First Thoughts: Radiohead - The King Of Limbs

Well, everyone's been going crazy online for the release of the new Radiohead album today - I'd be interested to know how many man-hours have been wasted looking up news on and listening to the album - It won't have reached the apparent $120m dollars that Google's stunt of putting a game on its homepage cost the world last year, but it can't be all that far off.

And, to be honest, I'm finding it quite disappointing so far. The opener, 'Bloom', starts off fairly like the opener of the last album, sounding exactly how you'd expect Radiohead to start an album. On their last record, however, that angle was abandoned after only 30 seconds, and the 'actual' album started with a lovely, beautiful guitar tone. It was almost as though they were playing with your expectations and then showing that they were capable of doing something slightly more human. This time, they haven't bothered. The whole first side of the album is pretty electronic, with little of the heart of the last record and none of the invention of, say, Kid A. It's just Radiohead-by-numbers, and not even exciting numbers at that. Think 22/7 rather than π.

The second half is definitely an improvement on the first, but again, it all seems like a retread. What seems so far to be the popular choice for 'best track on the album', 'Codex', is pretty much exactly the same as Pyramid Song, only without the interesting time signature - a rehash of a 10-year-old song, from a band held as one of the more groundbreaking of the modern era. Not that impressive.

None of this is to say I dislike the album. I am going to give it a fair few more plays over the next few days, and might come to eat all the words I've just written. 'Separator' is a genuinely brilliant song, as is 'Give Up The Ghost', making for a fantastic end to the album. The pre-released single, 'Lotus Flower', is pretty good and atmospheric too, even though Yorke's dancing does remind me of one of those air-sock-men you get outside garages (this is a reference to the 'It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia' episode "The Gang Buys a Boat" - definitely worth a watch)





I'll probably do a more full review later. Until then, I'll probably be re-listening and trying to work out how anyone can see this as remotely comparable to the brilliance that was 'In Rainbows'.

Looking forward to the rest of 2011

I've had a bit of a think about what I'm expecting my albums of the year this year to be. I've already heard a good number of great albums this year (Decemberists, Yuck, Mogwai) and it's shaping up to be a classic. Here, in no particular order, is my list of what I'm expecting my year-end list in December to look like. We'll see how accurate I am.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Belong
The debut was fantastic, and what I've heard of the new one has got me more excited about an album than I've been since this time last year, when I was building up to my album of 2010, High Violet. We can but hope it'll come to the same result.

Radiohead - ?
A bit obvious maybe, but In Rainbows was so good, and so surprising given that Hail To The Thief was a fairly big let-down. I, like all but about 10 people in the world, have no idea at all what their new album will sound like, but if it is as forward-thinking and genuinely beautiful as their last, it'll be a treat.

Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
With this album having leaked on New Year's Eve, I have already heard it. It's brilliant, continuing the more accessible vein of the last couple of Mogwai albums but with the atmosphere of their earlier stuff. Expect a fuller review in the next few days.

Cass McCombs - ?
This American songwriter has been releasing classic albums fairly regularly for the last few years, and I think he's the most likely of the current batch of folky guitarists to vastly increase his fanbase with a new album this year, especially if it turns out being one of his more upbeat albums.

The Strokes - ?
They aren't new or exciting, they're no longer as cool as they were in 2001, and they've made a collection of middling solo and side-project albums between them since their last album, which was incredibly disappointing. But I'm always going to love 'Is This It?', it being one of the albums that got the rest of the world (and me) into the early 2000s garage rock scene, and gradually led me to where my music tastes currently are. If the first few bars of the new record have anything like the effect on me as the beginning of 'What Ever Happened?', this is going to be a fun year.

Veronica Falls - ?
I talked a lot about them in my recent post on them. They've only released 5 songs so far, but each one of them (especially the singles) have been truly excellent, and they're really good live too. They have the potential to not just make it into my top 10 of the year, but be a bit of a breakout hit too. We'll see.


Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
I reviewed this album earlier today, which means I don't really have any great new insights for this post. But it's bloody good.

Battles - ?
Their last album came out aeons ago, and they must have been working on something new for a while. I'm expecting something slightly more tuneful and less front-loaded than their last effort, but since no-one has really taken up the math-rock gauntlet they laid down with 'Mirrored' 3 years ago I'm expecting them to try and ram their ideas more into the current American rock scene. Math rock is my prediction to be the 'growth' genre this year, in the way that the new wave of shoegaze might come to be seen as the 'thing' of 2010.

Yuck - Yuck
Another album I've already reviewed. You can find my thoughts on it here. A smattering of Sonic Youth and a real variety between the songs make this a proper album - a collection of songs that work either on their own or as an LP. Probably not going to make the upper reaches of the list, but I can see myself listening to it an alarming amount this year.

(wild card) 
A London indiepop album, either the new Shrag/Standard Fare/Allo Darlin' or a debut. Or maybe some kind of acoustic guitarist I haven't heard of before, in the tradition of Bon Iver and Tallest Man On Earth. Who knows. Basically, it looks like it could be a bumper crop.