If Presentation Was Everything...

...then "The King of Limbs" by Radiohead would, quite simply, be the greatest album of all time.  What the band deemed "The world's first newspaper album" finally arrived at my doorstep a few days back - pretty newspaper-like so far.  It was all wrapped up in a rain-repellent sleeve to keep the paper portion of its contents safe from the elements.  Still a good bit like a newspaper.  I open it the thing up, and inside...is a newspaper.  Well that just may be the most newspaper-like quality thus far!  In big, bold, newspaper-y font across the top the title of the publication reads "The King of Limbs" and then it just continues to be very much like a newspaper.  Little articles, musings by the band, lyrics interspersed, many many fantastic looking works of art filling whole pages of the thing, strange little writings that seem deep but I can't really make any sense of them - all fill the hefty paper.  It was great fun to flip through it while I was...hmm...what was I doing?

Oh ya, listening to the album on my turntable.  That's right, this was, after all, an album.  In addition to the newspaper is the actual album sleeve covered in beautiful artwork, holding two clear vinyls that are about the sleekest things I've ever seen.

Which brings me to my next point.  Unfortunately for "The King of Limbs", presentation isn't everything.  The music actually counts a lot; and it's a good thing that "Limbs" is apparently governed by a monarchy, because I don't see this album getting voted into power in a free country.  Certainly not if that country was the land of "Radiohead Discography".

I bought this album before it was even possible to hear the songs.  All of a sudden, one day in February, it becomes apparent that new Radiohead will be available something like 5 days later!  But wait! If you preorder what will be "The world's first newspaper album", then in May, you'll receive a crazy package full of art, literature, vinyls, a cd, this weird card-stock thing with lots of tiny weird images (which, by the way, I can't make heads or tails of, figure out what it would be good for, or what most of the pictures are, but by golly I love it), and more.  Well I had to buy it.  This is, after all, the band that brought me "OK Computer", which I will continue to claim is unequivocally the greatest album of the nineties, not to mention "Kid A" which defined its own genre of music, and all their other great albums.  In a musical landscape that I find leaves something to be desired 90% of the time, I'm gonna go ahead and get whatever one of the few consistent, incredible bands of my generation is going to come out with.

My first impression was that it was pretty poor.  It seemed like a lot of self-indulgent Thom Yorke vocal droning with a lot of electronic loops and ambient noise.  To some extent, I still feel that way, but much less so, and it's growing on me continuously.  Despite not having the "triple guitar attack" of Radiohead of Yore, or some of the incredibly catchy riffs or progressions that really make some of their older stuff stand out above this work, it still has many oh so Radiohead elements that make their work great.

Layering, for one, is something on which Radiohead has a uniquely incredible grasp.  Every part in every song is incredibly appropriate in its tone, duration, volume, intricacy; and they blend together to form beautifully full sections of songs, and fall out almost unnoticeably to leave you with hauntingly beautiful stripped down parts.

Radiohead is also still king of (limbs?) the gorgeous but melancholy, drone of a song.  Codex, in particular, comes to mind.  The haunting blend of vocals and flugelhorn gives me chills.   Give Up The Ghost is another beautifully haunting track that just layers over one little progression the whole time but keeping it interesting with new sounds coming in and fading out, continuous backing vocals, and of course the ever-emotional Yorke vocals.

Additionally, drummer Selway and bassist Colin Greenwood work together on much of this album to make beats that would make demoralize an inexperienced member of what you could call the rhythm section of a band.  The great thing is, it's not that their parts are even that difficult, they're just more creative, and really isn't that what counts?  Listen to the beats on Feral, Little By Little, and Separator.  Listen to how the bass complements them, as well as creative bass parts sprinkling the rest of the album (quite a little gem of a bassline in the breakdown of Morning Mr. Magpie eh?).

And of course we can't forget Jonny Greenwood.  You have to listen for where he shines on this album, because there's not gonna be any in-your-face shredding, if that's what you're looking for.  But when you listen for it, he shines brightly.  Clever, intricate guitar parts fill this album to the brim.  Not to mention him obviously being responsible for a lot of brilliant arranging and creative guiding of songs.

Lyrically, the album is ever-poetic, with a lot of natural imagery, mysterious tales of difficulty, aging, lasting, and more, with a lot of fairy-tale sort of imagery interspersed.  The wealth of artwork corroborates this feel well, conjuring up images of the strange creatures in the artwork in the newspaper while the album is playing.

I could be pretty negative about this album, and focus on how it doesn't live up to their great work of the past, or even "In Rainbows", which I consider to be a pretty far superior work overall.  It certainly doesn't help that every time I listen to TKOL on my computer, itunes moves onto Airbag when it's finished, since "OK Computer" is the next alphabetical Radiohead album on my computer, reminding me of the mind-blowing brilliance contained therein.  And it's important, I think, to distinguish that this album quite simply is not as brilliant as other things they have done.  However, it is, on the whole, quite a good 40 minutes of music, and a huge relief from 98% of the awfulness that gets onto the radio these days.  I'm excited to see what they do next.  They changed their sound completely and produced a great album with "In Rainbows", and released it on a name-your-price basis.  This album's packaging is one-of-a-kind, another drastic change in sound, and overall pretty enjoyable.  I think they've proven that they have the creative ability to experiment a little bit and get back on track and continue to make great music, as well as be completely groundbreaking in their methods of releasing of great music.

So ask your Radiohead-fanatic friends to get a good look at this packaging, as my description can't do a justice, and give "The King of Limbs" a couple of chances.  Listen closely for the truly great parts.  Realize that Lotus Flower may very well be the worst track on the album and should have, in no way, been the single.  I think if you do these things it'll grow on you.

And maybe hit pause before Airbag starts playing.