Gonna try an experiment here. I'll listen to the new Radiohead album King of Limbs and give a stream of consciousness review as I hear each track. No editing, no spelling corrections so beware: 1. Bloom: tinkly piano sounds good...oh no bleeps and snare repeating Kid A fashion. Bleeps going on and on. Thom Yorke begins to sing: "open your mouth wide" he seems to say. Doctor heal thyself, Yorkie, I can't really understand what you're saying. Something about an ocean. Violins kicking in - they sound a bit Eygptian. Organ now. A bit Day in the Life here as everything builds to a crescendo...Back to the bleeping again...this is getting tiresome. Yorke likes to hear himself howl (like a girl I used to know but that's another story). Merciful heaven track 1 is over. Nope. More ticking noises now. Finally.
2. Morning Mr Magpie: nice jaunty start...Yorke singing "you've got some nerve, coming in here, you've got some nerve, coming here, you stole an ox?! give it back. you stole an ox? give it back. good morning mister magpie how are we today..."[he stole an ox? thats one powerful magpie]. Yorke howling again. Its more of a low key moan like he scuffed his knee or something. OK Computer like ambience for a second there. More singing "you know you shouldn't pull your pants down?" Certainly not. Even magpies must respect the social niceties. I understand why Yorke is depressed, he only saw one magpie and its one for sorrow, isn't it?
3. Little By Little: Ok, I like this. Greenwood's guitars and a frisky samba beat. Yorke "you're such a flirt, little by little," something something. Hints of oh Jesus whats the name of that big Indian guitar? Nora Jones's father plays it? Come on. George Harrison played it. Ravi Shankar whats the instrument? I'm blanking...Sitar! Yes, sitar on this one.
4. Feral: more bleeps and sample repeats. Heavy breathing. Wow this is really crap. Fragments of music and disjointed sounds. Like that Roger Waters album Music From The Body. Yorke determined to prove that he doesnt do "tunes" or "dad rock". Point proven Thom, you're way cooler than Oasis or U2. Ok this one wont be going on the iPod.
5. Lotus Flower: Shite, more of this. I don't who the drummer is in Radiohead(that bald guy) but he doesnt get much of a work out with this material. Yorke singing in a high register "I'll set you free..." Perhaps this will be a song about Abraham Lincoln the Great Emancipator....Something about pirates? the moon...Nope this isn't a Lincoln song. Where are you Wilkes Booth? Ah, the words Lotus and Flower get a mention. Ok I get it, I think, its a song about the Buddha. Right? The Buddha sets us free from earthly desire.
6. Codex: A piano! Slightly out of tune of course. Weird jangly noises. Yorke howling softly. "Jump off the edge into a clearing...oh...just drive very far?...Fanta is my favourite drink. Dont doze off. [none of this can be right]" Howling. "The water's clear" I think he's saying. I don't really believe him though, not with all that Fanta in it. Nice piano bit at the end...
7. Give Up The Ghost: Birdsong. A tennis match? "Gather up the lasting song. Gimme a rock. Gather up the pebbles? Gimme a rock? Gimme me a rock. Gimme a rock." This is a plantive cry about the lonely lives of geologists I think. Jesus it goes on. Gloomy, naval gazing, spoiled, boring tosh.
8. Separator: another snary little backbeat. Can't understand a word which is ok, but boy this is dismal dreary stuff. Tight repetitive guitar riff. This is music for men of a certain age to read the Guardian Saturday Magazine to. "Wake me up, wake me up, wake me up" Yorke cries. Ah, he has not got much of a sense of humor but he understands irony I think for surely we'll all be saying the same thing soon...WAIT A MINUTE, this is more like it. This is great! This is...oh wait hold on. No the CD ended and iTuens is playing Good Times Bad Times from Led Zeppelin I.
30 comments:
Probably best to get the torrent on this one or maybe download track 4 from iTunes when it becomes available.
sorry meant track 3.
Oh, that was funny, made my morning. Thanks
Preordered this from the official Radiohead/Waste site, so I shan't be able to hear it till tomorrow when it is properly released. I'll read your 'stream of conscious review' on Sunday. :)
"This is music for men of a certain age to read the Guardian Saturday Magazine to"
Te he. Thats funny. These men eat scallops, black pudding and minted pea puree.
I feel like I was there!
Now if you could just combine it with a beer review, I wouldn't have to live my own life at all.
"It's more of a low key moan like he scuffed his knee or something."
So it sounds like Classic Yorke then? ;)
You'll be proud to know that you're the reason I listen to Radiohead. I think it was in The Dead Yard when Michael did his best Patrick Bateman (American Psycho) imitation (viz. he played OK Computer to impress a hot girl, much like Bateman did with Genesis and Huey Lewis and The News). I've enjoyed Radiohead ever since.
Lew
You're welcome.
Mike
I'll be interested to hear your thoughts.
Frankie
Wait a minute, I eat black pudding as part of the full English, or as they call it here The Big Aussie.
Seana
Who's to say that I didnt have a beer or two before I began?
Josh
Classic Yorke indeed.
Yes OK Computer is definitely the high point in fact.
I'd go:
1. OK COMPUTER
2. THE BENDS
3. AMNESIAC
4. PABLO HONEY
5. THE KING OF LIMBS
6. HAIL TO THE THIEF
7. IN RAINBOWS
8. KID A
Black pudding is acceptable in a fry, not that i would touch the stuff, but with pea puree, it becomes food for pounces...who listen to radiohead. only kidding.
Good review Adrian.I love Radiohead but I've a funny feeling Thom Yorke will eventually disappear up his own backside.I haven't been impressed with what I've heard so far.
Wow! OK, so we agree on first and last place, but In Rainbows was nearly perfect to me. To each his own I suppose. My list is:
1. OK COMPUTER
2. IN RAINBOWS
3. AMNESIAC
4. HAIL TO THE THIEF
5. THE BENDS
6. PABLO HONEY
7. KID A
TBD. THE KING OF LIMBS
I'm listening to KOL now for the 2nd time. Agree 100% that Feral is awful, but some of the tracks are promising. I quite like Mr Magpie, and Seperator is gorgeous - reminiscent of early Verve at their hippy-trippy best.
Rumour, fuelled by the title of the last track and its repeating line "There's more to come", abound that there will be a KOL#2, I rather hope so, though I suspect your mileage differs. :)
Incidentally, I got into Radiohead on the strength of In Rainbows. I think it's a great album, and Weird Fishes/Arpeggio is possibly my fave Radiohead track. Looking at your list, I'd place Pablo Honey & Kid A higher too. Amnesiac is horrible. I can't get into that album at all. But that says a lot about the band, that they can morph and adapt and attract different listeners while pleasing the faithful...well, most of 'em. Perhaps. There's been a bit of a backlash on the Radiohead forum I look at occasionally. A lot of fans are disappointed at the lack of guitars on KOL, and are calling it a Thom Yorke album. Dunno if you've ever listened to Thom's Eraser album, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Who's to say that I didnt have a beer or two before I began?
Not me.
I don't know much about Radiohead, although I did hear pianist Christopher O'Riley do his transcription of the Radiohead Songbook at the Cabrillo Music Festival a couple of years ago. It was okay, but it wasn't my favorite thing that ever happened there.
Frankie
Ah but have you heard had a white pudding? Now thats disgusting.
Scrofula
I feel its already happened. At least from the interviews I've read recently.
Josh
You're crazy to have The Bends way down there, although I'll admit it took a hit when Prime Minister David Cameron said that it was his favourite album. Yikes.
Michael
The New York Times loves it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/arts/music/19radiohead.html?_r=1&hp
I heard Radiohead sing most of Amnesiac at Red Rocks and I've liked it ever since.
Maybe I'd switch Thief and Rainbows on my list.
On a third listen now. I'll not check Bloom and Feral but all the rest are going on the iPod as a solid material.
Seana
I think their next project is the soundtrack to We Need To Talk About Kevin which sounds promising.
I will say this though, I feel the critics are wrong to call Radiohead great musical gypsies/innovators a la Madonna. This sounds no different from the stuff they were doing a decade ago. I see little musical progress or experimentation with genres the way Madonna or Robert Plant or Bjork attempt with every album.
Well, I'm looking forward to We Need to Talk About Kevin (though I'm also kind of scared), so we'll see.
I don't think my lukewarm response had to do with Radiohead so much as this crazy desire of classical musicians to also appropriate pop. It never really works, but I don't think the attempt will ever end.
It made perfect background music for finishing my first ever short story this weekend.
I liked it very much but the miserable sods aren't touring this one but are starting on the new album straight away
Congratulations, Rob.
Thanks, Seana. It was a struggle and I'm not thrilled with it but, what can you do.
Just saw this on the Drunk Hulk Twitter feed
LISTEN TO NEW RADIOHEAD ALBUM! IT TOO EARLY FOR LENT! SO DRUNK HULK NO UNDERSTAND WHY RADIOHEAD GIVE UP!
What can you do? Revise.
It takes nothing away from the initial accomplishment to make it better.
I can't understand if Drunk Hulk likes it or not. People get drunk for opposing reasons.
Rob
Yeah congrats on the story. Its getting it done is the thing.
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