Smatterings of freedom shine through The King of Limbs. Self-releasing their works and marking the first of many with In Rainbows, Radiohead takes the plunge and gains the trust of their listeners. There was always the chance of squandering this well-placed faith with a frantic and folk-oriented half hour. A slim chance, of course. But a chance. Muffled horrors and eldritch beats cause a disruption to the mind and anxiety to take hold. Not the presence expected of a band coming off the back of perhaps their most accepting and broadly accessible work. The King of Limbs is for the deep-cut fans, the lovers of heavy glitch pop who were transfixed by the repetitive thump and grind of electronics in Radiohead’s darkest moments. An album full of it? Sure.
The King of Limbs is exactly that – stuffed with experimental dismay and disgrace. Opener Bloom does plenty to stop itself from rising and growing like the flowery peace at the heart of it. Radiohead appears keen to keep their listeners guessing, questioning the fabric of this work, and rightly so. Complacency is a trap Radiohead has no time for, and so a second touring drummer is enlisted. Brass bands are placed deep within strings which sound scratchy and volatile, as though they were yanked from a stage where they were introducing some 1930s noir drama. A nearly forty-minute crash through new sounds and styles for Radiohead – the experience is quite unlike anything the band has done or will ever do. They mark some of their best efforts here, particularly the whining thump and grind of Lotus Flower, a piece which will tickle the brain of Ratatat fans.
Give Up the Ghost and album closer Separator follow suit in this run of quality. They discard the earlier distortion and clunky fears to make way for less oppressive noise. It works either way. Radiohead finds inspiration in the immediate area around the studio they used for In Rainbows, and a desire to move with the flow found beyond the soundproof building is a moment for the band to use as a way to reconnect with their primal instinct. It can be heard in the mellow and coded pieces in the latter stages of The King of Limbs, a thoroughly underrated piece from Radiohead.
You would be hard-pressed to listen to a sharper, more off-kilter Radiohead record. It far exceeds the turn of pace on Kid A and defies the odds of In Rainbows’ popularity. There lives within The King of Limbs a sense of tragedy and an unnerving, unwavering feeling of chaos. Nothing has nor will occur like this again for Thom Yorke and the band. Their exceptional hypnotic traipse through fields of folklore can be heard on the rhythms and bass strings of Little By Little. Radiohead was desperate for fresh air after years of cementing their popularity – and soon found themselves at a point where they could, and still can, get away with risky releases. The King of Limbs is a continuation of the bold and ambitious projects Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Philip Selway spearhead – and for those looking for the darker edge Radiohead has since refined, this is likely where it started in earnest.
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I love this album, I was apprehensive when giving it a first listen due to the underwhelming response it got and due to most fans labelling as “the worst Radiohead album”. Its sound isn’t the most forgiving, but once you get past that, there really are a few gems on this album worth listening to. Notably: Bloom, Morning Mr Magpie, Codex and Separator, all which are excellent.
Radiohead’s experimentation with difficult (and impossible for a single drummer to perform) drum beats as well their will to change everything up really drew me in, and I would call this a successful experiment. Worth a listen!
I struggled to get into this album until I ripped the audio from the Live From The Basement film. That’s the version I listen to most often, and it works better than the studio release I think.
Anybody labelling this the worst Radiohead album should be ignored. This album was, and still is, fantastic.