Radiohead
The King Of Limbs

Four years of waiting, but here they are, Radiohead, out of isolation and with a new work.

"The King Of Limbs" doesn't deviate much from the previous work, from which it seems to draw the best sounds, trying to develop them further; personally, I believe that 8 songs are a bit few for the great anticipation that there was, but let's listen to them and delve into them one by one…

The album opens with "Bloom" an arpeggio of piano introduces us into a dreamlike vision, but it immediately gives way to a dashing rhythm that seems sustained by improvised percussion with boxes: truly unconventional, but in full Radiohead style! Yorke's voice is as always fantastic and drags us into his attempt to detach from pain and from “whys”, in search of a “universal sigh”. The final image of this individual swimming among jellyfish is emblematic, and the soundscapes created by Colin Greenwood are, as usual, perfectly in tune with the message of the song. But throughout the track, as in the whole album, it is the bass that provides a solid structure; perhaps the most dominant and leading element of the entire record.

The aforementioned atmosphere is interrupted by "Morning Mr. Magpie", the second track: a drum very much in line with Weird Fishes/Arpeggi accompanies a palm-muted guitar, opposed to an arpeggiated one but that does not take too much center stage, simply accompanying Thom's singing; this time he seems to have fallen back to earth, disillusioned and angry, wanting back the magic that seemed within reach just before… “And now you stole it, all the magic…took my melody”.

And here we are at "Little by Little", luckily not a tribute to Oasis… but perhaps to Beck! At least this was the first association I made while listening to the rhythm of the piece, with the first guitar limiting itself to “accenting” the chords, while the second seems to continue in the style of the previous track, playing each note without ever straying from those of the vocalist.

The album starts to pick up in rhythm, becoming increasingly sustained, insistent, in step with Thom's moods, who in this track openly glimpses into his dark side, talking about a vaguely defined betrayed love…but we know that his lyrics are open to a thousand interpretations, so I'll let you freely understand your own as you listen…

"Feral" is the first real interesting experiment of the album: in fact, it is an instrumental, although the main instrument of the track is… the voice! Samplings of heavily “reverberated” vocalizations and recalled by Thom's “real” voice counterbalance a tribal and almost frantic rhythm.

And we're at the fifth track, which is also the first single released, "Lotus Flower", a very captivating track, surely the best choice as the first single… and furthermore, the sense of dragging is perfectly expressed by the video clip, where Thom Yorke lets himself go in a mystical and hypnotic dance. And the images “projected” by his voice in the mind of the listener are mystical: dances with a stick around a pit, the need to blossom and “open up like lotus flowers” and an inspired invitation to listen to your own heart.

“All I want is the moon upon a stick

Dance around a pit

The darkness is beneath

I can't kick the habit

Just to feed my fast ballooning head

Listen to your heart”

"Codex" on the other hand leaves me a bit perplexed…in itself it is a beautiful song: a highly inspired Thom Yorke and a “slow and solemn” piano that accentuates his words inviting to dive into a lake, “fantasizing” and freeing one’s mind…well, perhaps “too” beautiful, this song, because “too” similar to Pyramid Song (Amnesiac, 2001)! There are really many similarities between the two tracks, perhaps too many…and so I can't go beyond two listens…

…And with "Give Up The Ghost" we return to music stripped of all the artifices and experiments that have made this group great. The singer's voice triples, with the main one accompanied by two slightly distorted ones that serve as “echo”, with an acoustic guitar and probably a simple beat on the soundboard keeping time. As suggested by the lyrics, the theme is a bit of resignation…in the verses there is a plea not to be hurt while collecting what remains of the most miserable and poor things; meanwhile, halfway through the song, the other guitar enters, in line once again with the style of the other tracks, contributing to the “opening” towards the end of the piece.

"Separator" is the eighth and final song. Once again the bass dictates the pace, with a very essential but precise beat (almost sampled); the guitar is like a wave that transports us towards the end: the journey more or less hinted at before (my free interpretation) seems to conclude.

“it's like I'm falling from bed, after a long and weary dream…Finally, I'm free from all the weight I was carrying”.

Thus this album concludes, hoping that the title “Separator” given to the last track expresses the need to start a new cycle, made of new sounds and stylistic searches, putting aside what we can identify in these last two albums.

Personally "The King Of Limbs" doesn't displease me, but it is certainly not the album I would listen to dozens and dozens of times without getting tired of it (as has been the case for "In Rainbows" or other memorable ones); perhaps because after 4 years there hasn't been much progress beyond the discoveries made and they have limited themselves to translating those new inspirations with those sounds.

PS: I hope you enjoyed the review; I hadn't written one in a very long time…I rediscovered this account and this site with true pleasure, after abandoning and forgetting it for almost 4 years! I hope to frequent it more often and maybe contribute more with other reviews…

“Like I'm falling out of bed from a long and weary dream

Finally I'm free of all the weight I've been carrying

When I ask you again

Wake me up”