REVIEWED: The King of Limbs by Radiohead (Initial Review)
It's kind of funny now how eighteen years ago, Thom Yorke once emphatically cried towards all listeners of Radiohead, telling how they wanted to "Stop whispering/Start shoutiiiing" in the appropriately titled song "Stop Whispering" from their debut album Pablo Honey. Funny because eighteen years ago, with guitars teetering on the edge of a break-out, impatiently shoving the exit door hoping to explode in a flurry of glorious distorted guitar before it all come crashing down in a wave of noise, now though it seemed like the band is more insistent on stopping shouting entirely and to start whispering. Either that or Thom Yorke has grown tired of shouting all these years - but either way, it is pretty clear that Thom has finally found something in his songwriting ability that need not to be shout about to be heard. He,ladies and gentleman, has found sophistication.
We would like to insist very much that this review that we did here is just an initial review after a mere one week of listening because as how we have been proved wrong before with our initial impression of their previous album, In Rainbows, we are determined not to make the same mistake again. Because Radiohead has of late become accustomed with giving birth to albums that is enveloped in something called sophistication, and it is exactly this that makes their materials grow on you. They are on its' own pretty persuasive, so much so that if you find it not designed to your liking, leave it alone for a while, then pick it up again and listen to it, and then everything will start to make absolute sense.
With The King of Limbs here, Radiohead has once again given birth to a very sophisticated album, and as expected, the one that might not appeal the most to you on the first few listens. And it's all very simple because every nuance in the album, every movement, every change of mood and manner are very subtle - so much so that if you lose attention for a moment, you're just simply going to miss it. Even worse when that movement is laid out to be a progression of regression - the album is kicked to life to a flurry of off-beat piano keys, electronic glitches and a snare drum nervously rattling in the background before Thom greeted listeners with "Open your mouth wide..." in "Bloom". It's a full-bodied electronic number comparable to any of The Eraser's materials, complete with what sounds like a horn section howling midway through the song. Then as the album moves forward to the next track, little by little the orchestration of the opener was stripped off of its' structure until you're left with a very sparse, minimalist body of a beat of "Separator".
So is this album a step up from their 2007 release? For now it is hard for us to say so because there are still moments scattered throughout the album where we felt that the recording of this album was a result recollection of discarded materials that did not make the cut for In Rainbows that has been refurbished. "Morning Mr Magpie" for example, to us, felt like a half-hearted, half-arsed effort of varying the trick they did with "Bodysnatchers"; and "Feral" kind of reminded us of Amnesiac - totally spaced out, totally weird, almost totally lacking melody. But in that minor set back, there are also moments of genuine brilliance in this album, saved by the surprisingly suave "Lotus Flower" and the haunting "Codex". For now, we're tempted to give this album a four out of five stars rating. Future listens might improve that.
It's kind of funny now how eighteen years ago, Thom Yorke once emphatically cried towards all listeners of Radiohead, telling how they wanted to "Stop whispering/Start shoutiiiing" in the appropriately titled song "Stop Whispering" from their debut album Pablo Honey. Funny because eighteen years ago, with guitars teetering on the edge of a break-out, impatiently shoving the exit door hoping to explode in a flurry of glorious distorted guitar before it all come crashing down in a wave of noise, now though it seemed like the band is more insistent on stopping shouting entirely and to start whispering. Either that or Thom Yorke has grown tired of shouting all these years - but either way, it is pretty clear that Thom has finally found something in his songwriting ability that need not to be shout about to be heard. He,ladies and gentleman, has found sophistication.
We would like to insist very much that this review that we did here is just an initial review after a mere one week of listening because as how we have been proved wrong before with our initial impression of their previous album, In Rainbows, we are determined not to make the same mistake again. Because Radiohead has of late become accustomed with giving birth to albums that is enveloped in something called sophistication, and it is exactly this that makes their materials grow on you. They are on its' own pretty persuasive, so much so that if you find it not designed to your liking, leave it alone for a while, then pick it up again and listen to it, and then everything will start to make absolute sense.
With The King of Limbs here, Radiohead has once again given birth to a very sophisticated album, and as expected, the one that might not appeal the most to you on the first few listens. And it's all very simple because every nuance in the album, every movement, every change of mood and manner are very subtle - so much so that if you lose attention for a moment, you're just simply going to miss it. Even worse when that movement is laid out to be a progression of regression - the album is kicked to life to a flurry of off-beat piano keys, electronic glitches and a snare drum nervously rattling in the background before Thom greeted listeners with "Open your mouth wide..." in "Bloom". It's a full-bodied electronic number comparable to any of The Eraser's materials, complete with what sounds like a horn section howling midway through the song. Then as the album moves forward to the next track, little by little the orchestration of the opener was stripped off of its' structure until you're left with a very sparse, minimalist body of a beat of "Separator".
So is this album a step up from their 2007 release? For now it is hard for us to say so because there are still moments scattered throughout the album where we felt that the recording of this album was a result recollection of discarded materials that did not make the cut for In Rainbows that has been refurbished. "Morning Mr Magpie" for example, to us, felt like a half-hearted, half-arsed effort of varying the trick they did with "Bodysnatchers"; and "Feral" kind of reminded us of Amnesiac - totally spaced out, totally weird, almost totally lacking melody. But in that minor set back, there are also moments of genuine brilliance in this album, saved by the surprisingly suave "Lotus Flower" and the haunting "Codex". For now, we're tempted to give this album a four out of five stars rating. Future listens might improve that.
Labels: radiohead
posted by Hafeez at 5:46 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home