Radiohead's dense and knotted eighth album may sound a little predictable at first but it merits close and long listening
In the end, it arrived early. Announced on Valentine's Day ? and, perhaps not uncoincidentally, the eve of the Brits ? the eighth Radiohead album was eventually sprung on the world a day before anyone was expecting it. That was an act of mischievous digital benevolence so typical of Radiohead, a band rewriting the rules of pop engagement on the fly.
Judging from their most recent black-and-white portrait, in which the band slope awkwardly at the bottom of an ancient tree, The King Of Limbs could, by rights, have been their acid folk album ? one informed by the writing of Roger Deakin, perhaps. Indeed, seven tracks in, Give Up the Ghost ? a mellow and mantric song strung on acoustic guitars and announced by birdsong ? gives a hint of what might have been.
By contrast, anyone following Thom Yorke's recent Office Chart blog posts might have been expecting a record in thrall to dubstep, or even more obscure electronic micro-genres. Fulfilling that brief is Feral, a sinuous bass shakedown at the heart of this typically contrary, intermittently stunning, album.
Yorke's deep affinity with musical outriders such as LA's Flying Lotus ? upon whose album Cosmogramma he guested last year ? is manifest. Bloom, the album's opening track, is underscored by wild jazz polyrhythms. Well, this is a 21st-century Radiohead album; it was never going to be easy listening.
In truth, The King of Limbs sounds a little predictable, certainly at first. It is very much the heir to 2007's In Rainbows, imbued with some of the spirit of Yorke's solo outing, 2006's The Eraser. Which is to say, it sounds another death knell for fans of The Bends and OK Computer still hoping for a late recantation and a return to anthemic guitar rock.
Guitars are very thin on the ground in Radiohead's dark wood. The most traditional sounds here occur on the splendid Codex, in which a stately, distant piano bongs mournfully. Restless rhythms abound. But they never quite resolve into dance beats ? despite Yorke's brave moves in the video that accompanies Lotus Flower. It should have stopped traffic in Tokyo last Friday at rush hour, but because of crowd concerns, the screening on Hachiko Square's giant video screens was pulled.
Radiohead's works reward close and long listening; this dense and knotted eight-track album is no exception. But one of its most instant delights was the sense of giddy communion last Friday, as fans and observers awaited, then savoured, the record in real time.
Aaliyah Katherine Heigl Lorri Bagley Leslie Bega Maria Sharapova
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