Review: The King of Limbs

10/10

Rarely you get an album that remains completely flawless. But with The King of Limbs, Radiohead achieve this with absolute ease. All that’s been said before about them is in the journals of music history, but with this one album, an 8 track wonder is what they’ve spawned. It’s not the album of the decade or anything, but it’s a definite shoe-in for album of the month, if not year, and it’s only February.

Thom Yorke and co.’s “less is more” approach works beautifully throughout the course, with arrangements of just certain notes allowing vast amounts of time for you to cherish and appreciate the album like a fine and ageing wine. Without a doubt, the choice made by the band to not market this to its hypest potential and allow something as brilliantly timed as this to nearly slip under the radar is simply remarkable.

Some would mark this as a compilation album conjured up from Yorke’s solo career and leftover bits of track from the In Rainbows days, but I’d beg to differ, as it deserves more recognition than that. Originally not such a fan of Radiohead, both the latter album mentioned and this one resonate and facilitate the abilities to reel in people who sit on fences and make you appreciate the delicacy and focus of British rock music.

Greenwood’s drumming is put to most effect with the lead single, a stunning title to a stand out song, ‘Lotus Flower’, one which eschews both moving poignancy and jazz like feelings, motions of both body and mind intertwining, entering into your mind like a virus by taking root and burrowing for quite some time until you want to thrust along without a care.

It’s something worth more than checking out, whether you’re driving home, whether you’re off to a gig, when you’re waking up, it’s a transcendental masterpiece du jour which I implore you to hear if you’re after something with weight, presence, and beauty.