A Review of The King of Limbs, As I Listen To It For The First Time.

Radiohead must certainly enjoy being free of a record label. Their last album, In Rainbows, was released through a controversial pay-what-you-want model that, to everyone's surprise, was actually profitable. Then, this past Monday, they announced that their eighth album, entitled "The King of Limbs," would be released on Saturday, then announced just this morning that, oh, guess what! It's available now. So now, it's not even eight o' clock in the morning stateside, and I've already got my hands on the MP3 version of the record (available exclusively at www.thekingoflimbs.com) and have, at the time of writing this paragraph, already listened to the first four of its eight tracks (I know..."Eight tracks??? That's it???" But don't worry. It's been worth it so far).

In order to ready myself for this release, I spent almost six hours yesterday doing all of my work with my iPod playing through their previous seven albums, and as soon as the opener "Bloom" started in, it was a natural progression from the rest of their catalogue--it maintains the more straightforward structure of In Rainbows, but with the electronics of Kid A and Amnesiac back in view. The track is almost disorienting in its fluidity, like being tugged along by the undertow through a coral reef, equal parts beautiful and terrifying. Morning Mr. Magpie begins in much the same way, but then takes a surprisingly Beatles-esque turn at the refrain. The first few tracks are actually surprisingly major, while still wrought with claustrophobic beats. The typical Radiohead staples are still here: you have the chaos track, "Feral;" you have the heartbreaking ballad, "Codex," complete with a horn section, and everything in between.

"Give Up The Ghost" is a surprise--it opens with a low-key, major acoustic progression with call-and-response vocals between Thom Yorke and a repeated line of himself, as the rest of the band--as well as the rest of the atmosphere--joins in slowly. The song comes to a climax with a a shatteringly beautiful vocal climb, proving itself Radiohead's most disarming song to date. After six tracks of thumping and claustrophobia, it's a welcome break--and not one that Radiohead affords its listeners that often.

The closer, "Separator" immediately kicks in with the same sort of shuffle beat found in In Rainbows tracks like "House of Cards," driven by Phil Selway's always-excellent drumming and a commanding bassline from Colin Greenwood. After the first chorus, twin-lead guitars come in playing lines not unlike the guitar solo in Fleetwood Mac's "Gypsy." Then, in true Radiohead fashion, even the atmosphere around them starts to swell, until the rhythm section cuts out completely and we're left with a few seconds of the reverb left over until their eighth, and still stunning, record comes to a close.

I'm left with a few moments of discontent when the record ends, just for the brevity. It's nothing that repeated listens won't cure, though. The first four tracks alone have so much buried inside of them that their richness make up for the lack of two extra tracks.

And, if you wanted to, I'm sure you could find a place for "These Are My Twisted Words" somewhere on the playlist. But all in all, Radiohead is a group of highly talented individuals that balance that talent with taste. The reason Radiohead is so good is because they know what good music is. It's been the secret to their consistency, and the trick doesn't break here.

As always (since The Bends, at least), Five out of Five.

Epic Amounts of Bass

On my thirteenth birthday, I got a bass guitar from my mother. It was the first instrument I ever owned, and the first non-keyed instrument I ever learned to play. When I picked up guitar at fifteen, that bass slowly drifted away from common use. But still, there is a soft spot in my heart for an excellent bass line, and what follows is a list of the best places to look if you, like me, like pumping the subs every now and then.

Radiohead - From the menacing drive of The National Anthem to the disconnected, atmospheric loop of How To Disappear Completely to the sheer power of the last two minutes of Exit Music (For a Film), Radiohead's bass lines are completely top notch, and they always do exactly what they need to. When they need to support the triplet guitar lines, they lay a nice, solid foundation, and when they need to push a song over the edge, they pull up their sleeves and hurl it over. An oft-overlooked piece of what makes Radiohead so darn good.

Deerhunter - During the first (more experimental) half of Cryptograms, Deerhunter emits an ambient swirl of phasing keyboards and guitar delay--until the bass comes in and starts pounding, bringing the rest of the band with it. The sonic exploration of songs like Cryptograms and Lake Somerset are led by a big, fat bass line running through the long grass with a torch in one hand a machete in the other. As for their more recent releases, the bass has been less focal, but it has nonetheless been the bedrock that the noise of the meandering guitars are built upon, and without that foundation, everything else would fall apart.

The Flaming Lips - Given the sheer mass of their output, I will limit this to two albums: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and Embryonic. On Embryonic, the bass is the first thing that hits you, and it's the last thing to let go. I have described the bass lines on this album as sounding like they're out to get me, and I stand by it: they're fuzzed out, raw, and terrifying, and I can't get enough. On Yoshimi, the basslines aren't aggressive as much as they are beautiful. The bass glides up the scales during the more delicate tracks, and they bounce along with the more upbeat ones. Few acts can achieve both extremes show by these two examples, and the Flaming Lips are leading those few bands on the attack.

mewithoutYou - For all of the idiosyncrasies surrounding this band - the spoken word vocals, the free-range drums, the twin guitar lines that wind around eachother - the dubby bass guitar is my favorite. Go to a show and watch the bassist, or put on a record and pump the subs, and you'll find a bass that is always moving, with a style that's as punk as it is funk, and always, always fat. Whether it's during the band's extended jams on Brother, Sister, the punk outbursts on [A-->B Life], or the Middle Eastern vocal solo towards the end of Catch for us the Foxes, the bass is the focal point, holding the drums and guitars together, which in a band like this, is no easy task.

Fugazi - Fugazi was the personification of all of the energy, all of the rage, and all of the sarcasm that made punk rock punk rock. But beneath the squealing guitars and the sneering vocals, there's a bassist that plays as if all he listens to is jazz. While the guitars run along the fence of their sonic limits, the bass guitar stays inside, laying down the groove to end all grooves. Anyone who thinks punk+jazz=ska should promptly look here.

Gorillaz - There's a reason that animated basist Murdoc functions as de facto spokesman to his cartoon bandmates, and that reason is that the bass lines contained within the Gorillaz' records are the epitome of punk/hip-hop/electronica crossover bass lines -- aside from the fact that each bass line completely makes its respective song. On Plastic Beach, it rides under every track, walking up the scale like a jazz bassist with the swagger of a hip hop DJ. On Demon Days, it drips dub reggae influence, soaking the album with menace. You could fill a multi-volume encyclopedia with Damon Albarn's musical influences, and the bass is the clearest reminder.

Scientist - Dub reggae was built on bass loops, and every good bassist or bass enthusiast should listen and take notes.

Oh, it hurts so good...

Every so often (rarely more than every six months) I'll find a record that I just can't stop listening to. The latest record to hold this honor is the debut album from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. It's noise rock with pop sensibilities that's as catchy as all get out. Essentially, it sounds like a My Bloody Valentine and The Smiths started a Belle & Sebastian tribute band. Listen to it. Just listen to it.

Explosion

The past few days have seen one of the largest music-discovery explosions in a long time. So huge that it's beginning to shift my opinion of important music. Suddenly, I'm obsessed with shoegazy, noise-centric pop music, thanks to:

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
The Unicorns
The Strokes (Is This It is still as good as it ever was)
Sonic Youth
Wavvves
Stereolab
The Velvet Underground
The Jesus And Mary Chain
and, Best Coast.

Record Player Log, Jan. 7 2011

The Stooges - Funhouse

It's often said that this is the best rock album ever. I don't know about that, but it's certainly leaves the fewest survivors. Protopunk at its best, with free jazz influence on the B side.

Atlas Sound - Logos

Bradford Cox always makes amazing music, whether it's with Deerhunter or this solo project, which features Noah Lennox of Animal Collective and Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab.

Joy Division - Closer

No one will argue that this is the most joyful record in the world. Regardless, there are times where I want to be put in the claustrophobic vice of their rhythm section and free form guitars and just let Ian Curtis's monotone voice crush me.

The Velvet Underground and Nico

If you haven't heard this record, listen to it now.

Beach House - Teen Dream

I completely let this slip by me during the last calendar year. I thought, "Eh, what's the big deal?" I listened to it a few days ago and was ashamed of myself.

Year End List

I've been gearing up for this year end list for the past couple months, and I realized something: I can decide which records are my favorite, but I can't decide at all how to rank them. Also, I don't pretend to have listened to every album that came out this year. Some of the albums that everyone is going on about (i.e. Beach House's Teen Dream; Crystal Castles) almost entirely escaped my stereo this year. That's what next year is for.

GOOD

The National - High Violet
At first, I couldn't get into this record because it seems more like a collection of greatest hits than a proper album, then I realized that wasn't a bad thing. Every song is good enough to be a single, even though it's all as depressing as all get out.

Broken Bells - s/t
I love the Shins. I also love Danger Mouse. So when I heard that they had gotten together and recorded this spacey pop record with lusher atmospheres than either had ever made, I was already a fan. And when I listened to it, I wasn't disappointed at all.

M.I.A. - /\/\ /\ Y /\
M.I.A. is not a stranger to politically charged take-no-prisoners pop. She's just never been so brutal or so brave before.

Jonsi - Go
Sigur Ros has, for the past eleven years, been the go to band for orchestral hymns to the beauty and despair of what it means to be alive. So what happens when the lead singer is removed for a solo project? The same hymns, only faster and more playful, but on occasion, just as crushing. Like Thom Yorke's Eraser, this is a solo project that isn't as surprising as much as it is welcome.

Gayngs - Relayted

After two releases from Bon Iver and his work in Volcano Choir, I'm convinced that everything Justin Vernon touches is gold. Relayted is an excellent example, because it shouldn't have worked at all. Eleven songs of 69 BPM soft rock doesn't exactly sound awesome, but it is. Trust me.

BETTER

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Admittedly, I didn't give this as much of a listen as it deserves, but I still recognize it as a wonderful record. It says a lot about a band when they can release a great album that can be taken for granted. This is a fitting addition to Arcade Fire's already legendary discography.

Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
I first fell in love with Deerhunter for their atmospheric, ghostly noise rock with a strange sounding pop song emerging from the haze every few minutes. Here, the rock is considerably less noisy and their pop song is perfected. This is a record that sounds like it wished it was still the sixties, while being tragically connected to the present.

Spoon - Transference
Spoon is just plain good. And even though Transference has an unfinished quality to it, it's just as cohesive as anything else they've released.

Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
Any time this huge group of people from every good band in Canada get together to record, the result is wonderful. This is indie rock from the guys who wrote the text book.

MGMT - Congratulations
Just about everyone I know hated this record, and I understand why. It's not an easy thing to make a record that you know will alienate your accidentally acquired fanbase, even if it's an incredible record. Here, MGMT harkens back to the psychedelia of the Doors and Syd Barret era Pink Floyd without sounding like a rip off.

BEST

Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid
At some point during the funk barrage of the first three proper songs, you'll ask yourself, "Has Janelle Monae really not heard any music released since 1977?" But as you hear the punk rock pulse of "Come Alive" or the Britpop of "Oh, Maker," or the indie rush of "Cold War," you'll realize that she's heard just about everything that's been released since then, and somehow made an album that influence-drops James Brown and Jack White in juxtaposed tracks while still sounding cohesive. Also, it's a concept album about a messianic android that falls in love, but it's subtle enough that you wouldn't notice the first few times through.

LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
Dance music, as a genre, has a pretty fundamental flaw in that there's not really too much you can do within its boundaries of 4/4 beats and synthesizers, which is why most of it sounds like mindless pop music. This Is Happening is what dance music sounds like with a brain. And a heart. A lonely, contemplative, sarcastic heart.

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
How does Kanye West top a year of putting his foot in his mouth and acting the fool? By dropping the biggest and best rap album of his career. One listen will remind you that Kanye West is Kanye West, and no one does any of it better than Kanye West.

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
It's no coincidence that the newest Gorillaz album found the animated live shows being replaced by live action performances featuring a huge crowd of performers, including Mos Def, Snoop Dogg, the Clash's Mick Jones and Paul Simon, legends Jeff Beck and Bobbie Womack, and in the center of the hugeness, Damon Albarn, who has been the hidden puppet master of the group all along. It's like in Wizard of Oz when the curtain was pulled and you see the real Wizard, only the man behind the curtain is bigger and more powerful and even more brilliant than you imagined in the first place.

Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz
When I was living in Chicago last summer, I came across three new Sufjan Stevens songs on YouTube that were unlike the Sufjan I knew before. They were glitchy, frantic, hugely long, and beautiful. Since that first listen, I had waited for any news on a new album like a puppy waiting for his owners to come home with dinner. When All Delighted People came out in the fall, I was disappointed to find those three tracks missing. But when he said, "But wait, there's more! New full length in a month!" I waited again, and was delighted to find those three songs, plus an entire album to match.

Nathaniel's Turntable Log, Nov. 8

The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico

Radiohead - Amnesiac

Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

Danielson Famile - Tri-Danielson!!! (Alpha)

mewithoutYou - [A-->B] Life

Gorillaz - Demon Days