THE KING OF LIMBS

I'm a huge Radiohead fan, I always have been, always will be. But I couldn't help hesitating when I heard a new album was going to come out very soon, without any sort of anticipation for the fans. And I was a little let down, even though I must admit that I really enjoyed this album, a lot more than I expected.

Things have changed musically. With "The King Of Limbs" Radiohead go a step forward for experimenting with loops, electronics, beats, something they started doing back in the year 2000 when "Kid A" came out, but it has been an evolution of electronics ever since, the albums were more and more towards that sound; as a result, "The King Of Limbs" is most definitely the most electronic one so far. Thom Yorke's voice has never sounded so naked and fragile, probably due to the context he is in. The other instruments are put very much in the background, leaving the main sounds to the electronics. They are some songs where we can hear some guitar or piano, especially in the second part of the album, which is much less dependant on the electronics. But in the first part, they are the absolute protagonists. As usual, Yorke's lyrics are pretty abstract, enigmatic, and sometimes they don't sound like they should have a particular meaning. The album is well produced and recorded and it has a total of eight tracks put down in 37 minutes, which is relatively short for a Radiohead album; "Bloom", probably my favorite track, thanks to its unusual drum looping and dreamy electronics, "Morning Mr.Magpie" is a more cheerful song, but it has its creepy arrangements too. "Lotus Flower" is the only single released from this album, but I can't say I'm absolutely in love with it. "Codex" a beautiful piano ballad that sort of reminds of "Pyramid Song" from the album "Amnesiac". Then again we have "Give Up The Ghost", a charming and haunting acoustic song, and the more tense and robotic closer "Separator", another great chapter. I have to say though that they were moments, like the three minute "Feral", or even "Little By Little", were definitely weak points, and "The King Of Limbs" would have had an overall better rating for me.

But despite that, this new, surprising Radiohead album can really be a pleasure to listen to. I realy liked, even though I can't really see it as a loved one, which is too bad, since this is Radiohead.