Radiohead’s newest LP release The King of Limbs, available via their site.
Music lovers are once again faced with the task of absorbing the bizarre inner-workings of Thom Yorke’s brain. And as always, uncovering the intricacies of new Radiohead material becomes nothing short of a contest. Whether you’ve been listening to the band since Creep or just recently joined on the fifteenth step, you know what i’m talking about.
The simple equation – so to speak -
is this: fans fend off concurrent headaches in desperate search for meaning. They try to form an educated interpretation of the album as soon as possible, that way they sound well-informed at parties. Radiohead fans dance around their actual opinions like Christine O’Donnell at the semi-millennial Witch Masquerade Ball. For fear of being smite by their friends, party members, or perhaps Johnny Greenwood’s pedal board, fans stick to the four-or-five-things they think they’re supposed to say about the album, all the while trying not to be too contrary or congruent with whatever Pitchfork said (it’s a fine line).
Me? I’m gonna take this album one listen at a time. According to my super-secret algorithm, this LP – though short – will be a dense one. It falls in the Amnesiac and Kid A category unlike its predecessor, the illustrious In Rainbows, which featured uptempo cuts, aggressive beats, and glorious fidelity.
One thing’s for sure, do not put The King of Limbs on at a dance party: it’d be like going out for a jog and realizing that all you’ve got on your iPod is the There Will Be Blood OST.
-JH-
