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Monday, February 21, 2011

Radiohead - The King of Limbs




Radiohead released their latest album, The King of Limbs, last Friday. Many people got excited, myself included. Personally, I feel Radiohead are one of the best bands of the last twenty years, and they have reached that point in their careers where they should be allowed to experiment from time to time. Sometimes, experimentation results in something spectacular. Other times, it results in a confusing mess. The King of Limbs falls in with the latter.

The album finds the band playing around with layer upon layer of electronic gadgetry, usually to the point of overkill, as is the case with "Little by Little". "Morning Mister Magpie" shows promise, until the song is drowned out by reverb and distortion near the end. "Feral" is downright obnoxious. But, as is the case with every Radiohead album, there is that wow moment. In this case, that moment comes in the form of "Codex", a gorgeous piece featuring Thom Yorke, a piano, horns, and minimal effects.

Amnesiac Redux would have been a great name for this album, because I haven't had this sort of a love/hate thing with Radiohead since that release. I'm sure all eight songs on this album are wonderful. I just can't hear some of them amongst all of the noise.

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