I got it and I'm in Ireland, I'm half way through and loving it so far. Little by Little is magnificent.
Radiohead are "a matter of weeks" away from completing their next studio release
- Thread starter RedNome
- Start date
First listen to the album: Very brave, and very beautiful.
I'll give more thoughts after a few more listens.
I'll give more thoughts after a few more listens.
Removed.
Don't pirate! Though I smell a trick.
I pirate a lot of albums, but not bands I love as much as Radiohead.
Kid A annoys me. Musically it's very worthy but it just comes across as so deliberately pretentious. There's barely a song on it. I can't really listen to it, but I can imagine a lot of people in beret's nodding along to Treefingers and going "Oh yeah, hmmm, yes this is wonderful." In Rainbows is very good though, and OK Computer is a masterpiece.
Johnno likes Oasis.
Johnno likes Oasis.
Get where you're coming from a bit on Kid A, it is a bit pretentious, but barely a song on the album? The National Anthem and How to Disappear Completely are 2 of the finest songs you'll ever hear.
Anyway, finished King of the Limbs, like it a lot, Little By Little and Codex have really stood out so far, my gripe would be that there's 8 songs and it sort of just ... ends. No real bang or anything, Radiohead usually always have a last song on their albums that you can tell is the last song and the album has fittingly reached it's conclusion, but I don't think that's the case so far.
I like it though, a lot.
Anyway, finished King of the Limbs, like it a lot, Little By Little and Codex have really stood out so far, my gripe would be that there's 8 songs and it sort of just ... ends. No real bang or anything, Radiohead usually always have a last song on their albums that you can tell is the last song and the album has fittingly reached it's conclusion, but I don't think that's the case so far.
I like it though, a lot.
First half is hit and miss, final 4 tracks are fantastic.
Yes it is, you can't just dismiss The Stones body of work as only having one classic album, how do you define classic? Goat's Head Soup? Exile on Main Street?
Meh. I don't really agree with that, but hey it's opinion. They're both hugely over indulgent for a start (especially TNA). The dischordant stuff past 3 minutes on that is almost my definition of worthy beret wearing beatnick music. They're alright of course, because Radiohead are a good band who write good melodies, but they're not really songs. They're more pieces of music. Not that I want all my music nicely packaged in conformist song form, but I prefer my musically worthy albums to contain at least a bit of recognisable structure and hook, not to mention genuinely affecting melody, not go all wanky for the sake of it or contain long periods of silence or detuned trumpets. Floyd were able to pull this off in a decent measure without it being achingly hard work to listen to IMO. Kid A not so much.
You're wrong. Other than Treefingers, every song is an actual song. And great songs at that.
Good comeback Radiohead boy.
Everything in Its Right Place - Brilliant.
Kid A - Brilliant.
The National Anthem - Brilliant.
How to Disappear Completely - Brilliant.
Treefingers - Yeah, whatever.
Optimistic - Brilliant.
In Limbo - Brilliant.
Idioteque - Brilliant.
Morning Bell - Brilliant.
Motion Picture Soundtrack - Brilliant.
Perhaps its just me but people are hard finding it to hard to distinguish opinion with fact. There is no right or wrong, if it's someones opinion it is contextually correct for that person.
Anyway, just downloaded my pre-ordered album and started listening - I'm a little late to the party because I was informed by Radiohead that it'd be available tomorrow. That was a lie!
Anyway, just downloaded my pre-ordered album and started listening - I'm a little late to the party because I was informed by Radiohead that it'd be available tomorrow. That was a lie!
In fairness I thought Treefingers was a majestic piece of music, a guitar solo turned backwards and synthesized created a beautifully ambient piece of work.
Such is the fickleness of personal opinion?
I'm going to have to get you a beret.
I'm going to have to get you a new pair of ears.
You'd need to get me a whole new head to register what I heard as brilliant. And it'd need a beret on it.
Mockney, out of interest, what's your top3 albums of all time?
Impossible question. But for Radiohead, OK Computer, In Rainbows and the Bends.
Everything you've been saying about Radiohead is what usually pisses me off because it's similar to what a few folks have said before, actually nearly a carbon copy. They push boundaries, therefore that's instantly classed as over indulgent, which is ridiculous. Kid A is the album that could be most classified as being like that, and it isn't really. I can't understand how you consider TNA to be like that, and How To Disappear Completely, they're wonderful songs, not just pieces of music, and to say Radiohead just add lyrics to songs for the sake of it is ridiculous.
Rant over
Rant over
Radiohead may have pushed the boundaries after Pablo Honey but they found a formula and stuck to it, they just change the theme of their music imho. Take OK Computer and Kid A both seem befitting of a futuristic dystopian era, whereas In Rainbows and The Bends seem to be more grounded in a surreal version of the present. The actual formula remains the same, complex instrumentals, ethereal lyrics/vocals etc. Just the theme changes.
I'd suggest you have such a problem with it because you can see how easy it is for some people to see it like that.
I haven't said anything about Radiohead as a band being like what you've mentioned. Quite to the contrary I think they're a great band and consider OK Computer (and possibly In Rainbows too) to be masterpieces.
Kid A is simply an album I don't like. I don't consider it pushing boundaries because I don't see what boundaries you're pushing by adding 2 minutes of dischordant trumpets to the end of something. That kind of "experimentation" with sound an ambience started well before Radiohead, the Beatles were doing it for fecks sake, and it strikes me as people becoming to self indulgent in their work. But that's just my opinion.
The opinion of people who take that opinion to be deeply annoying wrong one rather than a valid opinion are - in my opinion - the kind unobjective fanboys who can't see the wood for the trees.
I haven't said anything about Radiohead as a band being like what you've mentioned. Quite to the contrary I think they're a great band and consider OK Computer (and possibly In Rainbows too) to be masterpieces.
Kid A is simply an album I don't like. I don't consider it pushing boundaries because I don't see what boundaries you're pushing by adding 2 minutes of dischordant trumpets to the end of something. That kind of "experimentation" with sound an ambience started well before Radiohead, the Beatles were doing it for fecks sake, and it strikes me as people becoming to self indulgent in their work. But that's just my opinion.
The opinion of people who take that opinion to be deeply annoying wrong one rather than a valid opinion are - in my opinion - the kind unobjective fanboys who can't see the wood for the trees.
Come on, fanboy? Nah. I'll happily state when I don't like their albums. Pablo Honey is rubbish, Hail to the Thief and Amnesiac are average. The Bends is good but overrated. Ok Computer and In Rainbows are indeed masterpieces. Kid A I wouldn't rate that highly but I do consider it rather brilliant.
I just don't find them indulgent, simply as. I never stated they were the only band who experimented either, but there aren't a lot who do it successfully nowadays are there?
I just don't find them indulgent, simply as. I never stated they were the only band who experimented either, but there aren't a lot who do it successfully nowadays are there?
But you're telling me I shouldn't think it's rubbish because they've experimented and "not a lot of people do that?" I could whack my cock along a washboard for 45 minutes to create an experimental album. Doesn't mean anyone has to give it credence.
Plus you keep taking my opinons on Kid A to be akin to my opinions on the band. They aren't. I simply think it's an album where they tried something else, which I didn't like. Melodically I find it mawkish and unappealing and the experimental "ambience" I found neither original nor interesting. As I said, hard work to listen to.
Doesn't change my actually rather high opinion of the band otherwise. Or indeed other people's reverence for the album. Even if they do wear berets.
Also..
where have I even said this?
Plus you keep taking my opinons on Kid A to be akin to my opinions on the band. They aren't. I simply think it's an album where they tried something else, which I didn't like. Melodically I find it mawkish and unappealing and the experimental "ambience" I found neither original nor interesting. As I said, hard work to listen to.
Doesn't change my actually rather high opinion of the band otherwise. Or indeed other people's reverence for the album. Even if they do wear berets.
Also..
and to say Radiohead just add lyrics to songs for the sake of it is ridiculous.
Rant over
where have I even said this?
I'm not "telling" you you shouldn't think it's rubbish. I don't think it's rubbish, I think it's great, what's wrong with debating that on a forum exactly?
I misread the lyrics thing actually, in truth. I meant it more so in relation to the 'not really songs' bit you said about Kid A. I just wouldn't see it in that light at all, there's some great 'songs' on the album. I do agree with you on Treefingers though, it fecks the album up a bit for me. I still think the first 4 songs on the album are brilliant, and at that stage I'm thinking, this could be as good as Ok Computer, but then Treefinger comes on and that blows it for me. Ok Computer and In Rainbows are just staggeringly good throughout, they just blend in the whole way through, and they never, ever get old.
Oh, loving King of the Limbs so far, listened twice and I love it.
I misread the lyrics thing actually, in truth. I meant it more so in relation to the 'not really songs' bit you said about Kid A. I just wouldn't see it in that light at all, there's some great 'songs' on the album. I do agree with you on Treefingers though, it fecks the album up a bit for me. I still think the first 4 songs on the album are brilliant, and at that stage I'm thinking, this could be as good as Ok Computer, but then Treefinger comes on and that blows it for me. Ok Computer and In Rainbows are just staggeringly good throughout, they just blend in the whole way through, and they never, ever get old.
Oh, loving King of the Limbs so far, listened twice and I love it.
I can see why "barely a song" on the album is a confusing statement. What I mean is that I don't consider most of the tracks to have much of a structure, or a meaning, recognisable to what most people would classify as a song. i.e.verse, chorus, middle 8, narrative etc. and whatever permutation of them. Ignoring that is by no means a bad thing, but it isn't automatically a good thing either. Many of the tracks do strike me as 4 minute pieces of ambient music, often repetitive ones, with some singing no top (oddly a bit how you've accused me of describing it, but I don't see it as dismissively as that, I'm sure there was far more purpose and thought behind it, they just unavoidably strike me as such)...How to Disappear Completely I Do like actually. There are a couple that are OK in fact, but in the main I just don't like it. I wouldn't put it on if friends were round, I wouldn't listen to it on my own, I don't find it enjoyable at all. It bores me, and in places, actually annoys me (the 2nd half of the National Anthem, Kid A and Idioteque in particular) Can't be helped. Just like the hideous shape of Mike's ears.
So King of the Limbs is available now is it?
So King of the Limbs is available now is it?
I see where you're coming from now, because you left the word indulgent out!
And yeah, seems to be. I pre ordered and then just saw the "download" button sitting there, and it worked.
And yeah, seems to be. I pre ordered and then just saw the "download" button sitting there, and it worked.
You're such a ponce
Braver in many ways than Cheryl Cole.
Do you like Four Tet or any of that kind of stuff Mockney?
Do you like Four Tet or any of that kind of stuff Mockney?
I'm looking forward to getting it, though I'm gonna opt for a physical copy. I love Radiohead, along with Arcade Fire they are the best indie band in the whole world.
I can't believe the sort of treatment Treefingers is getting in this thread. It's a superb ambient piece of music and it's fairly obvious why it comes after 'How to disappear completely' it's the musical answer to that song. Not to mention working on it's own as a piece of music anyway.
Yes this is only my personal opinion, but Treefingers is by no means an album-wrecker. Far from it.
Yes this is only my personal opinion, but Treefingers is by no means an album-wrecker. Far from it.
No, for me neither. I think it's also there to replicate the pause for thought you used to get when switching sides on a vinyl mid-album.
Going to refrain from commenting too much on King of Limbs until I've heard it a few more times - today is not a good day for Radiohead listening cos the missus is at home and when I put it on earlier, she asked me if the CD had stuck and she still insists on talking to me even when I have headphones on.
I'm just not a great fan of this 1000bpm electronic skiffle stuff that Thom Yorke has become so obsessed with ever since the Kid A era and it features heavily on King of Limbs. It has more of a "The Eraser part 2" feel than a Radiohead album but I've felt for a long time that the distinction between what is Radiohead and what is Thom Yorke solo stuff has become more and more difficult to determine.
Codex is the stand-out track for me so far, I think.
I'm just not a great fan of this 1000bpm electronic skiffle stuff that Thom Yorke has become so obsessed with ever since the Kid A era and it features heavily on King of Limbs. It has more of a "The Eraser part 2" feel than a Radiohead album but I've felt for a long time that the distinction between what is Radiohead and what is Thom Yorke solo stuff has become more and more difficult to determine.
Codex is the stand-out track for me so far, I think.
For me the first track has a lot of influence from Jonny's solo stuff more than Thom's. It reminded me of Convergence from Bodysong when I first heard it.
I'm gonna have to listen to Kid A on the train home now, thanks to ye cnuts.
Lucky you!
You get to marvel at the breathtaking scope of HTDC, freak out to Idioteque, chuff along with Morning Bell and round off your day with a spot of Motion Picture Soundtrack contemplation.
Oh yes, and wonder why the hell Radiohead thought they were Jean Michel Jarre with Treefingers.
Mockney,
motion picture soundtrack is beautiful... i dont get how you cant like it
the quiet understated drum roll behind morning bell with the synth over the top which plateaus into that wonderful major key sounding crescendo and then cuts out with a minory sounding ? its really good man.
this bit
Sleepy jack the fire drill
Running round and round and round and round and round...
And round
Cut the kids in half
Cut the kids in half
Cut the kids in half
horses for courses and all that of course, but these are the bits i enjoy.
appreciate taste is subjective..
motion picture soundtrack is beautiful... i dont get how you cant like it
the quiet understated drum roll behind morning bell with the synth over the top which plateaus into that wonderful major key sounding crescendo and then cuts out with a minory sounding ? its really good man.
this bit
Sleepy jack the fire drill
Running round and round and round and round and round...
And round
Cut the kids in half
Cut the kids in half
Cut the kids in half
horses for courses and all that of course, but these are the bits i enjoy.
appreciate taste is subjective..
I'm not familiar with Jonny's solo stuff, it has bypassed me completely for some reason.
I notice that he's long-since abandoned his guitar and is just as likely to be found exploring the musical possibilities presented by kitchen appliances these days. Probably explains a lot.
Crikey. The whole of King of Limbs is up on youtube already. That didn't take long.