Radiohead starts recording LP8

[BoylenOver]

Track list:

1) Bloom
2) Morning Mr Magpie
3) Little By Little
4) Feral
5) Lotus Flower
6) Codex
7) Give Up The Ghost
8) Separator

[BoylenOver]

An early review (I'd sum it up as positive, but underwhelmed):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/feb/18/radiohead-king-limbs-first-review?commentpage=last#end-of-comments

[BoylenOver]

A more thoroughly positive review (from the WSJ):

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/02/18/radioheads-the-king-of-limbs-strikes-beautiful-balance/

[Commando]

so what's this link saying "you may now download The King of Limbs if you so wish"?

http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/

[Commando]

Well, I'll have this album in 2 minutes. Downloading now.

[BoylenOver]

so what's this link saying "you may now download The King of Limbs if you so wish"?

http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/

Oh shit! Mine's downloading, too!

edit: 42 minutes remaining

[Commando]

aaaand it's on my ipod! Off to the gym!

[falafel]

so what's this link saying "you may now download The King of Limbs if you so wish"?

http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/

Its not letting me download anything (even though shouldn't at work, that's MY decision!).

[MarkGrace]

The way Lotus Flower turned out reminds me a lot of Hearing Damage. Like it. Definitely not what I expected after the acoustic versions.

[Moliere]

You've downloaded the album? I've got nothing in my inbox.

Sent from my Sprint EVO 4G

I didn't get anything in my inbox either. I just went to the site, entered my email/password and there was a huge button that said "download" so I push it.

I've listened to the album 3 times already. It's on continuous loop. It's not bad and hopefully it grows on me more. It's tought to enjoy though through laptop speakers turned down a bit low.

[MarkGrace]

This was the first review I read on the bus:

“The King of Limbs,” the new Radiohead album, balances beautifully the band’s gift for melodic rock, energetic electronic rhythms and crafty musical experimentation. Quietly assertive, engaging and accessible, it’s a worthy successor to “In Rainbows,” their 2007 release. It’s a short album – eight songs; a little more than 37 minutes – but the music is richly textured and complex.

“The King of Limbs” was released today as a download, a day earlier than the band had announced previously. Unlike the name-your-price strategy it used when it issued “In Rainbows” online, Radiohead has set a price of $9 for the downloadable version of “The King of Limbs” in the U.S. Physical versions, including a deluxe package the band has dubbed “the world’s first newspaper album,” apparently in reference to large, fold-out artwork, will be shipped in early May. For information, go here.

On first exposure, the new album impresses with the ease of its blend of traditional rock and contemporary electronic sounds. At times, there’s almost too much to take in: “Feral” is built on an insistent pattern of acoustic drumming that’s augmented by electronics and Thom Yorke’s voice, which is dissembled and put back together to create engaging harmonies. “Morning Mr Magpie” shifts again and again the source of its percussive underpinning -– a repeated tap on a high hat, an electronic pulse, layered guitars. Synths build to near symphonic proportions yet never overwhelm. Familiar sounds are introduced and then morphed to a blend that’s entirely unexpected. Rounded bass tones come and go.

But there’s much more than studio trickery and cleverness at play here. The compositions have a solid harmonic foundation –- as usual, which is why Radiohead is a favorite for exploration among jazz musicians. A lovely piano ballad, “Codex,” features Yorke’s echoing voice, ringing chords and, as the song progresses, muted brass and strings. Similar in tone and tempo to “Codex,” “Give Up the Ghost” rises from an acoustic guitar and a hand drum that are soon joined by a looped choir of swirling voices. The opening track, “Bloom,” features the clash and contrast of different time signatures on percussion instruments and bass as Mr. Yorke’s voice floats above the controlled chaos of emerging brass and strings.

Producer Nigel Godrich and the band have given the music of “The King of Limbs” a striking immediacy without sacrificing warmth: Yorke’s voice is out front while organic and electronic sounds swoop in, out and around. “Little by Little” builds from a conventional rock tune to an insistent, multi-layered ring of synths, guitars and cymbals. On the spacey “Separator,” layered single notes on electric guitar form a counterpoint to the pattern established by Philip Selway’s on drums and Colin Greenwood on bass, as Mr. Yorke’s voice whirls and churns.

“The King of Limbs” leaves us yearning for more from these sessions. Rather than a condemnation of the album, that’s high praise. Moments of brilliance are apparent even at first exposure; several tunes take root in our imagination even after a single listening. For its confidence, sense of adventure and abundant musicality, “The King of Limbs” reinforces the idea that Radiohead is the band that makes the most interesting and satisfying rock recordings since the Beatles. Nearly two decades into its recording career, Radiohead is still the standard for the present and future of rock.

—Mr. Fusilli is the Journal’s rock and pop music critic. Email him at jfusilli@wsj.com or follow him on Twitter: @wsjrock.

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/02/18/radioheads-the-king-of-limbs-strikes-beautiful-balance/

[MarkGrace]

I knew I should have bought the mp3! This thing is taking forever!

[MarkGrace]

1. Bloom – An (almost literally) offbeat, understated, atmospheric opening, with stilted, jerky electronic percussion, a repetitive Glass-ian piano figure, swirling orchestral ambience over which floats Thom Yorke’s ethereal mumble. Simultaneously deeply weird and inviting, Bloom leaves me tingling with delicious anticipation. Which is, oddly enough, just about what you might expect.

2. Morning Mr Magpie – The lightness of the percussive drive seems to cross a kind of African marimba groove with an almost blues rock guitar chug, breaking down intermittently with flashes of south London dubstep ambience. “You’ve got some nerve coming here / you stole it all, give it back” sings Yorke, his sweet melodiousness giving the lie to the later accusation. “You took my melody.” Sinister and upbeat at the same time. They are (as ever) masters of musical dichotomy.

3. Little By Little – Tumbles down and spills out of the speakers, like an accidental collision of country music and free form jazz constructed around a climbing and falling bassline and more tingling toybox percussion. “I’m such a tease and you’re such a flirt” sings Yorke in a broken falsetto. Indeed. Even with reversed guitars and ghostly monk choruses humming deep in the background, there is a tenderness to this Radiohead album, so far, that suggests seduction rather than attack.

4. Feral – Instrumental that maintains the late night post-dubstep ambient intimacy blended with a light almost jazz-African percussive groove.

5. Lotus Flower – The single, and it’s a beauty. The bass lopes elegantly over a gentle, loose limbed drum pattern. Yorke’s singing is light and mellifluous, almost floating above the groove as he promises “I’ll set you free.” Spacey echoes lend a Pink Floyd trippiness, if you can imagine the Floyd remixed by Burial for a post clubbing chill out in an urban underground car park.

6. Codex – Sweet, sensitive piano, at a ballad pace, with the harmonic notes of horns and orchestra so distant as to barely intrude. Again, Yorke’s vocal is gentle and mellifluous, as he invites us to dive into clear waters. “No one gets hurt” he promises. Once Radiohead sounded like the last band standing after the apocalypse, but this has the lovely optimism and bold use of space as the most wide eyed future pop.

7. Give Up The Ghost – A campfire lullaby for the end of the world. Gently plucked acoustic guitars and a tremulous, distorted backing sample pleading “Don’t hurt me” like the faint spirit of a forgotten gospel singer echoing down the ages. Yorke bids us gather for a last stand, surrending himself into the arms of a lover. It’s a beauty, whirring and clicking in the musical half light, a ghost in the (OK) computer.

8. Seperator – Ending neither with a bang nor a whimper, Yorke and co carry us gently into that good night. The percussive flows is tip tap light, the minimalist bass carrying just the hint of a groove, while guitar notes fracture and multiply all around. Yorke sings “Wake me up” like a sleepy somnambulist. It’s a perfectly understated ending to Radiohead’s most mellifluous collection, not so much a chill out as an exhausted cigarette break in the eye of the hurricane, down time from a disaster. If Radiohead are still a rock band, then no one has told them. This is something else entirely. The sound of the future calling.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/m...m-review.html#

[Moliere]

I knew I should have bought the mp3! This thing is taking forever!

I'm on my 4th listen

[BoylenOver]

I knew I should have bought the mp3! This thing is taking forever!

Mine too.