new album out now.

There used to be one album I did not care for by Radiohead. That album was "Hail To The Thief".

Now there are two albums that bore me to tears, and this one way more so. I'm used to this band giving me WTF moments, but is this the best they could do? Sounds like a demo Thom gave the band and decided they were too lazy to develop it and put it out as is.

A few of the songs are good but I agree, overall it is boring. Maybe it will grow on me after a few more listens.

Well, being that there's only 8 songs on the album I think liking 4 isn't all that bad.

Not as good as Kid A/Amnesiac but better than Hail to the Thief and I think slightly better than In Rainbows...I dunno.

There is a part in "Bloom" right in the middle of the song that might be one of the prettiest lines they've ever written.

I don't think TKOL sounds underdeveloped, or like incomplete demos. I think it's been overdone in a lot of respects.

It's strange, there are a couple of cover versions of "Lotus Flower" floating around youtube that I prefer to the real song. And it just demonstrates that at it's essence (with an acoustic guitar and a voice,) it's decent. But I feel like they tried too hard with the entire album and lost the essence of something actually worthwhile.

The entire disc is a hard listen. I think there are some really intelligent things going on. The first track is just as clever as any of their best Kid A moments, but it doesn't make for a better song necessarily. And maybe this is one of those records we'll look back on and figure out that we just weren't ready for it at the time. But I doubt it.

I think Thom's really come into his own as a singer on these last two records. He has more control of his vibrato and his use of words as an instrument, and it's certainly not lost here. I just wish the material was better, or at least delivered in a manner that doesn't make you work so hard to TRY and like it.

Rather than a newspaper album, I'm thinking maybe they made a publication that's more similar to Columbus CEO.

See, I'm a Radiohead fanboy, and I tend to love 90-100% of every album, so 50% is pretty disappointing, especially with such a short tracklist. It's a question of expectations.

(As an aside: Returning to "In Rainbows" this year as I seek context for "The King of Limbs", I'm of the mind that "In Rainbows" is among the elite Radiohead albums. Probably only "OK Computer" and "Kid A" top it for me.)

Am I the only one who thinks the album is amazing?

It's definitely not amazing. Maybe we'll see a companion to this, out of the blue, in a couple months time --- that might lend to this album making more sense? That's my theory. Still, there are some revelatory moments on this record. And I'm of the opinion that Radiohead make albums that sound like nothing else. So without TKOL being the best Radiohead album, it's leaps and bounds better than most records coming out today.

Deville wrote:

(As an aside: Returning to "In Rainbows" this year as I seek context for "The King of Limbs", I'm of the mind that "In Rainbows" is among the elite Radiohead albums. Probably only "OK Computer" and "Kid A" top it for me.)

I wholeheartedly agree. Anyone who doesn't think In Rainbows is their 3rd best record (or maybe fourth, if you're a Bends loyalist), isn't listening hard enough.

I agree that In Rainbows, OK Computer and Kid A are the keepers. The Bends I suspect I never took enough time to get into for it to grab me. There were just a ton of other records at the time that I thought were so much better so it was in CD pile C or D for months and faded- and then they released OK Computer and blew my mind.

I never really liked The Bends as an entire record but there are some great songs on it.

I like most of their stuff. Kid A, Ok Computer, the live album and In Rainbows are my favorites. I think Thom's solo album is fucking awesome too.

This one just sounds like half the band farting around. Was the drummer and bass player even on half the songs? Doesn't sound like it. Such waste of a great rhythm section.

more of a singles band really.