The King Of Limbs - Radiohead

Any regular followers of Radiohead’s blog http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/ knew that this album would again be a leap away from the guitar-led anthems of The Bends and OK Computer which brought them worldwide acclaim a decade ago. Recent ‘Office Charts’ have included tracks by dubstep (N.B. I use the term loosely) prodigies Jamie Smith of (The xx) and Ramadanman as well electronic stalwarts Four Tet and Aphex Twin. The sound of the album, unlike the release, was something that could be predicted, albeit vaguely.

The album opens with Bloom, a juxtaposition of arpeggiated piano, fast drum beats and a strange bass melody which then leads to a wall of high-pitched synths in the second part of the song. As you work your way through the album this combination of fast-paced electronic drum beats and slower basslines (a method employed by The xx to great success recently) played by Colin Greenwood, dominate the album, forming the base of almost every song.

Despite a similar formula, each song is different in detail, and a captivating listen. The instrumental track Feral starts with angry drum beats punctuated with string squeals, while the slow piano melody of Codex, combined slow bass creates a standout track and rates as one of the band’s most beautiful and seductive of their entire catalogue.

However guitar is not completely absent from the album, while there is a few bends of Jonny Greenwood’s guitar on ­Little by Little, a song with Yorke’s traditional melancholy lyrics, the first and only guitar-led song comes with the light acoustic guitar on Give Up The Ghost. However the most noteworthy use of guitar comes with the final track of the album, Separator.

The song starts with bass drones, drum beats and faint guitar plucks before a beautiful guitar melody kicks in carrying you to a euphoric end of the album with the line ‘If you think this is over/ You’re wrong’. The song, as the album does as a whole, represents a moment of joy for the band. They no longer have to struggle to meet the deadlines of record labels, but can make music as they wish; comprising whatever styles and sounds they want, whether it is vintage Radiohead from the 90s, the experimental 00s, or something completely new.

The King Of Limbs represents freedom for the band and for music. Following the traditions of dubstep artists, the band urges people making music to produce and release it independently and to ‘do what you want’ (from the first single from the album, Lotus Flower). Once again Radiohead have made an intelligent, challenging album, completely in tune with the changing face of music today, and perhaps more importantly, highlighting what is to come.

As OK Computer was a zeitgeist album for 90s consumer society, The King Of Limbs is for the future of music in coming years.

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THE BENDS - RADIOHEAD

The Bends, released in 1995, is the second studio album from English five-piece Radiohead. The album marks a notable shift in aesthetics and themes the band deals with and a move away from the introspective grunge style which primarily dominated their first studio album, Pablo Honey.



After the success of their first single Creep, a self-loathing elegy of lead singer Thom Yorke’s feelings as a young man, in not only the UK but also America, and the near-constant touring the band had to undertake, this album seems to be a reaction to the pressures of producing a superior follow up and being at the sharp end of a the sexy MTV lifestyle which was emerging at the time. These feelings manifest themselves most lucidly in lead single My Iron Lung which contain the lyrics ‘this is our new song / just like the last one / a total w.a.s.t.e of time’. After starting with an alluring guitar melody, the song begins to breakdown with thrashes of Jon Greenwood’s guitar seemingly expressing the band’s frustration at the Iron Lung which once gave them life as a band but is now leaves them suffocating after its success.

The album also seems to mark the beginning of a change in style immediately noticeable from the atmospheric keyboard sounds on the first track, Planet Telex. The subsequent piano chords instantly indicate this is something different from the band’s debut and Yorke’s cryptic lyrics and Greenwood’s psychedelic, broken guitar sounds leave the listener ravenous for more. However what follows is not a continuation of the euphoric, soaring electronic sounds of Telex, but a much more Pablo Honey-esque, guitar dominated track, in The Bends. This eponymous track continues the band’s exploration of the quiet / loud dynamic but marks a progression both lyrically and musically leaving the listener wondering whether this can be the same band that produced the largely bromidic collection of rock songs that is Pablo Honey.

Other highlights on the album include the simple but beautiful ballad High & Dry which again deals with the disillusionment after success, Just with its addictive, ascending riff and also sees Greenwood showcase all his (considerable) talents with an astounding guitar solo, and Bullet Proof…I Wish I Was, probably the most beautiful song on the album.

The Bends, then, seems to defy belief after the modesty of Pablo Honey. There is so much to say about each song not only about its composition, but also about the lyrics in each. While they all might not carry the weight of meaning of Fake Plastic Trees or in particular the album’s culmination Street Spirit (Fade Out), there is something about each song which will provoke thought and contemplation. This is what makes the album so special; not only is it the quality of music that makes you what to replay it, but also the tremendous meaning each song has, and this power continues to grow with every listen.

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