with overarching themes in their music. Since OK Computer, their music has always focussed on, in one way or another, living in tension and discomfort with modernity. They've sung about technology, consumerism, alienation and The King of Limbs seems to be focussing on nature. Or rather, it uses nature as a contrast to modernity (backed up as well by the "organic" feel to the album). Thom uses water a lot to represent life, safety and natural things. The album's first lyric on "Bloom" goes 'Open your mouth wide, universal sighs, and while the ocean blooms, it's what keeps me alive'. In "Codex" he sings about jumping 'into a clear lake', where 'the water's clear an innocent'. On "Lotus Flower" he sings 'Slowly we unfurl, as lotus flowers, and all I want is the moon upon a stick' and we get a picture of the beautiful potential we all have as human beings, which ends up being overshadowed by all of our cheap, shallow desires, robbing the natural world of its wonder. This definitely isn't some Greenpeace inspired, eco warrior sermon however, and you get the impression that the nature references are more of a metaphor than something explicit.

The King of Limbs has already proven itself divisive amongst Radiohead fans. Some may feel short changed and distanced from the band they fell in love with in the 90s. I think it's more fitting however to recognise this as a perfectly logical progression in Radiohead's sound - like I said, something of a synthesis of various elements running through their music. It's not the new OK Computer, and it's not got another "Paranoid Android" or "No Surprises", but it was never going to be. For a band as powerful, influential and downright awesome as Radiohead, I'm happy for them to have released an album that's not a masterpiece for once, one that's more of a progression. It's experimentation, but it rarely feels like experimentation for experimentation's sake, though it does occassionaly stray into that. We are all craving another OK Computer if we're honest, but Radiohead are definitely not one of those bands who write the songs people want to hear. Theories are rife now that new material is imminent, and that this album may be the first part of a larger album, or some sort of stop gap. Despite it being an eerily wonderful listen, you definitely leave with a feeling that there's more to come, as if the album is a moon orbiting a greater planet. Who knows.

There are a million and one questions and discussions to be had about Radiohead, their future and their impact and role in the music industry. Mostly good ones too. But for now, let's just enjoy The King of Limbs for its music; music that adds even more shades and tones to Radiohead's glorious career, and proves that they are still the most creative and innovative rock band on the planet.

7.5/10