Radiohead
“King of Limbs”
When Brian Eno — the Prometheus of Prog Rock — invented Ambient Music, he proved his genius.
It was an Andy Warhol sort of move, really. And how appropriate! Weren’t many of the movers and
shakers of the ’70s art school students applying the principles they’d learned from Modern and Post
Modern Art to textures, tunes and electronic excitement of the times?
With Radiohead’s graduation for “I’m a Creep” to the astonishing OK COMPUTER, suddenly the world was aware that prog rock not only never went away, it was RIGHT! Rick Wakeman may have
worn a cape while skaters danced through fog for his KING ARTHUR — but he probably went home
and put on some Ledbelly to relax. Wakeman knew and knows shit from shinola.
OK COMPUTER is a great album.
KING OF LIMBS is not.
But its kinda something else, in its own way, just as valuable.
More later, after I listen to it again!
Meantime, if you’ve got a choice between the new Britney
Spears CD and the new Radiohead — choose Radiohead.
ThrillerZone 
Gawd, David, I couldn’t agree more with your (short but appropriately succinct) point of view on this album. So far.
I, too, reserve the right to ‘grow into it’. But right now, I’m feeling a strange out-of-sync feeling with the rest of the world. Metacritic actually has “King of Limbs” rated higher than “In Rainbows” which, while not as groundbreaking as “OK Computer” has more muster, more uniqueness and spirit than does “King”. Friends and colleagues are all telling me that they didn’t really dig on “Rainbows” but are wigged out at how good “King” is.
Really?
To me, “King” is exactly what you said. When I first heard the whole thing through, I said to myself, “This is a 35-minute set of B-sides. Up-tempo but ambient B-sides that all sound fairly similar to each other. There’s no real distinct-ness among them. No heart.”
I feel “King of Limbs” is “Eraser, Part II”. Sue me, I guess.
j. //
http://www.theFarthestReaches.com
Gawd, David, I couldn’t agree more with your (short but appropriately succinct) point of view on this album. So far.
I, too, reserve the right to ‘grow into it’. But right now, I’m feeling a strange out-of-sync feeling with the rest of the world. Metacritic actually has “King of Limbs” rated higher than “In Rainbows” which, while not as groundbreaking as “OK Computer” has more muster, more uniqueness and spirit than does “King”. Friends and colleagues are all telling me that they didn’t really dig on “Rainbows” but are wigged out at how good “King” is.
Really?
To me, “King” is exactly what you said. When I first heard the whole thing through, I said to myself, “This is a 35-minute set of B-sides. Up-tempo but ambient B-sides that all sound fairly similar to each other. There’s no real distinct-ness among them. No heart.”
I feel “King of Limbs” is “Eraser, Part II”.
Sue me, I guess.
j. //
http://www.theFarthestReaches.com