High on Fire
Modest Mouse
Spoon
Sigur Ros(if they ever get back together)
The Mars Volta
Mew
Meshuggah
Electric Wizard
Between the Buried and Me
...Interesting, in terms of longevity I'm seeing the most potential in metal bands. _________________ I love all music. It makes you feel like living. Silence is death.
A couple of tentative suggestions concerning the meaning and narrative of the album:
Morning Mr Magpie:
A song about Tony Blair who keeps popping up where you least expect him- the Iraq inquiry, expressing no regret or apology "you know you should... but you don't" (Fucking Apologise!!!!! (for a start!) "you've got some nerve" -the magpie reference is in regard to his propensity to whore himself shamelessly for piles of cash stealing the shiny things he sees in order to stock his own nest and having robbed a nation of it's "melody"
Give Up the Ghost:
Having realised at last that any music which is not an insipid bastardised flogging of a dead horse song on a 'talent' show is a fruitless enterprise, Thom now acknowledges here that he must give in to the inevitable and prepare to sign that contract to appear as an X Factor/American Idol Judge while his soul dies weeping inside his body, to "give up the ghost" into Simon Cowell's arms and be his bitch, taking his place alongside the already dead inside Steven Tyler... woe to integrity... rock is truly dead- this is the document of surrender.
The King of Limbs is Rupert Murdoch, who's tentacles reach into every sphere of our lives and gather us all in his cold and ever more stifling embrace, like having a pillow gradually pressed over poor liberty's face until she is quite still... "shhh, shhhh... the pain will be over soon my beautiful, don't struggle- daddy's got you!"
(incidentally, for someone who has so much power and influence at his command, when was the last time the unaccountable Mr Murdoch gave an interview?
...Where's Rupert? Who is Mr Murdoch, and what does he want with us?)
Clearly that video is Thom's audition for strictly come dancing (keep practicing!) and the 'Clockwork Orange-esque' attire a symbolic statement that culture as expressed in the music video format is akin to having your eyelids pinned back so that the full horror of your re-programming can be absorbed in to your brain without obstuctruction... god help the thought numb droogs!
A secondly, Codex is a blatant and open sign post to the real meaning of all Radiohead work... it is itself the Rossetta Stone, the Key, or Da Greenwood Code which will unlock all their work and reveal the True path to salvation from all of the above atrocities refered to in modern society... Nothing less than the secret teachhings of Jesus of how to write songs, build a functioning music industry and restring a Gibson
... but then I am prone to an over-active imagination and effusive hyperbole!
Have been thinking, My iron Lung is an EP, which, even if you exclude the acoustic Creep, has 8 songs on it of good original quality, but is not regarded as an album, but King of limbs is an album, and has the same amount of songs on it, perhaps this is a separate thread, but what constitutes an ablum?
Many old classic albums by which we measure the product of an artists industry were as long as they were due to time constraints of the vinyl format, which extended with the advent of the CD, although few put more songs on the CD. In the download era, can we justly expect an 'album' of 300 or more songs on, and what should be the measure which would define this quantity... the cost of the album being prohibitive to the consumer?
... the diminishment of quality through excessive quantity?
There may be many more examples of albums that do not conform to the traditional description of an 'album', so perhaps a discussion about terms, or properties which define the term 'album' or 'EP' or 'Bloody long single with too many B-sides even though the term 'sides' no longer applies'
some very interesting thoughts badfaith. I especialy like your take on "Morning, Mr Magpie". as for the ep issue It is really difficult to define since cd's came out. I think these days it can only be defined by the band themselves. However if you listen to My Iron Lung EP and Then The King Of Limbs it's pretty evident ehich one is the album so I guess theres the aspect of the album needs to be heard start to finish whereas EP's tend to be more odds and endsy.
The thing is, with an album, you can usually detect a theme or set of themes that form a narative through the album, and a structure in how those songs are put together, like in rainbows, or at the very least, a discernable style of music which distinguishes it from previous works, to form a whole.
...but The king of Limbs is, i would have to say, divided consciously and purposely into two halves... the songs would normally have been dispersed evenly to balance the listening experience, but perhaps that is the meaning or concept of this album, as alluded to in 'Separator', that they have cultivated a more experimental electronic style along side a more accessible instrument driven style, which on Amnesiac and Kid A were dispersed evenly for that balance, but here is presented as a direct challenge to the listener... knowing that their different fans will naturally gravitate towards either the first half or the second half of the album initially, before the other songs bleed into the consciousness.
Like some posts here, I naturally gravitated to the later group of songs on the album, and listened to them more, but now I've listened to them to death, I'm giving the first half more of a listen, and Bloom is currently taking over my mind.
Perhaps this is a signal album, that portends a dramatic shift in future style, and this album asks: "which kind of Radiohead fan are you?"
And also, one final thought: I detect a theme on in Rainbows about a kind of doomed relationship or obsession with someone, and some of the lyrics on this one only serve to reinforce that theory, do you think someone in the band (scurrelous rumour time chaps!) is treating us to their own personal relationship hell since In Rainbows... because I was surprised when that last album came out that they made songs about love and relationships (unusual fare for Radiohead I thought) like House of Cards.
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