Radiohead's shortest album, The King of Limbs, remains their most divisive and experimental work.
In short: Released in 2011, The King of Limbs marked a radical departure for Radiohead. Moving away from traditional rock, the band embraced looping, sampling, and complex, rhythm-heavy electronica. While some critics hailed its craftsmanship, others found the brief, abstract record a letdown compared to the band's previous, more accessible masterpieces.
Following the success of 2007's In Rainbows, Radiohead sought to avoid a protracted recording process. They spent months experimenting in Los Angeles, where producer Nigel Godrich and singer Thom Yorke became fascinated by DJing. This led to a two-week experiment with turntables and vinyl emulation software that eventually stretched into a six-month recording period. The band moved away from conventional chord sequences, instead using software to loop and edit samples of their own playing. Yorke described the resulting sound as an expression of wildness and mutation, heavily influenced by his environmental concerns.
The final product, released in February 2011, was the band's shortest album at just 37 minutes. It featured eight tracks, including the rhythm-driven 'Bloom' and the piano-led 'Codex'. To perform these intricate, 'mechanised' rhythms live, the band recruited a second drummer, Clive Deamer. Despite the album's technical ambition, it divided fans and critics. Some praised its 'tense calm' and 'eerie' atmosphere, while others felt it lacked the band's signature game-changing ambition, leading to its reputation as their most polarizing release.
The album's rollout was as unconventional as its production. It was self-released as a digital download before a physical retail launch, a strategy that some managers credited for higher earnings but others blamed for lower chart visibility in the US. The artwork, created by Stanley Donwood and Yorke, featured 'strange multi-limbed creatures' inspired by fairy tales. The special edition even included blotting paper, a nod to the ephemeral nature of the music. Despite mixed initial reactions, the album remains a significant, if 'diffuse', chapter in the band's history, later finding a more appreciative audience through the live performance film, The King of Limbs: Live from the Basement.
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