Free Friday Ear Food (Thursday Edition) - My King of Limbs

With the release of two new Radiohead tracks for Record Store Day (Supercollier and The Butcher), I felt that I should do something to recognize them. And seeing as how so many folks were upset with the length (and over all quality) of recent album The King of Limbs (see Hitler below) I decided to beef the album up a bit with new songs, including two other singles released between In Rainbows and King of Limbs.

I spent the better part of 3 hours listening and rearranging the track list (though not messing with the original list, just squeezing in the 4 new songs), and what came out was a 12 track, 1 hour album that I really believe enhances the listening experience of the entire album. For example, listening to Feral when the album was only 37 minutes long was rather annoying in my opinion, and added nothing to the experience, but when played as part of longer album it becomes more bearable, somewhat like Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors, though ultimately it would be skipped my most casual listeners anyway.

Another thing that was hard to pick up on was the transition of the original album. The first half was more up beat and electronic where the last half seemed very toned down and calm. The new songs I think help make this more noticeable, as you have more time to get into the 'feel' of the album.

Finally, the closing track on my edition is the only song that I think sounds forced, and honestly it is. It doesn't really fit the sound of the album. From the Kid A / Amnesiac albums I absolutely loved the closing tracks, and I felt Harry Patch would have been a great album closer, and it fits the overall calmness of the second half of the album, but there just wasn't a good transition into it.

In the end, I think have proved that had Radiohead put at least two or three more songs into the album, the overall listening experience would increase tenfold. Or they could have just said 'Hey guys, here's a new 8-track EP' and I think people would have liked it better. The expectations were just to high. Maybe next time.

Enjoy!


P.S. Doing this gave me a great idea for Radiohead's next album. If you remember there was a concert that they played were they had several cameras set up, and allowed online viewers to watch the concert and control which cameras to watch from and record their own personal concert. I think it would be pretty cool if they released a bunch tracks (and Stanley Donwood artwork?) and said go make your own album. Maybe make a contest of it. If only  I were Thom Yorke.