Radiohead continue to delight with the bands 8th album.

Whenever Radiohead release *anything* there is a level of fever pitch excitement that surrounds the music industry. After the interesting departures Harry Patch (In Memory Of) and These Are My Twisted Words the band hinted that they might never release a full length LP again and instead just trickle out songs occasionally. The cult-like fan base went up in arms at the idea that the brilliant In Rainbows would never have an official successor. For whatever reason the band have changed their mind and despite only being officially announced 5 days before its planned release (then actually released one day early) we have been given the follow up: The King Of Limbs.



That being said Limbs might not be the follow up some fans had wished. It’s a mere 8 tracks and a brief 37 minutes long. Some EP’s last longer than that. Unlike In Rainbows, Limbs possesses a mood and an atmosphere around its songs. Whereas In Rainbows was more a collection of brilliant Radiohead songs here the band seem more intent in focusing on the overall sound of the album. The band are back to the days of Amnesiac and Kid A by almost making the album deliberately difficult. It starts with Bloom which is obtuse and hard to decipher. It sounds more like a collection of noises and sounds with a frenetic drum beat often mismatching the electronic riff. It’s Yorke’s soaring voice that ties the song together and upon re-listening sounds like a sense of confused and trapped euphoria. Morning Mr Magpie is pure Radiohead with guitar arpeggi’s supplied by Jonny Greenwood and a barely suggestive bass by his brother Colin.

Little By Little sounds incongruous at first following the restrained Morning Mr Magpie. It has the feel of something out of an old Western film at first with it’s fast drums and guitar. The song never feels like its firing on all cylinders and sort of whimpers past despite some exquisite guitar work. Feral on the other hand is a resounding success. It’s an instrumental really which leans heavily on dubstep. As usual though rather than take themselves to the genre, they seem content bringing the genre to them with gusto. It washes over you gloriously with all its inner workings and movements laid bare before your ears.

Then you get to the double-header highlight of the album; Lotus Flower and Codex. Although I often chastise people for referring to Radiohead as a ‘depressing band’ in general (I cite the euphoric Idioteque and trip-hop Talk Show Host) I can concede that they do sad songs better than anyone around. Lotus Flower is everything that is brilliant about Radiohead, it eases itself in to your consciousness and slowly builds upon itself. A trademark of Limbs (suggestive, barely audible bass) is there as is Yorke’s falsetto, brittle voice. It all comes together brilliantly. Codex is a beaut of a song. Based around a slow-march piano and what sounds like glockenspiels being dragged up and down it’s another example what Radiohead do so well. What I find brilliant about the sadness that does surround *some* Radiohead songs is that they all manage to retain some sense of hope, even the heartbreaking Videotape which hold out hope for life after death. Codex is surrounded by a heavy, dark thing of an album but when it plays it forgets the surroundings and seeks to soar.

Separator is full of gloom too but manages to give a gentle end to proceedings. In Rainbows was full of cathartic explosions of noise (All I Need and Jigsaw Falling Into Place) but here they seem to be trying to keep the feelings pent up inside of them. It’s what Amnesiac was to Kid A.

So where does it fall in Radiohead’s prestigious canon? Well the band have all but disowned Pablo Honey but that doesn’t matter because it is their weakest album. It is perhaps on a par with Hail To The Thief. They have been eager to point out the now more balanced dynamic between the band members with regards to writing but Limbs could easily be mistaken a successor to Yorke’s debut solo album The Eraser, especially tracks like Bloom, Feral and Lotus Flower.

Because of the astonishing briefness (it’s the shortest album by 10 minutes) and the face that the forthcoming newspaper release has marked the CD has ‘TKOL1’ there has been talk that Limbs is part 1 of a 2 part release. This is also not helped by the fact that the closing track of Limbs is called Separator and features the lyrics: ‘if you think this is over/then you’re wrong.’ So far no such follow up has been released or announced and it wouldn’t surprise me if the whole thing is just a ruse.

One thing that is for certain about the album is that it isn’t going to convert any non-believers to the cult of Radiohead. They remain as difficult to master as ever. In Rainbows was as commercially friendly as they’re likely to get with rockers such as Bodysnatchers and the majestic Reckoner. But anyone who knows Radiohead though knows that their intention is never to expand their already devoted fan base, instead they seem happy making the fan base follow them to musical oblivion and beyond. The King Of Limbs sounds just like that.

8.4