radiohead - the king of limbs

Radiohead really outdid themselves this time.

Thom Yorke and the gang emerged from four years of relative silence with a surprise statement last week, announcing the release of a new album, entitled “The King of Limbs.” A release date was set for February 19^th, and the Internet roared with rumors and speculation as to what the album would be like.

Then, out of nowhere, the band made the album available on their website a day early, with zero warning or advance notice. Everyone in the world—fans, journalists, critics, and friends—was delivered the album at the exact same time, an achievement that is simply unprecedented in the age of digital music.

Album releases are no longer tense, anticipatory events. Everything gets leaked before its release date—absolutely everything—except for Radiohead albums. A combination of a tight production team, near-immediate releases of digital copies, and the delayed production of easily-leaked physical copies ensured that King of Limbs was available to fans worldwide at the exact same time, an achievement that's nothing short of incredible.

And for all that hype surrounding the album, fans worldwide experienced the same disappointment at the exact same time: eight tracks, totaling just over thirty-seven minutes of music. It was the shortest Radiohead album in their career, by five minutes, and it felt even shorter. To even call it an album is an overstatement.

As I attempt to write about the King of Limbs, I'm struggling to find a real precedent for what happened over the last seven days. For Radiohead fans, it's been absolute joy, followed by incredible anticipation, followed by total shock, followed by immense disappointment, followed by complete denial. It's hard to remember the last time a piece of music garnered this much attention while delivering so little on the immense hype placed behind it.

It's a good album, possibly even a great one, but it doesn't rank up among Radiohead's best work. It can be best described as a more melodic version of Kid A, with the rampant experimental instrumentation from In Rainbows carried over—only without the songwriting. You reach the end of the album, and you can't help but want more. It feels empty, like someone over at Radiohead HQ only included half the album in the digital download by accident.

The cult-like Radiohead fanbase has been trying to fill that emptiness ever since. Rumors continue to swirl regarding a secret second-half of the album, or even a few bonus tracks, but so far nothing has emerged (as of press time). The signs are everywhere, however, and it's hard not to buy into the conspiracy theories at least a little.

The digital downloads for the King of Limbs were given order numbers, all of which start with “TKOL-1,” leading many fans to believe that a second release—presumably “TKOL-2”—is waiting to be unleashed upon the world. Further evidence for this lies in the fact that the last Radiohead album, In Rainbows, was released in 2007 with a bonus disc of ten additional songs.

The final track on the album is entitled “Separator,” and contains the lyric “If you think this is over, you're wrong,” both leading fans to believe the album is incomplete. Even more interestingly, the track was titled “Mouse Dog Bird” in its live form, with the name changed just for the album. (The lyric in question was also included in the live version, however.)

The main problem fans have with the King of Limbs, however, is the fact that Radiohead has a lot of music leftover. And I mean a lot.

A good friend of mine who eats, sleeps, and breathes Radiohead estimates that the band has fourteenunreleased songs that are complete or nearly complete, yet they're nowhere to be seen. And that's just what we've heard. After four years of recording, there has to be more.

He also claims to have inside sources of his own who have been vaguely hinting at bigger things to come, and adds that the fact that Radiohead has yet to give interviews regarding the album means they're probably not done yet.

I'm still cautiously optimistic that we'll hear more from Radiohead in the coming weeks. Until then, I'm hesitant to pass full judgment on the King of Limbs. If this is really all we're getting, then at the very least it's impossible not to be disappointed. But I'm still patiently waiting.

- 2/21/11

Note: This may look ridiculous now, given the fact that the mystical TKOL-2 never showed up, but I still think this remains a fairly accurate description of the initial reactions to the album.