Radiohead: The King of Limbs Review

Artist: Radiohead
Album: The King of Limbs
Label: XL Recordings

Does Radiohead care anymore? The band’s eighth studio album, The King of Limbs, has been said to have taken two plus years to complete. Really?! Sure, some may use adjectives like beautiful, thrilling, soft and dreamy, but the truth stands that this is not a full-figured effort from Radiohead. In The King of Limbs, Thom Yorke stands out as the brain trust behind the sovereign state that has become Radiohead.

The King of Limbs clocks in at a running around thirty seven minutes, meaning this is the band’s shortest album. Thom Yorke has made it well known that Radiohead will not embark on a long play record again. If The King of Limbs marks a turning point for the band then they may lose fans. Perhaps this is something they no longer care about, as like everything there is a climax and an eventual demise. Is Radiohead giving up on Radiohead? If yes, then why are we spending money, and time on their work (which seems to have become more about packaging than music)? Have we just patterned ourselves to believe we enjoy it, like when you play bingo or shoot heroin?

Radiohead’s 2009 In Rainbows attempted to confront the growing issue of dealing with albums within the formal business model. For this effort they are beyond deserving of praise, but why abandon this fight in releasing The King of Limbs? Radiohead released their newest work at set prices, and with various packages set at different price scales.

The presence of Jonny Greenwood, Ed O’Brien, Colin Greenwood, and Phil Selway are minimal in The King of Limbs. This album is for fans of Thom Yorke’s solo album The Eraser, not for fans of Radiohead who have fallen in love with their ability to stop the world upon release of their albums.

Limbs has one song that has found me well on a rainy day in Asheville, NC, that being “Little by Little”. This song is the third track on the album, but the first in which listeners know that this is in fact a Radiohead album. Most of the eight songs that comprise this album are muddled with electro busyness over which Thom Yorke sings garbled lyrics.

Perhaps harshness has unfurled this review, but maybe you (the reader/listener) can share in my disappointment. Maybe you to have a fond place for songs like “Electioneering”, “Idioteque”, or “Everything in Its Right Place”. As can be seen from Limbs, everything is not in its right place. Radiohead laid an egg, Watson won Jeopardy…..is this the matrix?

Rating:  

Written by Brandon Bond

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