“The King of Limbs”
RADIOHEAD
Ticker Tape / XL
2011

I’ve been listening to this record for maybe ten days, before taking the decision to write down what I think and feel about it. I’ve been listening for it pretty continuously, driving (and I drive a lot), cooking, writing, relaxing. And now I think I had enough.

It’s pretty hard to write something about this record, because in fact I could talk about common places like they’re not the Radiohead we’ve loved till now or this record is kind of transactional, or maybe they’re evolving in something different and of course blah blah blah…

The truth is that this piece of plastic is useless. As I told to some friends I find it opioid but still not psychedelic. At the end of the game it’s only boring.

Don’t misunderstand me, I’ve always loved the most innovative, audacious, anti-pop side of this band, I still consider their trilogy (OK Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac) stunning, heart and brain touching. The problem is that you cannot act like Bjork or Aphex Twin if you are not.

Not too much electronics, not too little “real” instruments, it’s not that I’m bored about the electronic drums, this is not the case, the music itself is boring, the mood is never changing, not enough emotions, not “highs” or “downs”. 

We can maybe appreciate the incipit with Bloom, recalling some atmospheres still present in some old records, we still are in love with Yorke’s voice, we wait for the second song and… with Morning Mr Magpie the song is almost the same. Ok, let’s skip to the third one… and with Litte by Little we’ve had enough.

So far they’ve given us some loops, some electronic sounds, some sniffs of guitar and a always-the-same-mood-voice of Tom York.

Take a random song from Bjork’s Volta, mute the voice and Feral is what you get. Maybe Lotus Flower and Codex is the only songs of this record I would like to listen in a hypothetic daily playlist.

Only 37 minutes. It’s enough. It’s pretty strange considering their standards. Maybe Radiohead didn’t have anything more to say. I hope they’ve got some more for the future.

by Puppet

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