First Listen & review.
Woke up and downloaded my high quality .wav file this morning.
Very excited.
Nervous.
Waited almost 50 minutes for the download.
Anticipation builds even more......
Finally!
A little disappointed at the lack of formatting of the files, for the princely sum of £9 I thought they could have attached all the relevant info to the files. But really, it took 5 minutes. Slight gripe....
Track Listing.
1. "Bloom" 5:15
2. "Morning Mr Magpie" 4:41
3. "Little by Little" 4:27
4. "Feral" 3:13
5. "Lotus Flower" 5:01
6. "Codex" 4:47
7. "Give Up the Ghost" 4:50
8. "Separator" 5:20
Total length: 37:34
Just prior to the release Radiohead posted this on their blog - the video for 'Lotus Flower' the 1st single.
Its effing brilliant. But then again it is Radiohead - so would we expect any less?
1. Bloom - An almost eccentric start to the album. Seemingly offbeat drums beats collide, background beeps abound, piano, orchestral ambiance and with a jazzy undercurrent courtesy of that staccato drumbeat a jazz like bass line. Thom Yorke sounds ominous as he broods about “what keeps me alive”. Odd but inviting. 5/4 timing again. nuts (see music for my funeral entry) I love it.
2. Morning Mr Magpie - Almost African style drums with a UK dubstep / odd timing beat again. Guitars flash in and out, muted. Ominous bass by Greenwood. Ordered Chaos? Yorke menacing: “Good morning Mr Magpie / How are we today?” and later accusing him "you stole it all / Give it Back / You took my Melody"
3. Little By Little - fantastic guitar interplay between Radiohead’s two guitarists, underpinned by a tumbling, falling drumbeat and again a fantastic bass line. Parts of the guitar might have been reversed - Come the chorus the song feels like its being pulled back in reverse. Buddhist monk like humming. Oh. Wow. Could be my favourite.
4. Feral - Almost instrumental. More ambient dubstep / African sort of style. Intense drumming - & a killer bass line again.
5. Lotus Flower - See video above. First Single. has been around for a while, played live by Yorke solo and with Atoms for Peace. More 'traditional' kind of Radiohead if there is such a thing. The album comes down a notch in intensity. Yorkes floating vocals amid a spacious ambient grove with streamled bleeps, loops and heavy bass pulses giving it a sound circa amnesiac. Hand claps throughout. "There's an empty space inside my heart" Beautiful.
6. Codex - A Ballad perhaps. Gentle muted electronic drum, sensitive piano. Floating again, swirling echos. A vocal performance that could melt your heart. "no one gets Hurt" Post apocalyptic? Brilliant.
7. Give Up The Ghost - Was a song that Yorke played solo last year. He starts and the rest of the band slowly join. Acoustic guitar with strings and horns. slowly builds as the rest of the band join. “Don’t heart me” he sings. Everything about it is gentle, serene; starts with chirping birds - like the start of a new day.
8. Separator - Once again a more traditional track. Nice percussion with a gentle bass line. the song builds, guitars join halfway through, quiet but building, accompanied by swirling harmonics. Understated Climax - I feel numb. Happy Numb.
Telling line.
"If you think this is over the you are wrong."
Very interesting considering that the Deluxe edition will include 2 x vinyl albums. There is only 8 songs lasting 35 odd minutes. You need more than that for 4 sides of music.
The last song called Separator. hmmmm.
More to come?
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At first i though Is that all? Just eight tracks?
But that initial disappointment dissipates with each listen as the overall design becomes clearer.
The two 'sides' are apparent. Tracks 1-4 differ greatly from 5-8. Starts intense, then comes down. Starts almost Radiohead remixed by a Dubstep producer, then into that more traditional sound. The Chaos and then the order. The storm and then the calm.....
It is subtle with very sparing, sparse use of guitar. Instead keyboard loops give a airy, ambient feel. Lots of elecronica and underpinned by a fantastic rhythm section with drum and bass again often understated, but intricate and driving. Echoing vocals. It is very digital. Very different - but that's what we expect from Radiohead. They have constantly evolved and have driven the evolution of music. That continues.
A friend just said it to me best - "My ears just had sex".
And now back to the beginning and dig even deeper.
As with any Radiohead album, it’s something The King of Limbs truly deserves
Do you love your ears?
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UPDATE
Ok, i have had it 48 hours and listened to The King of Limbs album in its entirety probably 14 or 15 times now.
Tragic, i know.
I stand by my above comments.
But I will add these two points.
1) Get the wav file, not the mp3. I got both and the sound is markedly superior (as you would expect) on the wav file. is - give it some headphone time. Which leads me to
2) - Headphones. Listen to it on headphones. Get the high quality file, get good headphones (not the crappy ones that came with our iPod). Fn mind blowing.
...............and i found that .wav files don't support meta info (like artist & album name etc). Prehaps they should have chosen .flac files if they wanted to do high quality well. But hey - I suppose we wait for the CD and vinyl.
