Radiohead, The King Of Limbs

Out for just over 24 hours now, Radiohead's new album, The King Of Limbs has been all the buzz in the music world. And why not? The release of a new Radiohead album is an event. I was initial surprised to wake up to a Facebook post and Tweet from the band on Monday saying 'Thank you for waiting...' with a link to a site to pre-order their new album, which was to be released today. I was even more surprised when I got a Tweet yesterday saying that the album was available for download a day early. Talk about creating a buzz.

As with any new Radiohead album, I need time alone with it to really begin to digest what the album and band are all about. Having spent the past day with The King Of Limbs, I will start off by saying that this latest album by the band is 100% Radiohead and probably the best record that they have released since Kid A. Once again, Radiohead experiments with dense and richly textured sounds, beats, and tempos to create songs that push the band into new musical composition territory...even for themselves.

The use of sounds and instruments on The King Of Limbs feel more natural and less processed than on their past few recordings. The second song on the album, Morning Mr Magpie is a great example of how the use of multiple live guitars and a snare drum create a cool syncopation that holds the song down rather than the use of sampled and looped sounds. Having said this, as always, there is a generous helping of synthesized atmosphere created by Jonny and Colin Greenwood, as can be heard on the opening track, Bloom.

Once again, Radiohead deliver an exceptional musical experience. On 8 songs over 37 minutes, the band challenges the listener to find the songs within musical tapestry of sounds and the richly layered sounds within the songs. Ultimately, they remind us why they are one of the most important and relevant bands in the world today.

Below is the video for Lotus Flower, which was also released yesterday. This is probably the most straight forward oriented song on the album. I don't really care much for Yorke's odd dancing, but the song is just fantastic.