Real Time Review: Radiohead's "King of Limb's"

Well time to try something new. I am going to write about a new album that I got in real time, that means I am going to write about each songs as I listen and am going to stop as soon as the song it over. This will be interesting as it will capture my purely initial sentiment, which we result in a great comparison to my opinion a month later. That’s right this feature will have two parts that are a month apart. I think this more accurately recreates the feelings one has about a record. I may love it on first listen but a month later my have only listened to it three times, or inversely I could hate it on first listen and have listened to it 20 times in the past month and now love it. So lets start of with Radiohead’s newest release.


Kind of Limbs - Radiohead


1.) Bloom


Starts out promising enough with some weird noise and electronics chopping, using sparse bass notes to pierce through it…then the vocals come in and the delivery contrasts too much with the music for this to be enjoyable anymore. The long drawn out notes with the schizophrenic beat just seem amateur. This now some vocal “oohs”? These seem like they are from a different song. Though the Orchestral swell that follows is invigorating, and then back to the normal vocal delivery. I feel repulsed by this track, not surround by it like you do on Radiohead’s best songs. This sounds almost Art of Noise-esque, but not in a good way.


2.) Morning Mr. Magpie


Now this is better. The drive of the guitar lines and cymbal heavy drums is already intoxicating. The vocals are less drawn out but still have that elongated syllables that the singer favors. I already want to sing along as the synth effects swell. Then at the bridge we get a pretty cool break down with some killer bass as every instrument starts to build on the other. Really when it comes down to it this is a song I want to dance to, how ever awkward it would be. They got a small masterpiece in this song right here.


3.) Little by Little


Well this one has the cleanest instrumentation so far…But I am already annoyed by the percussion. It is way too prominent in the mix. OH THANK GOD it goes away at a minute in. Not I can talk about how much the rest of this song is good. Again it is “I want to dance” good. The simple guitar progression some neat effects that I think are reversed tracks. The effective use of panning sounds…I am having trouble writing because I am so enthralled, even if the annoying beat has come back. This song is very spacey and orchestral like late ELO.


4.) Feral


Ok Radiohead just made a dance record people. They wanted to put orchestral psychedelic experiments over dance beats and this is what they got. This may be the most interesting track so far, but that doesn’t make it good. I am really lost on this one. It is so thick that I am having trouble picking out specific interments and effects. DOES THIS SONG EVER END? It is only 2:45 in and it feels like 6 min. Come on only 10 seconds left 4. 3. 2. 1!


5.) Lotus Flower


This is more bearable but not exactly as good as track 2. The groove of this one and the vocals are much more intelligible then they were on the last track. Plus the bass line is pretty killer. Ok I am convinced that this is a good song. Again I am thinking of a darker ELO while listening to this, but with dance music and The Cure’s musical Jungle style thrown in. It is like House Music ate Jeff Lynne and Robert Smith.


6.) Codex


PROMINENT PIANO HO!!!! This one seems to be a nice change of pace. Way more atmospheric then anything else: I am already enthralled at barely a minute in. It is plodding but everything moves forward so elegantly and tastefully. Besides a little reverb and some menacing orchestration every now and then this is the most barebones production wise so far, and it is nice to get a breath of fresh air. I am going to actually stop typing and just listen to the rest…I think that is the best compliment a song could get in this feature. Why could the other songs be like this?


7.) Give Up the Ghost


Ooooh, we have a smooth transition from Codex to this with out a break; that makes me hopeful. They are using primarily acoustic guitar with some basic rhythms section? Excellent! Oh and the muffled backing vocal delivery of “Don’t Hurt Me” are haunting. Once again, why are the first 5 songs like dance tunes? This and Codex are what Radiohead is best at; atmosphere and pure emotional catharsis using clever orchestration.


8.) Separator


Well the beat is more danceable then the last two but the production leaves room to breathe. It looks like we have another winner here. Once again, why is the first 5/8th of the album these weird dance songs, with only Morning Mr. Magpie being good from the start? I mean the last 3 songs are pure perfection. I would have sung this album praises from the mountains as being as good, nay, BETTER then The Bends or OK Computer if the entire album was like these last three.

So you want to get into...The Mountain Goats Part 4

Get Lonely

Best Song: If You See Light

Track List:

1.) Wild Sage
2.) New Monster Avenue 
3.) Half Dead
4.) Get Lonely
5.) Maybe Sprout Wings
6.) Moon Over Goldsboro
7.) In the Hidden Places
8.) Song for Lonely Giants
9.) Woke Up New
10.) If You See Light
11.) Cobra Tattoo
12.) In Corolla

This is the only album by The Mountain Goats that I still can’t stand. After being blown away by The Sunset Tree, an album I disliked on my first listen, I decided to give Get Lonely a second go. I mean sure when I first heard The Mountain Goats I hated them and then after I found out I liked some of their stuff I made a huge misstep by getting Get Lonely as my first album… and I deleted it almost immediately. But maybe on this second go around I would at least like it, right?

Wrong.

Now it isn’t that the songs aren’t well written. They are all mostly decent with some even being beautiful. "New Monster Avenue" is a perfect example of this. It is blue at the track list so that shows that I hate it, but I would love it if it was an instrumental. That’s right I am saying that John Darnielle, one of the masters of “lyrics come save my song” fu, should have completely dropped the vocals on most of these tracks. Or at the very least given them to someone who could perform with the vulnerability and frailty he wants to convey.

That really is Darnielle’s biggest flaw in his vocal delivery. He has a very strong voice and when he tries to make it seem fragile it just feels so forced that I can’t get behind it. If you want the effect of a thin pleading vocal, please just get Kaki King to guest (and she should get Darnielle to guest when she needs more powerful vocals for a song, but that is a different issue). I will always prefer his glazed eyed sorrow of a delivery on “Pale Green Things” from The Sunset Tree to the strained emotion of “Wild Sage” or the title track.

But it isn’t all bad. “Moon Over Goldsboro” and “In the Hidden Places” are fantastically arranged pieces, even if “In The Hidden Places” occasionally falls to the thin vocal performance. But when it comes down to it if there is one reason to own this album “If You See Light” is it. It is Sunset Tree good. Everything from Big Band sway and the confident vocals to the drums and organ are just perfectly in place.

Of all the albums I have heard from The Mountain Goats, Get Lonely is the only one that I still consider bad. Sure some other ones are spotty, but this...this is just not what I want to listen to. Next time we take a leap back in time, to the very beginning.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Greatest Songs of 2010 Playlist

Ok, now this is a playlist that took me hours to put together. It wasn't the song selection, which only took me about 20 minutes, no. The real time sink was getting them in the right order. I didn't want to put them in a worst to best order. For one thing that would be almost impossible to determine. I also didn't want them in a completely arbitrary structure like alphabetical; we are talking about the best songs of the year not reference books.

So then I realized why not just make it like a compilation CD track list and make each song flow into the other as best as I could. BRILLIANT! At least that is what I thought until about hour 2 of skipping to the end of tracks to double check if I had the best transition, but I persevered.

So with out further ado, here is my Best of 2010 Playlist.
* indicates the video is worth a look, not just a listen.

You Are Dangerous - Steel Train

Garbage Truck - Sex Bob-omb

Black Sheep - Metric

The Diamond Church Street Choir - The Gaslight Anthem

Beatles - Daniel Johnston (This link says it is from 2009, they are wrong)

Fuck You - Cee Lo Green

Beautiful People - The Books

My Body is a Cage - Peter Gabriel

Power of The Heart - Peter Gabriel

The Like in I Love You - Brian Wilson

Summertime - Brian Wilson

Goodbye Sweet Dreams - Roky Erickson w/ Okkervil River

Little Lion Man - Mumford & Sons

*Little Bird - Eels

Songbird - Crash Test Dummies

57821 - Janelle Monáe

To Darkness / Kripa - The Dharohar Project, Laura Marling and Mumford & Sons

All of The Lights (Interlude) - Kanye West

All of The Lights - Kanye West

Group Autogenics I - The Books

*The Best of Times - Sage Francis

Blame Game - Kanye West (Unfortunatly this video has the hideous album cover)

Airplanes prt2 - B.o.B.

Rhinestone Eyes - Gorillaz

*Some Kind of Nature - Gorillaz

Swallow It - Brandon Flowers

You and I Undercover - Steel Train

*The Cave - Mumford & Sons

Devil Town - Daniel Johnston

Fall Asleep - Steel Train