TKOL RMX 1234567

Radiohead's "TKOL RMX 1234567" is a remix collection released in 2011. It might seem like a strange title until it is explained. TKOL stands for the album "The King of Limbs". Thom Yorke thought this album was full of songs that could be reworked and remixed into some interesting variations, as the original album was recorded by studio experimentation, using loops and electronically enhanced sounds and sequences and he wanted to do further experimentation with them by having different artists rework them. What resulted was a series of EPs, or 12 inch singles that had either two or three of these remixes. There were a total of 8 EPs in all by the time it was all said and done. However, the 8th EP was not finished by the time this collection was put together, hence you have the remix EPs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. The 8th EP featuring 3 remixes was not included in this collection, but is available separately.

So, it has always been difficult for me to review remix albums, mostly because, unless the original track is made better, or made into an entirely different creature all together, I don't see much point in it. This double CD has a total of 19 tracks altogether, and of course, the original album didn't have that many, so you see most of the tracks here are included more than once in different versions. Fortunately, it is a bit difficult to hear the redundancy of the tracks because there is quite a bit of variation between them. And some of them definitely either improve on the original or sound completely different from the original, but there are others that are much too repetitive or boring. There is also the fact that I never found this album to be one of their best, I find it much to clinical, and that is also considering the fact that I really like "Amnesia" and "Kid A", their most electronically centered albums. There just isn't much in "The King of Limbs" that sticks with me.

That being said, I do find that I enjoy some of the tracks on this collection better than the original. For example, my favorites here are the Caribou remix of "Little by Little", the Scavenger remix of "Morning Mr. Magpie", "TKOL Altrice Remix", and the Blawan remix of "Bloom". Some of the others are not bad, but, as can be expected, some are too repetitive or don't have enough development or aren't really improvements. There is also the fact that this is a difficult album to listen to all the way through for me because of the repetitiveness apparent on a lot of the tracks and that it is very electronic sounding.

If you love remix albums, then you should check this out, because I understand that my own taste might not be yours. If you don't like electronically produced music, then you should stay away. If the source material was better, at least in my opinion, then I also might have enjoyed this more, but its hard to say. Just because its a remix album doesn't mean that I won't like it because I have found a few that I really enjoy. This is not one of them. I can't really call it poor however, but I can't see it being of much interest other than to collectors and completionists.