Radiohead - The King of Limbs

I was wondering if I should order the DVD but it came out while I was in Cornwall - might make ut the last media purchase I make as an employed person.

I dunno tho - I always warn ppl that attempting to draw conclusions about ~how artists work in the studio~ is pretty much just fan fiction. I don't know that stuff is assembled on a laptop and looped?

I have actually been enjoying the live clips, but more as a replacement for going to some stadium show where you see 5 ants on a stage (I haven't seen them live since South Park) Actually seeing how the songs are constructed or reconstructed is quite interesting as a music geek.

That version of Give Up The Ghost is p heartbreaking - becoming my favourite on the album - also shows it as not being constructed on a laptop but on a reel to reel tape recorder with all its wonky fallibility which I love.

If I remember correctly they had a video podcast thing a while ago that I must have subscribed to and downloaded. Was this the From the Basement videos? If so, I think they're on my home computer and I should get around to watching the whole thing sometime.

I dunno tho - I always warn ppl that attempting to draw conclusions about ~how artists work in the studio~ is pretty much just fan fiction. I don't know that stuff is assembled on a laptop and looped?

I guess my (confusing) point is that much of KoL, particularly the first half of the album, sounds like laptop loops, regardless of whether the loops were programmed directly into the laptop or extracted from longer live takes. Whereas the live versions reveal more of the human hand behind the repetition.

weird how people use "laptop" as synonymous with making electronic music. most studios run desktops, you know? i guess it's from dudes always having macs on stage.

I could kind of see them doing some of the looping bits at the mixing desk, but as for composition, I'd guess it's more likely they'd just play with hardware looping pedals and such in the studio.

I want to echo ZS's comments re: the Basement performance vs. the studio album. It really opens up the songs, and much as I don't want to use the term, its much more organic feeling than the studio version and therefore far more compelling.

There's also a Live From The Basement version of "In Rainbows" which is also great.

So this was kinda boring, yeah? Moreso than anything else they've done; the audience polarization aspect was the most interesting bit. New single not bad though.

What new single?

Lotus Flower and Codex are the only songs I can be bothered listening to any more.

Separator!

I feel it was an ok effort but the reason I didn't like it that much was because of its length. Even Ok Computer or Kid A would have felt like less important if they'd removed say the last two tracks of each, per example.

If they had released the album with Daily Mail / Staircase or Supercollider / The Butcher instead of releasing them as separate singles it would have made more of an impact on me. Since Radiohead became more 'artsy' and experimental their songs became hit or miss, so the more songs they cram in there, the better. It's all about first impressions, no? I would have rated the album an 8 instead of a 6 if Supercollider and the Daily Mail were on it. Even Staircase sounds better to me than some of the songs that did made it.

Give Up The Ghost! That's an amazing song. I still totally rate the last 5 songs on this album.

Though I do actually wish Staircase (but not Daily Mail which is blah) and Supercollider were on it.

Ok remember that a year ago I posted a link to rearrange the tracklist in accordance to the newspaper version? ( http://www.oesquema.com.br/trabalhosujo/2011/02/28/the-king-of-limbs-newspaper-album-ou-codex.htm#comment-21810 )

Well, I was thinking about using this rearranged tracklist and adding supercollider and staircase in there to make it a 10 track album. daily mail and butcher I feel like they disrupt the overall aesthetic of the album and I'm fine with leaving them as b-sides. I was also thinking of removing Feral completely and adding Staircase in there because it sounds great in between lotus flower and little by little. Without removing any of the original tracks this is what I came up with. I think it sounds fantastic. Give it a try and tell me what you think:

1) “Lotus Flower”
2) “Feral”
3) "Staircase"
4) “Little By Little”
5) “Codex”
6) “Give Up the Ghost”
7) " Supercollider"
8) “Morning Mr Magpie”
9) “Bloom”
10) “Separator”

Just had a quick listen to the Basement sessions and eff me if they aren't a zillion times better than the studio album. I just don't like the majority of KOL - too many experiments that don't work, like bad IDM. Bloom is the prime example - listening on good headphones makes it sound WORSE because you can hear all the horrible production clicks and it sounds like a CD skipping (not in a good way).

The King of Limbs is by far Radiohead's best EP.

RONG. That's How Am I Driving.

Wow, but atease really hate this record, don't they?

I only ever listen to the Basement recordings at this point. So much so that I actually ripped them myself, edited out the studio chatter, and arranged into a playlist so I can basically pretend it is the record.

ha, that's great. willing to share?

that sounds awesome.

love the cheapness of king of limbs, sounds homemade, like they made u a demo tape

Yes, homemade is a good way of putting it. It sounds very organic, the accretions of time, like it grew that way, shaggy and slightly mossy.

Wait, maybe that's ~Thom Yorke's hair~ I'm thinking of?

The Airbag EP has some great tracks on it but the tracks don't really mesh into a nice whole. Also Palo Alto is on there, and Palo Alto shouldn't be on anything.

Aw, I like "Palo Alto." If only for that crazy mean guitar tone.

OMG Melissa we can no longer be friends. Palo Alto is not just one of my favourite guitar tones but also contains some of my favourite Thommist lyrical images of all time - "in a beautiful bombshell I throw myself into my work!" but also the maniacal boredom with which he repeats that "I'm ok how are YOU!" line so that it almost sounds like a threat.

Also I love the artwork / packaging so so much and also the story of Thom and Stanley getting hold of an EMI marketing research questionnaire and ~customising~ it in their special way, I just love it as an object as well as the music on it.

Also Meeting In The Aisle is still my favourite RH song ever but we've been through this before.

How can you not like Palo Alto o_0

ya Palo Alto is p all time amazing

I love Meeting in the Aisle, but Palo Alto is just annoyingly sing-songy in its melody. I know it's supposed to be, but it goes too far for me to be able to enjoy actually listening to it.

Ok fair enough, because that is exactly what I love about it. It's got this real nursery rhyme, playground chant aspect to the melody, especially of the choruses that really highlights and brings to the foreground the repetitive and almost nonsensical aspects of ritual interrogative conversation especially in a workplace environment.

It's also one of those songs that totally sounds like he was describing when he wad talking about getting thoughtworms/earworms (obviously he didn't use thoughtworm as a phrase but he totally described a thoughtworm) and then he said words to the effect of "yeah I get them stuck in my head until I put them in a song, then they're out of my head and into YOUR head hahahahahahaha" ::maniacal Thom giggles::

Also Jesus Christ the textures on that song, did Jonny mic up a malfunctioning radiotelescope or what?

I keep moving from city to city and I always find myself singing along Palo Alto in my first days in the place even tho I don't even have it in my ipod and I've only listened to it on the Meeting People dvd.

this clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ4lMdFYOtU

Did we actually had a poll for this album? I'm just looking at two banned threads and one joke poll.

Either way we should make one with the 4 b-sides included.

i never really got into this i guess

good album. it feels quite a minor entry in their catalog though and I think that's because of its relatively short length. If they'd put The Daily Mail, Supercollider, etc. on it then I think it'd be seen as heftier.

Heft is what i go to Beethoven for - I actually rank TKOL just below Kid A, my favorite. Many of their albs are bloated where TKOL does what it sets out to, does it well and moves on not a minute too late.

I don't understand the hate for TKOL, the grooves that they achieve in here are excellent, they've been trying to hit this plateau for almost two decades. This is the first album where the band feel in full control of what they wanted to do, the interviews with the band sort of confirm it, they feel relaxed and happy. This might be the first RH record where Thom's interviews aren't unnecessarily cryptic.

have i said this? live from the basement tkol > tkol

Serious lol at the idea of any album being improved by adding The Daily Mail to it.

why not, Matt?

Xxpost yeah the LFTB version is loads better

i'm not crazy about TKOL, i feel like "in rainbows" is the best thing they've done. when i feel like listening to radiohead i put on in rainbows. it just exudes more of warmth and accessibility that a lot of the others. despite being a radiohead stan in my college years, nowadays i feel like i almost flat out don't like ok computer, the bends, HTTT, or TKOL.

Xxpost yeah the LFTB version is loads better

Agreed. It's the version of these songs that I still reach for.

this is still a very good, very interesting album (which has a much stronger second-half).

It's interesting and good but I still can't particularly get into it.

i went through the typical arc. loved it; began recognizing its flaws (lack of hooks, some meandering, interesting ideas that don't always yield interesting songs); returned to it a few years later and realize, again, it's damn good.

I don't remember where I read/heard this but someone somewhere said something about the title being a double reference: the obvious reference is the tree, but the secondary reference is the influence of dubstep. Considering the sound of a couple of the album's tracks ('Feral' most prominently and obviously) and the remix project that followed, this seems more than a little plausible.

I didn't read this whole topic, so sorry if someone's already mentioned this upthread.

But yes, King of Limbs is very high in my favorite Radiohead albums list. Arguably #2.

it's one of the most interesting radiohead discs. a big, interesting left-turn.

it's been three years! when's the next disc coming out? overdue.

Definitely a grower this one, the only track I'm not into at all now is Feral.

Three years to creep up on you is a hell of a slow-burner though.

And it's not like I didn't listen to it for two years, stuck it on one day and was like 'actually this is quite good'. They are one of my favourite bands and I have been actively trying to crack it since it came out.

i put it on this week for the first time in quite awhile and had the same reaction. it comes off much better without the weight of 'new radiohead album!' expectations. the second half is really lovely (codex!).