The King of Limbs

''The King of Limbs'' is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was self-released on 18 February 2011 as a download, followed by a physical release on 28 March through XL Recordings internationally and TBD Records in North America.

Following the more conventional instrumentation of ''In Rainbows'' (2007), ''The King of Limbs'' saw Radiohead move further from standard song structures and recording methods. They developed the album with their producer Nigel Godrich through sampling and looping; the singer, Thom Yorke, described it as "an expression of wildness and mutation". The artwork, by Yorke and his longtime collaborator Stanley Donwood, depicts nature and spirits inspired by fairy tales.

Radiohead released no singles from ''The King of Limbs'', but released a music video for "Lotus Flower" featuring Yorke's dancing that inspired an internet meme. In 2012, they began an international tour, with several festival appearances. To perform the complex rhythms live, they were joined by a second drummer, Clive Deamer. The European tour was postponed after the temporary stage collapsed in Toronto's Downsview Park, killing the technician Scott Johnson and injuring three others.

Though its unconventional production and shorter length divided listeners, ''The King of Limbs'' was named one of the best albums of the year by publications including ''The Wire'', '' NME'' and ''PopMatters''. It was nominated in five categories at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards, including Best Alternative Music Album. The download version sold an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 copies in two months, and the vinyl became a bestseller in the UK. The retail edition debuted at number seven on the UK Albums Chart and number six on the US ''Billboard'' 200, making it the first Radiohead album not to achieve gold certification in the US. ''The King of Limbs'' was followed by the remix album ''TKOL RMX 1234567'', the live video '' The King of Limbs: Live from the Basement'', and the non-album singles " Supercollider" and "The Butcher".

Recording

Radiohead worked on ''The King of Limbs'' with their longtime producer Nigel Godrich intermittently from May 2009 to January 2011. The sessions included three weeks recording at the home of the actress Drew Barrymore in Los Angeles in early 2010.

Radiohead wanted to avoid repeating the protracted recording process of their previous album ''In Rainbows'' (2007). According to the singer, Thom Yorke, they felt that "if we are gonna carry on, we need to do it for a new set of reasons". The Radiohead cover artist, Stanley Donwood, said that whereas ''In Rainbows'' was "very much a definitive statement", the band wanted to make an album that was more "transitory". The multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood said: "We didn't want to pick up guitars and write chord sequences. We didn't want to sit in front of a computer either. We wanted a third thing, which involved playing and programming."

Whereas Radiohead had developed ''In Rainbows'' from live performances, ''The King of Limbs'' developed from studio experimentation. Yorke sought to move further from conventional recording methods. After he and Godrich became interested in DJing during their time in Los Angeles, Godrich proposed a two-week experiment whereby the band used turntables and vinyl emulation software instead of conventional instruments. According to Godrich, "That two-week experiment ended up being fucking six months. And that's that record, the whole story of all of it."

Radiohead assembled much of the album by looping and editing samples of their playing. They used sampling software written by Greenwood, which he described as a "wonky, rubbish version" of Ableton Live, to create sequences of music. Yorke wrote melodies and lyrics over the sequences, which he likened to the process of editing a film. The guitarist Ed O'Brien said: "The brick walls we tended to hit were when we knew something was great, like 'Bloom', but not finished ... Then nowiki/>nowiki/>Colin_Greenwood">Colin_Greenwood.html"_;"title="nowiki/>Colin_Greenwood">nowiki/>Colin_Greenwoodhad_that_bassline,_and_Thom_started_singing._Those_things_suddenly_made_it_a_hundred_times_better."_According_to_Godrich,_the_result_of_the_recording_sessions_was_a_"gigantic_mess_that_took_me_about_a_year_and_a_half_to_unravel".

On_24_January_2010,_Radiohead_suspended_recording_to_perform_at_the_Hollywood_Music_Box_Theater_(Los_Angeles).html" "title="Colin_Greenwood.html" ;"title="Colin_Greenwood.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Colin Greenwood">nowiki/>Colin Greenwood">Colin_Greenwood.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Colin Greenwood">nowiki/>Colin Greenwoodhad that bassline, and Thom started singing. Those things suddenly made it a hundred times better." According to Godrich, the result of the recording sessions was a "gigantic mess that took me about a year and a half to unravel".

On 24 January 2010, Radiohead suspended recording to perform at the Hollywood Music Box Theater (Los Angeles)">Henry Fonda Theatre to raise funds for Oxfam responding to the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The show was released free online in December 2010 as ''Radiohead for Haiti'', and included a performance of the future ''King of Limbs'' track "Lotus Flower" by Yorke on acoustic guitar.

Music and lyrics

According to ''Rolling Stone'', ''The King of Limbs'' saw Radiohead move further from conventional rock music and song structures in favour of "moody, rhythm-heavy electronica, glacially paced ballads and ambient psychedelia". Several critics noted dubstep influences.McCormick, Neil (11 February 2011)
"Radiohead: King of Limbs, Album Review"
. ''The Daily Telegraph''. Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 29 January 2012.Hermes, Will (18 February 2011)
"Radiohead's 'The King of Limbs': A Track-by-Track Breakdown"
. ''Rolling Stone''. Retrieved 29 January 2012.Downer, Adam (19 February 2011)
"Radiohead – The King of Limbs (staff review)"
. Sputnikmusic. Retrieved 29 January 2012. The album features extensive sampling, looping, and ambient sounds, including natural sounds such as birdsong and wind. ''Pitchfork'' said it comprised "aggressive rhythms made out of dainty bits of digital detritus, robotically repetitive yet humanly off-kilter, parched thickets of drumming graced with fleeting moments of melodic relief". According to O'Brien: "Rhythm is the king of limbs! The rhythm dictates the record. It's very important." Yorke said ''The King of Limbs'' was a "visual" album, with lyrics and artwork about "wildness" and "mutating" inspired by his environmental concerns. The title derives from the King of Limbs, an ancient oak tree in Savernake Forest in Wiltshire, near Tottenham House, where Radiohead recorded ''In Rainbows''.

The first track, "Bloom", was inspired by the BBC nature documentary series ''The Blue Planet''. It opens with a piano loop and features horns and complex rhythms. "Morning Mr Magpie" has "restless guitars". "Little by Little" features "crumbling guitar shapes" and "clattering" percussion. "Feral" features scattered vocal samples and "mulched-up" drums. "Lotus Flower" features a driving synth bassline and Yorke's falsetto. "Codex" is a piano ballad with "spectral" horns and strings and a Roland TR-808 drum machine. "Give Up the Ghost" is an acoustic guitar ballad with layered vocal harmonies. The final track, "Separator", has guitar, piano, a "brittle" drum loop and echoing vocals.

At eight tracks and 37 minutes in length, ''The King of Limbs'' is Radiohead's shortest album. O'Brien explained that Radiohead felt the ideal album was around 40 minutes long, and cited Marvin Gaye's '' What's Going On'' (1971) as a classic record shorter than ''The King of Limbs''.

Artwork and packaging

The ''King of Limbs'' artwork was created by Yorke with the longtime Radiohead collaborator Stanley Donwood. As with previous Radiohead albums, Donwood worked as the band recorded nearby. He painted oil portraits of the Radiohead members in the style of Gerhard Richter, but abandoned them as "I'd never painted with oils before and I'm not Gerhard Richter so it was just a series of painted disasters". Instead, the music made Donwood think of "immense multicoloured cathedrals of trees, with music echoing from the branches whilst strange fauna lurked in the fog". He and Yorke drew trees with eyes, limbs, mouths, and familiars, creating "strange multi-limbed creatures" inspired by Northern European fairy tales.

For the special edition of ''The King of Limbs'', Donwood wanted to create something "in a state of flux". He chose newspaper, which fades in sunlight, for its ephemeral nature; this reflected the album's nature themes, mirroring the natural decay of living things. He took inspiration from weekend broadsheets and underground 1960s newspapers and magazines such as '' Oz'' and ''International Times''. The special edition includes a sheet of artwork on blotting paper of the kind used to administer LSD; Donwood said, "In theory, not that I would propose such an illegal thing, but somebody could... And I don't think that's been done as a marketing thing before." The special edition was nominated for the Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package at the 54th Grammy Awards.

Release

Radiohead announced ''The King of Limbs'' on their website on 14 February 2011. It was released on 18 February, a day early, as the website was ready ahead of schedule. The download version was sold for £6, with a special edition of the album, released on 9 May 2011, sold for £30. The special edition contains the album on CD and two 10-inch vinyl records, additional artwork, a special record sleeve, and a "colour piece of oxo-degradable plastic package". ''The King of Limbs'' was released on CD and vinyl on March 28, 2011 by XL Recordings in the United Kingdom, TBD in the United States and Hostess Entertainment in Japan.

Subsequent releases

On 16 April 2011, Radiohead released two further tracks from the ''King of Limbs'' sessions, " Supercollider" and "The Butcher", as a double single for Record Store Day. A few days later, the tracks were released as free downloads for those who had purchased ''The King of Limbs'' from the Radiohead website. In June 2011, Radiohead announced a series of ''King of Limbs'' remixes by various electronic artists. Yorke said the band wanted to experiment with the music further by giving it to remixers, and liked the idea that it was not "fixed and set in stone". The remixes were compiled on the album ''TKOL RMX 1234567'', released in September 2011.

Radiohead performed ''The King of Limbs'' in its entirety for '' The King of Limbs: Live from the Basement'', broadcast in July 2011 and released on DVD and Blu-ray in December 2011. Godrich said the performance was an effort to record the "very mechanised" album again and show it in a new light. On 11 February 2014, Radiohead released an app, ''Polyfauna'', featuring music and imagery from ''The King of Limbs''. In 2017, Radiohead collaborated with the film composer Hans Zimmer to record a new version of "Bloom" for the BBC
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