Back in my day we called them double albums.
Back in those days, an album probably had 12-15 tracks on it too...
Radiohead are "a matter of weeks" away from completing their next studio release
- Thread starter RedNome
- Start date
Back in those days, an album probably had 12-15 tracks on it too...
He basically seems to go on Boomkat and listen to most of their recommendations.
I've not got the PJ Harvey yet, I loved the track that sampled Blood and Fire though. Will d/l the Radiohead in a bit, I heard a bit of it on the radio earlier and liked it.
Yep, 'Written On The Forehead' is good, 'Hanging In The Wire' is OK too.
I'm sure one or two of the more ambient Radiohead tracks will grow on me over time.
I think my big problem is too high a level of expectation.
In Rainbows was a truely great album, always gonna be a tough one to follow up.
Really think it'll be a grower though.
The best albums are those that improve with repeated listens.
Couldn't agree more, although I do find there are plenty that I instantly like on first listen, or more, I instantly know it's going to be great but not fully appreciating until follow up listens if you know what I mean?
When they are immediate you hammer them for a few weeks and then generally don't listen to them much thereafter.
The PJ Harvey album is very good. Takes a couple of listens to get into, though.
I've never really been into Radiohead, but I'll give this new one a listen soon.
I think the advent of the MP3 has really killed the chance to appreciate slow-growers. When I first started listening to music it was tapes. Whenever you got a new album, you would play it to death but you'd play it right through every time. Side A, then Side B. All of it. The songs that hooked you immediately usually got old quite quickly but a track or two that you barely even noticed on first listen often became long-term favourites.
These days you download an album, quickly pick out a few favourites, stick them in a play-list or repeatedly play them on their own and give up on the album once you're bored of these most obvious of tunes on the album. The slow-growers never get a look in.
I've tried to be disciplined about listening to the whole album every time but I just can't be arsed. I've got the attention span of a goldfish. Another curse of the digital age.
So yeah, King of Limbs. I quite like it but I doubt I'll ever give it the amount of time it deserves. I think I preferred In Rainbows. fecks knows really. What?
Should also add I listened to Kid A on the way back from work today.
It kicks the arse of this new 'un. IMHO.
It kicks the arse of this new 'un. IMHO.
Great post Pogue ^^ The one above your last one re tapes and attention spans.
I think I've put my finger on another problem I have with the album, it's the lack of guitar or anything resembling an organic instrument.
I think I've put my finger on another problem I have with the album, it's the lack of guitar or anything resembling an organic instrument.
Probably exaggerating a bit with the point about tapes. CDs usually got played through more often than not. It's iTunes and the like which really killed albums stone dead.
Aye, we still had a fast forward button at the end of the day.
It's more than just iTunes to be honest, it's the fact that there is so many options you have to kill time now, video games, tv, films....back when the album was booming, people didn't have these as distractions, or at least with such ease of access like you do now. It started in the 90's really with CD's making "boring" tracks easily skipable, yes PCs made it even easier, but yeah.
That's what I was alluding to with the goldfish attention span. I can't remember the last time I sat down just to listen to music, which is something I used to do regularly. There's always something else on the go nowadays. Browsing the web, playing a game on the iPhone, posting on this place, whatever. Even chilling out nowadays involves multi-tasking. Which is a mental state of affairs.
I tend to just put new stuff straight on the ipod and then listen to the recently added playlist so hear it quite a bit.
I also play music when I'm going to bed on sleep so that's always a great time to really take in music.
I also play music when I'm going to bed on sleep so that's always a great time to really take in music.
I tell you what's great about the way Radiohead are releasing albums now is the shared collective experience. Pretty much everyone I know has listened to the album today and had their say.
I cant believe some people have already neatly placed it against the previous albums, surely its too early. I watched my brother download and skim through it in 5 minutes, and tell me its not as good as Ok, but better than Kid A.
With the exception of Bloom, i think its really good and has some very beautiful moments.
But i couldn't really pass judgment so soon. And it also feels like theres part of it missing.
With the exception of Bloom, i think its really good and has some very beautiful moments.
But i couldn't really pass judgment so soon. And it also feels like theres part of it missing.
Yeah, I used to love listening to music while drifting off to sleep. Especially at weekends, while slightly chemically altered. The whole synaesthesia thing on the inside of your eye-lids is great. Haven't done that in ages though.
Know what you're saying but I think I always ended up picking out a few favourites from albums even back in the day.
Even when I was buying vinyl and tapes, I would often make my own "compilation tapes" of favourite tracks.
A couple of years ago, I got an MP3 player for my car and it was the same thing, going through really old, classic (to my ears) albums and putting on the tracks I like best so it was just like the same old, same old.
I must have bought and downloaded over 1,000 albums in my lifetime but I would be hard-pressed to name you an album which I can listen to from start to finish without skipping.
I think if you've bought an album then you owe it to yourself and the artist to give every track a fair hearing or three before dismissing it. Some of my all-time favourite tracks didn't make much sense the first time I heard them but then they "click" after a few listens.
I have a feeling that there are two or three on this new radiohead album in that category. I hope so anyway.
My favourite all-time "going to sleep" album was Waiting for Cousteau by Jean Michel Jarre. I only ever put that on when I was in bed and I swear to god I have never heard it all the way through because I'm usually asleep within 30 minutes!
I just bought it, not really liking it so far but I'm going to give it a try. In Rainbows and Kid A never convinced me but the rest of their albums were very good to excellent.
It's pretty good. Only surprise (or disappointment) is the lack of defining moments.
Edit: And the fact that there are no tracks that are dead cert classics (i.e. No Surprises, Reckoner, etc etc)
Edit: And the fact that there are no tracks that are dead cert classics (i.e. No Surprises, Reckoner, etc etc)
I pretty much agree with the majority that the last 4 songs are the good while the first 4 are a tad ordinary. I'm just disappointed it's only 8 songs.
Missed this earlier
I don't strictly dislike it, I think the melody of the refrain is very nice (the crazy baby bit) but I don't like the pacing or instrumentation of it. I think the acoustic version is much better, but I still think it's a rather ordinary song with an ordinary verse not helped by the slightly depressive over bearing organ (the film score harply twinkly bits are a nice touch - "ey motion picture sound track ey? ey? my God that's so fecking clever!" - but don't rescue it's enjoyment for me). I could imagine a million other bands writing that song acousticly and Mike hating it...But then Thom Yorke could release an album of armpit squeeks and diarretic follow throughs (called Under armed up the Alley) and Mike and a bunch of other people would wet themselves over it...Plus the extended silence and then fade back in at the end is the most wanky thing anyone can possibly do in music. And it's almost utterly pointless.
IMO
The drum roll doesn't fit for me and the major-minor shift is something Radiohead do in about a 3rd of all their songs so again, nothing I find particularly amazing. It's a very ordinary song for me. Almost like a parody of a Radiohead song. But not a very good one. Again, as with a few on that album I don't think it's bad, on the contrary I can see the melodic and musical quality in it, but I don't enjoy it and don't find it at all affecting or interesting. It's another song that sounds a bit like a lot of Radiohead songs that sound a bit like that.
Indeed. I realise I'm very much a philistine when it comes to Kid A, hence why I said initially that it annoys me. I know it's worthy, and I know a lot of it is musically very good and I'd love to be wanky and say I love all the subtexture cos I love a lot of other Radiohead stuff, but I don't. I just find it wanky, and don't like listening to it.
In my opinion there's nothing on Kid A or King of Limbs that's as good as Nude or Reckoner (or even 15 Step or Faust for that matter). And certainly nothing as good as Street Spirit or Just (though they're not really comparable with them tbf)
I don't strictly dislike it, I think the melody of the refrain is very nice (the crazy baby bit) but I don't like the pacing or instrumentation of it. I think the acoustic version is much better, but I still think it's a rather ordinary song with an ordinary verse not helped by the slightly depressive over bearing organ (the film score harply twinkly bits are a nice touch - "ey motion picture sound track ey? ey? my God that's so fecking clever!" - but don't rescue it's enjoyment for me). I could imagine a million other bands writing that song acousticly and Mike hating it...But then Thom Yorke could release an album of armpit squeeks and diarretic follow throughs (called Under armed up the Alley) and Mike and a bunch of other people would wet themselves over it...Plus the extended silence and then fade back in at the end is the most wanky thing anyone can possibly do in music. And it's almost utterly pointless.
IMO
The drum roll doesn't fit for me and the major-minor shift is something Radiohead do in about a 3rd of all their songs so again, nothing I find particularly amazing. It's a very ordinary song for me. Almost like a parody of a Radiohead song. But not a very good one. Again, as with a few on that album I don't think it's bad, on the contrary I can see the melodic and musical quality in it, but I don't enjoy it and don't find it at all affecting or interesting. It's another song that sounds a bit like a lot of Radiohead songs that sound a bit like that.
Indeed. I realise I'm very much a philistine when it comes to Kid A, hence why I said initially that it annoys me. I know it's worthy, and I know a lot of it is musically very good and I'd love to be wanky and say I love all the subtexture cos I love a lot of other Radiohead stuff, but I don't. I just find it wanky, and don't like listening to it.
In my opinion there's nothing on Kid A or King of Limbs that's as good as Nude or Reckoner (or even 15 Step or Faust for that matter). And certainly nothing as good as Street Spirit or Just (though they're not really comparable with them tbf)
Well that's not true is it? There's plenty of Radiohead stuff I'm not a fan of. Most of Pablo Honey is shite, Sulk off The Bends is rubbish, Pulk Pull off Amnesiac is awful, half of Hail to the Thief is mediocre at best.
But Kid A is nigh on perfect, sorry.
When it's rubbish you have to call it as such, but anything you'd consider mediocre or alright for another band (for example, Motion Picture Soundtrack is a very ordinary song) you'll probably elevate to brilliant if it's Radiohead. As will a fair amount of others. Even Jonny Greenwood said he felt OK Computer was overrated because people loved them after the Bends, and I think OK Computer is worthy of overrating. Radiohead are just one of those bands unfortunately. Their acolytes will always adore them slightly too much.
That's the way I see it anyway Dylan. I think you're unobjective. I haven't quite gotten the braveness of this album yet. Care to help me out?
That's the way I see it anyway Dylan. I think you're unobjective. I haven't quite gotten the braveness of this album yet. Care to help me out?
I can't imagine that album ending in any other way than with the ethereal dreaminess of Motion Picture Soundtrack.
There isn't really a smilie appropriate for that. But kudos.
They opened with Bloom which they probably knew gimps like you wouldn't like for a start.
But I was more referring to the use of birdsong and those kind of things which can sound so so cheesy if done wrong. Everyone knows Thom is an environmentalist and campaigns for Friends of the Earth and this album seems to me like he's wearing that on his sleeve more. What started as the environmental paranoia of Idioteque back on Kid A has been through The Eraser and seems much more contemplative now. That bit at the end of Codex where the distorted white noise sort of up-samples into birdsong is one of my favourite moments on the album. Sort of like nature growing from the mess of mankind in a way. Like a tree. Like an old tree. Like the King of Limbs.
That's only half tongue in cheek.
Are you lot still going on?
King of the Limbs is great by the way
King of the Limbs is great by the way
Just put The King of Limbs followed by Kid A on a playlist. No comparison to be truthful. I've listened to TKoL five times already, it's good, too backgroundish.
King Of Limbs sounds better today than yesterday.
I'm just about to give it a second listen, I feel like I took nothing in first time round.
Still not much absorption. I like Little By Little though.
its not that great first listen, in rainbows was better straight off the bat
Give Up The Ghost is immense.
lotus flower
codex
give up the ghost
all stood out for moi
codex
give up the ghost
all stood out for moi