Album Review: Radiohead - The King of Limbs

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Now that last week's shitstorm of hype concerning the new Radiohead LP The King of Limbs has calmed down, we can all take a breath and wipe the expectation out of our bleary eyes. The pre-narrative for their eighth studio album is already been exhaustedly retold. This is the band's second self-release after dumping Capitol Records. It is following up the brilliant 2007 LP In Rainbows where the band allowed the buyers to pay what they felt the new album was worth. Not only did they send the big labels scrambling for innovation or cowering in fear, they forged a road for independent musicians to follow. In 2011, they take a different route to market by releasing an album with only four days of notice and no teasing single, clip or promo video to fan the flames of hype. This not only caused the groundswell of excitement by its suddenness, but acted as another sharp stick to the eye to record companies showing that their methods of marketing are even less necessary. So here we are with The King of Limbs, a strange and introspective collection that is less about grand themes or Radiohead's place in history as World's Greatest Band than ever before.

The King of Limbs opens with the weight of the world being shaken off in "Bloom" where the anarchic drum beats and medicinal pulse signposts an impossible moment being brought to life. Thom Yorke moans from the depths of space, opining about "The Universal Sigh" to perhaps reference the mundane nature of being so expansive. There is an intentional disconnect here and the distance does not close throughout the first half of the album. The jittery nature continues on the caffeinated "Morning Mr. Magpie" where Radiohead begins to approach accessibility, if only with a careful step. This Beatlesque title is anything but pop, a heated rant at no one or everyone. The gasps for air are desperate while a bristled guitar carves out a safe place for the music to retreat and breathe. "Little by Little" also creeps forward with a never-ending staircase of bass and a metronomic tick-tock coming from one of Salvador Dali's dripping clocks. It is sensual but still distrustful, wanting to touch but blocked by "Obligation, Complication, Routines and Schedules". It is a great dose of reality before the fearful track "Feral" where Yorke's manipulated grunts and howls are slathered with studio tricks and a frantic scampering of instruments. This plays out as the audio accompaniment to the band's full retreat from their stratospheric status.

The drops that fill the ambiance of "Lotus Flower" convey a restored openness through the new warmth in Yorke's vocals. It is a grand gesture of love that stands out from this uneasy album, yet fits with its awkward clutches for closeness. This spills into the emotive piano piece "Codex" that reminds of the murky depths of "Pyramid Song", complete with matched references to a fateful dip turned into a welcome drowning. Acoustic guitar finally finds its place in "Give Up The Ghost" where they keep it simple yet lush as they gradually let go of that heavy cumbersome past. Finishing with "Separator" is an aching hum, tapped out percussion and the dreamily woven lyrics that gets back to the notion of escape that started The King of Limbs. The guitar causally noodles through the rest of the dynamic as the band floats away back into orbit, unreachable but never quite out of view.

Their has been a lot of hypotheses floating about based on this stark and atypical album. So many have questioned whether this was just an amuse-bouche before the main course where fans would have appetites sated. The band has previously stated that the making of a new album, with the need for an adhered and focused theme, is something they are not interested in making any longer. Still The King of Limbs seems to have many themes, whether they are contradictory or just more reasonable. The common element in the music with all of its twitches and tension sets the mood of the band's discomfort with their station. The eight songs could be split into two EP's with the first half being telescopically distant while the second is a warm yet tentative embrace. The music is an exercise in repetition and a statement of rejection, being anti-pop, anti-structure, anti-perfection. Here on The King of Limbs, we have a band who still enjoy that they are just that, but are relinquishing their accountability to create anything of bombast or expected greatness. There is a common motif here and that is that they are finished with common motifs.

Purchase The King of Limbs here.

Radiohead - Little By Little


Radiohead - Give Up The Ghost

New Sloan Song Available For Free, Album Available May 10

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Canadian power pop outfit Sloan has been at it since their shoegazing infancy back in the early 1990's. They eventually morphed into a band with chameleon qualities who could change from a Beatlesque melody maker to a 70's arena rock force simply by skipping to the next track. Their tenth studio LP The Double Cross will be available May 10 on Outside Records. A new track from the new album has hit the internets recently and it fills the gap nicely since their 2008 album Parallel Play. "Follow The Leader" feeds early on the glam-rock staples of a stomping drumbeat and freeform bass, adding some hard strumming acoustic guitar that gives way to a dramatic bridge that screams of an old school AM radio nugget. Toward the end, the mood shifts to a groovy piano packed shakedown and finishes abruptly not unlike the tracks from their rock opera double LP Never Hear The End Of It. It will be interesting to see what the rest of the new album delivers.

Right-click to download "Follow The Leader" here.

Follow The Leader



Bonus discovery: All of Sloan's albums are available for purchase or for full song streaming via their website. I am posting their 2005 singles comp A Sides Win as a decent cross section of their best stuff. Rock on!

New Discovery: Save The Clocktower

Chicago's own Save The Clocktower has been rattling the cages of some local bloggers recently with a blend of quirky keys, restrained beats and delicate guitar that accent the subtly soulful vocal work. Their sound has been evolving from their earlier tracks to their new album Carousel. The songs given below ably represent their range, from the simple beauty on "Drip" that gets broken up by moments of thick grooves to the pop sensibility of "The One Thing" that channels the spookiness of The Knife while still capturing an element of sugary innocence. The trio is putting on a huge record release party for Carousel on February 26 at The Hideout with many openers and a rip roaring dance party afterward courtesy of Carrie and Mary of Smashing Time. Come check them out with me and don't be too shy to stop over and say hi.

Click here to link to a free download of "The One Thing".

Drip


The One Thing

Album Review: Yuck - Yuck

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Forgive me, but I am someone who does not carry fond memories of 90's music. Just the phrase itself is weighty with the tepid shrugs of a decade's tremendous potential and subsequent lost opportunities. Specifically, this is in reference to the explosion of alternative rock music in that era. So many bands from that time period, deserved or not, scooped up the benefits of the major label money grab in their desperate search for the next power chord providers for Generation X. For those listeners that dug a little deeper in our musical excavations, we knew that the best stuff never quite made it to the mainstream. Because of their independent battle scars, bands such as Dinosaur Jr., Superchunk, Sebadoh, Yo La Tengo, Guided By Voices, Teenage Fanclub, et al., all receive detailed and deserved chapters in the indie rock canon. When a band such as Yuck strolls into this modern day landscape making music accurately referencing a two decade old sound without a shade of irony, your inner skeptic may immediately bristle. If this is you, take the following words as a reassuring hand on your shoulder. This foursome of practiced youngsters from London and their self-titled release on Fat Possum is not a joke. They are a serious band adding sensible imperfection to a pristine package, giving reason for this curmudgeonly former "alt-rocker" to relive all of the great moments of my musical past.

I just discovered this band a short time ago, but they have been gathering blog support for many months on the backs of some great singles. However, their first album is a coming out party, containing a dozen songs of deep hooks of prototypal lo-fi. In fact, you can literally connect the dots from all of the cross-referencing of their source material. Opener "Get Away" is a Superchunk nugget with a Dinosaur Jr. squall and lazy chorus. "The Wall" could be a Yo La Tengo Painful era b-side that rumbles and squeals with another big crowd pleasing finish. When Yuck brings it down a notch, they still source with loving nostalgia. "Shook Down" has Teenage Fanclub harmonies and acoustic-electric dynamics. "Suicide Policemen" features cute tropicalia flourishes and male-female vocal sweetness that remind of an Evan Dando/Juliana Hatfield collab for the Lemonheads big label debut. "Operation" is a literal hogpile of the afore-mentioned bands coated with a ragged Sebadoh distortion. Finishing up with a seven minute calamity in "Rubber", the grungy memories spill from this storm of noble noise and muffled vocals like those drawn out encores for concert goers that never wanted that ear-buzzing evening of brilliance to end.

I was trying to find that line that divided Yuck from the their old school resource material. Everything is there from that era in music: lusty guitar jams, catchy hooks, sassy lyrics and the purposeful absence of studio sheen. Heck, even their moniker Yuck could have been a song name or an album title from any one of those bands. Then it struck me. The difference is identical to the ones my generation has with much of the twenty-somethings that are coming of age now. These bands of the past carried their independence like a membership card and battled the mainstream with a cynical humor and sneering skepticism that only allowed entry to the ones who are in on the joke. The songs of Yuck are bursting with an all-inclusive optimism and confidence that comes an outfit unrestrained by the constructs of yesterday. Bands are no longer marketing, recording, touring and struggling to get heard at such a weighted disadvantage to major record label interests. To that, I say good tidings to these upstarts who took the time to study their history before passing their big exam with flying colors.

Purchase Yuck here.

Bonus: Listen to the full album below, download a couple of tracks and watch the low-budget horror flick send-up video for "Holing Out". Warning: Video is NSFW containing some nudity and graphic bloodiness.

Right-click to download "Georgia" here.

Right-click to download "Suicide Policemen" here.

Right-click to download "Rubber" here.

Yuck - Yuck (6 tracks)

Album Review: Cut Copy - Zonoscope

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Australian gents Cut Copy have been on a tear since their 2008 breakthrough In Ghost Colours. Lots of love from critics spun into a huge worldwide tour including an early evening spot at Lollapalooza. Their trademark blend of new wave, disco, pop and techno was as inspired as it was addictive. For the next album, staying the course could mean a faded, shady facsimile of what they have already perfected. Using too much of one genre's influence could be that heavy-handed ingredient that throws the whole blend off balance. For their third release on Modular Records, Zonoscope brings vast possibility with the added pressure of deeper expectation.

The positivity that flooded from In Ghost Colours carries over in Zonoscope with the slow build of "Need You Now". Playing out like nouveau redux of the theme to Chariots Of Fire, the joyous energy is only restrained for full impact upon the bursting finale. "Take Me Over" is an airy pop ditty featuring lively piano fills, congo drums and disco bass that could be wedged into your "Lost Tracks of the 80's" mixtape. The overlap spills into the pre-release track "Where I'm Going" that begins to fill the Cut Copy prerequisite for dance anthems. The insistent march spurns the freeing sing-a-long that begs for a crowd led chant. The organ pulse and swirl is fresh and full of life, showing early that Zonoscope has found that true equilibrium measuring all of Cut Copy's influences while making something completely autonomous from their earlier albums.

There are a lot of bands who wear their new wave influences well and can ably back it with catchy dance bass and beats. What sets Cut Copy apart is their never-fail structure of an undeniable introducing hook that gets bandied about like a joke until the song's crescendo swells and pops like a balloon full of confetti around the 2/3 mark. "Pharaohs and Pyramids" is great example of their acumen. The groovy snyths and clap tracks definitely keep the ear busy, but it could have been lost on the listener before it was remembered. At the 2:54 mark, the change drops and you realize that the previous piece was just a distraction for this song's true purpose. This rope-a-dope style of affixing two separately enticing elements into one whole runs throughout Zonoscope. "This Is All We've Got" is another Cut Copy anthem featuring a drill sargent tempo that lifts the hyper-general lyrics to grandiose heights. Of course, they are simply working a pop music staple that lyrics should never overreach or get too deep. "Alisa", for example, could be anyone with only the name to tip the listener off on the gender. This is of little consequence as Cut Copy rolls out their most guitar-based track. It is a varied and welcome addition to Zonoscope and perhaps it's only missing element. Where it lacks in rock, it generously provides in dance beats. Finishing up is the techno-inspired "Corner of the Sky" that nags for countless remixes to fulfill all the micro-genres in the widespread wilderness of club music. The ambient traffic noise is a break before the Madchester homage "Sun God" that features house key sweeps and a Happy Mondays chorus that stretches on for ten extra minutes and establishing their concert encore for years to come.

Upon many listens to Zonoscope I am reminded of what a friend said about LCD Soundsystem's This Is Happening. When I was struggling to enjoy it, he said that it was their one true "album" where the other releases were more of a collection of songs. Zonoscope has a similar tenor in that it is unquestionably a great album and very different from the previous efforts. Only the process of time will help me decide which one album I like the best.

Right-click to download "Where I'm Going" here.

Purchase Zonoscope here.

Cut Copy - Zonoscope (full album)


Bonus x2: Cut Copy recently released a free mixtape available for download that includes such diverse fare as A Guy Called Gerald, Happy Mondays, Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones and Kiss. Below that is the sports-themed video for "Need You Now". Feel the joy!

Right click to download A Tale of Two Journeys here.

A Tale of Two Journeys (Mixtape)