King Of Limbs, The

Radiohead’s follow-up to 2008’s In Rainbows. An album built on repetition. Personal favorite is 5, followed by 3 & 8. FCC Clean.

1. Bloom. Less a conventional song than an exploration over a costant, unconventional drum pattern. A soaring, trippy Thom Yorke echo matches the chaos behind it. (5:15)
2. Morning Mr Magpie. Great rhythm section for this song, with a bouncy palm-muted guitar part and cymbal-based drum beat. Nice breakdown with some Yorke-ian falsetto. (4:41)
3. *Little By Little. One of the more traditional songs on the album. Midtempo. Nice falsetto chorus that sort of cascades downward. (4:27)
4. Feral. Similar to “Bloom” in that the song is a constant, complex drum beat with different effects added over it. It doesn’t really progress (for better or worse). (3:13)
5. ***Lotus Flower. The song that launched a thousand video remixes. Such a beautiful track. The sensual desparation in Thom Yorke’s delivery is matched perfectly by the instruments. Play and play. (5:00)
6. Codex. Slow, essentially drumless track. Nice melodic. Warm melancholy. (4:47)
7. Give Up the Ghost. Instrumentally simple. Slow acoustic guitar with a lot of Thom Yorke over it. (4:50)
8. *Separator. Gotta love that drum beat. The most upbeat track of the album. Summed up perfectly by its lyrics: “I'm a heart in cold ground / Like I'm falling out of bed / From a long and weary dream / Finally I'm free of all the weight I've been carrying.” (5:20)