I'm such a tease, you're such a flirt4 Out of 5 Stars
Having long ago given up on anything resembling predictability, Radiohead comes back into weirdo-land with "King of Limbs." Harkening back to "Kid A" and "Amnesiac," this album twiddles the knobs and dials to play with sonic textures, loops, and affectations. An occasional melody or snippet of lyric will take a swing at you from time to time, but for the most part, Thom Yorke and company have issued a chilly album that offers the occasional feel of familiarity, but utterly refuses to offer anything warm.
This is a bit of a surprise given that "In Rainbows" seemed to poke through with an occasional bit of humanity. "Lotus Flower" offers the closest approximation to expression. More often than not, though, "King of Limbs" is Radiohead playing with structures. Jonny Greenwood's stuttering guitar chatters more than it sings, which leaves the atmospherics to make up for the lost parts. Added moments of stings and horn (in particular, "Codex") sometimes fill the void, just as often it is Yorke's high cry of a vocal.
His repeated loop of "don't help me, don't hurt me" under "Give Up The Ghost" makes the most haunting moment on a Radiohead album since "Ok Computer," which makes me wonder. If Radiohead went to this much trouble to be so distant and cold, why sing something that lingers in the mind so much? This is why "King of Limbs" still matters. Radiohead still chill, but they do so in a manner that is hard to turn away from. And it's why I'll still keep listening to them because you're never all the certain as to what will pop out of the headphones when you start the music.
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