Saturday 19 February 2011
Little by little
Eight songs.
37 minutes, 29 seconds.
Released a day early.
Here’s a track by track take of my first listen to The King of Limbs.
“Bloom”: ‘Schizophrenic jazz’ is the first thing that comes to mind; decidedly anti-song, and not in a good “Kid A” way; at the half-way point in the song I am not impressed, and actually thinking it’s the worst opening track to a Radiohead album, ever; disappointing when it’s all over.
“Morning Mr. Magpie”: Things are looking up; still schizophrenic-sounding, but with more snarl and bite than the previous track; Selway and O’Brien’s rhythm section (that is if they’re actually playing their traditional instruments here) is a s tight as ever; “Bloom” sounded forced in comparison to “Morning Mr. Magpie”; ‘illictly funky’.
“Little By Little”: ‘Slight’; after three songs, The King of Limbs is starting to feel like a record of ideas that are somewhat incomplete, which could very well be what Radiohead is after here; I’m getting bored;
“Feral”: Shortest song of the lot, and the wildest-sounding so far; vocals remind me of “In Limbo”; also sounds like “Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box”; not bad, but is that because it’s got touchstones of previous songs?
“Lotus Flower”: I know that this isn’t exactly new, seeing as they played it at the Haitian Benefit concert, but I I found that recording so crappy that I could hardly ever listen to the whole thing; this is good shit, again, ‘illicitly funky’; realizing that, like most Radiohead albums, there is a strong consistency and continuity to the album; this is my favourite of the five songs I’ve heard so far.
“Codex”: Piano ballad? I love the way the piano has been treated here, shimmery, fuzzy, and very distant-sounding; Gorgeous; Thom Yorke’s take on the piano man (a la Billy Joel, Ben Folds, etc.) is simple, haunting, and elegant; love the strings at about 3:35; New favourite song on the record.
“Give Up the Ghost”: Another slower, ballad-like number, this time on guitar; repetitive, which isn’t bad, kind of hypnotic (I actually got lost in the song for a few seconds); second half of the record favour more traditional song structures, and starts to make sense of the more abstract aspects of the earlier tracks; Radiohead haven’t really paced albums like this before; “Give Up The Ghost” is not a stand-out, but certainly not the album’s weakest link.
“Separator”: Last song, let’s see if they make this one count; spirited drum track, sounds good so far; Yorke’s vocal’s are smooth and silky, probably one of the clearest vocal performances he gives here; again, nothing to write home about or get overly excited; so that’s it then?
These guys do make you set expectations pretty high, don’t they? It’s certainly not the album I was hoping for, but there isn’t anything inherently wrong with it either. Even though some of the early tracks do take odd sonic detours and indulge in electronic tinkering, overall, it’s your typical Radiohead record, with the exception that, typically, Radiohead have been creating album’s that feel more experimental, edgier, and quite frankly, more important. I’m not sure if repeated listens are going to change anything, but I’ll be willing to give it a chance through the weekend.
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