The King of Limbs

[motorollin]

Just finished listening to Radiohead's new album. It's very good, kind of a blend between Amnesiac and In Rainbows. I was hoping for Kid A 2, but still I love this album. Some really emotional songs (Codex, Separator), and some which just sound damn cool (Little By Little, Lotus Flower).

[youtube]cfOa1a8hYP8[/youtube]

[youtube]o5c9w6uWBOI[/youtube]

[Speelgoedmannetje]

Hm, indeed real good, though I cannot understand the lyrics, (as these are not clearly pronounced), the sound is nicely moody without being 'in your face', so to say.

[motorollin]

Thom uses his voice impressionistically. Even though the words are not quite distinct, you get a feel for the emotion he is trying to communicate without necessarily needing to understand the words. His voice is an instrument. Of course, it helps to work out what the lyrics are, but even then you won't really know what the song is about as everything is so abstract. But that's why it's interesting. Who wants to be told the real meaning when you can find meaning for yourself and make the songs part of your own life rather than just using them as an insight into the way somebody else sees the world?

[Speelgoedmannetje]

So true, often people want to 'understand' art, yet that is the first thing not to be done with art
And thereby, I often listen to quite exotic music from all over the world. Most of it I cannot understand the lyrics, some of it I have a booklet in which the lyrics are stated/translated. It's a nice addendum, but often not really necessary.

[coldfish]

Pablo Honey - still my fav album, followed by The Bends.

[Karlos]

King of Limbs?



Well, the king of dismembering limbs, perhaps...

[motorollin]

Pablo Honey - still my fav album, followed by The Bends.

I have to say, I have always hated Pablo Honey. It felt to me like a set of teenage angst songs. However, I love that the album exists as a demonstration of how far Radiohead have come. I feel like The Bends was a bridge between the selfishness of Pablo Honey and the much less introspective OK Computer.

[motorollin]

@Karlos
I don't know who that is, so I don't really understand the reference.

[motorollin]

Thom uses his voice impressionistically.

Actually, the more I think about it the less I agree with this statement. Impressionist art gets less detailed the closer you look at it, and you have to stand back a bit to get it. But with Radiohead, you can step right back and get an overall impression, or get really close and examine the detail. It's only at the "mid-point", where you're too close to see the overview but too far away to see the detail, that it doesn't make much sense. The fact that the "impressionist" view tends to match the "detail" view confirms to me that Radiohead know exactly what they're doing.

[Karlos]

I dunno, I quite liked some of the old Radiohead tracks, but they seem to get more and more pretentious and irritating with each iteration.

I watched the video for "Lotus Flower" and found myself just wanting to punch Thom clean out.

[motorollin]

The only song where I agree with that is "Morning Mr Magpie", which does sound a bit like a stereotype of a Radiohead song. I'll keep listening to RH as long as their music moves me. Currently I'm unable to listen to the last 3 tracks on TKOL without being reduced to an emotional wreck, which says a lot to me about the genuineness of what they're doing.