Radiohead starts recording LP8

[falafel]

Mine too.

How big do you think the entire WAV album is?

[BoylenOver]

How big do you think the entire WAV album is?

It says 368 MB's, but it's downloading like it's closer to 3.68 GB's.

[MarkGrace]

I'm on my 4th listen

[MarkGrace]

Impressions two songs in:

1. It sounds waaaaaay different than other albums
2. Much more experimental and much less accessible than IR
3. Mr. Magpie is better than I anticipated based on the early versions
4. It feels more like a successor to The Eraser than IR
5. This thing is going to be polarizing

[falafel]

I'm on my 4th listen

Yeah, but you're only getting half of it since you've got to keep the volume so low. This is more like 2 listens for you.

[MarkGrace]

Three songs down. There is song much going on in every song.

[MarkGrace]

Feral has the feel here of one of their traditional interludes. And it is straight dubstep. Reminding me of some Burial stuff.

[Commando]

This record is going to dissolve whatever goodwill IR fostered on CB.



OH NOES!!!

[MarkGrace]

Shit Codex is incredible.

[MarkGrace]

This record is going to dissolve whatever goodwill IR fostered on CB.



OH NOES!!!

I was just thinking this. Not necessarily about CB, but just about the more marginal or fans of the traditional that IR brought back.

This record is seriously out there. Not what I was expecting in the least after hearing the solo renditions. I can think of no band their size that would have the balls to do something like this after IR.

[MarkGrace]

So the last track is Mouse Dog Bird. Also ended up very different than I anticipated.

[MarkGrace]

FlyLo was also a big influence on this record.

[MarkGrace]

Such was the demand that Radiohead brought the release of their new album ‘The King Of Limbs’ forward to today (February 18) - and that means Gigwise is the first to bring you a track-by-track guide review.

Below you can read editor Jason Gregory’s thoughts as he gives the album a first listen. At the bottom of the page please leave your comments and thoughts about ‘The King Of Limbs’, Radiohead’s follow-up to 2007’s ‘In Rainbows’.

1) ‘Bloom’ - By now we’ve come to expect the unexpected from Radiohead, so it’s no surprise(s - sorry) that ‘The King Of Limbs’ gets off to a typically eccentric start. Off-kilter drum beats collide and fall over each other, while background bleeps buzz ominously from start to finish. Singer Thom Yorke sounds equally as menacing, singing about “what keeps me alive”. It’s an ominous opening.

2) ‘Morning Mr Magpie’ - Yorke's voice retains its menacing tone: “Good morning Mr Magpie,” he sings. “How are we today?” The musical backdrop is again one of controlled panic: frenetic guitars, a rumbling bassline and another seemingly out-of-sync drum beat, this time leaning towards drum and bass.

3) ‘Little By Little’ - A true testament to the almost innate bond between Radiohead’s guitarists - Greenwood and Ed O’Brien - the instruments interplay with each other circa ‘Go To Sleep’ era Radiohead, while drummer Phil Selway provides a drum section that seems to drop by accident at the start of every bar. Come the chorus the song feels like its being pulled back in reverse, as Yorke’s vocals keep the song going forward.

4) ‘Feral’ - Almost an instrumental interlude (bar the odd vocal yelp from Yorke), the song plays on the technical prowess of each Radiohead members. The layered drumming is intense, while in the background an ear drum bursting bassline creeps in, probably earning the song the tagline: “Radiohead go dubstep.”

5) ‘Lotus Flower’ - The song with “that” video (click here if you don’t know what I mean), ‘Lotus Flower’ is arguably the most traditional song on the album. Following the intensity of ‘Feral’, the tempo is brought down, the music made more spacious and the emphasis instead is placed on Yorke’s vocals. “Slowly we unfold,” he sings, with all the warmth and tenderness that came in abundance on ‘In Rainbows’, and in the process opened the band to a whole new fan base. “There’s an empty space inside my heart.” Beautiful.

6) ‘Codex’ - Having a tough day at work? Nothing going right? You could probably do with putting this one on repeat. With the drums reduced to the gentle patter of a raindrop, Yorke steps in armed only with a piano and a vocal performance that could melt your heart. Think ‘Pyramid Song’, only with an ending of bird song.

7) ‘Give Up The Ghost’ - Yorke debuted this one at his one-off solo gig in Cambridge in 2010. Then he built it using samples, and the song has retained the same feeling a puzzle being slowly pieced together now that the rest of Radiohead have joined him on the track. “Don’t heart me,” he sings, as another layer: “In your arms” unhurriedly emerges in the background. Everything about it is gentle, serene; like the start of a new day.

8) ‘Separator’ - After all the mind-bending highs of the opening four songs, there’s a definite comedown as ‘The King Of Limbs’ reaches its climax. ‘Separator’, the final track, is again more traditional in its construction (or as traditional as Radiohead can ever sound). The bass line seems to purr like a cat, as Yorke sings about being a “fish now out of water”. It’s unhurried perfection, and as the guitars join the fray during the final third, accompanied by swirling harmonics, Radiohead have somehow subconsciously transported you into another world once again.

Conclusion: Radiohead’s ‘The King Of Limbs’ might only be eight tracks long but there’s not a single moment that hasn’t been painstakingly constructed, de-constructed and put back together again. With all the ingenious ways the band are now choosing to release music, it’s easy to forget just how inventive, avant-garde and, at the end of the day, emotionally touching the songs they make are. ‘The King Of Limbs’ is an engrossing listen, an album that sends you to an emphatic high before wrapping you up in a blanket to recuperate. Masterful.

http://www.gigwise.com/features/6146...--First-Review

[Moliere]

So the last track is Mouse Dog Bird. Also ended up very different than I anticipated.

I love Separator and Lotus Flower, at least on low volume

I've closed my door for lunch and am going to turn it up now.

[MarkGrace]

I love Separator and Lotus Flower, at least on low volume

I've closed my door for lunch and am going to turn it up now.

Like I said above, I think Feral is the interlude/breaking point of the album. The back half (Lotus Flower, Codex, GUTG, Separator) is more approachable than the front half, but it's all pretty out there. I don't think there's any reference point to this thing in their catalog. I do believe it's closer to The Eraser than In Rainbows, but it's also still a long way from The Eraser.