Radiohead

The King of Limbs Download/XL ***

The King of Limbs Download/XL***

Novelty release methods aside, a new Radiohead album always grabs the kind of gargantuan pomp that PR just can't pay for. They're a hugely imaginative band who still pique the interest of fans who claim to have left them behind. The King of Limbsopens with Bloom, a squall of repetitive keys and percussion that sets the tone for the first half of the album. Always inventive, it was inevitable that Radiohead would dabble with dubstep ( Feral) and there's a definite transference from Thom Yorke's Eraserdays ( Lotus Flower). If the first half of the album is about experimentation – Morning Mr Magpieis one long palpitation of hypnotic strumming – the latter is about what Radiohead do best: heart- scalded ballads underpinned by Yorke's falsetto. The King of Limbstakes several listens, and just as you grasp it, it ends abruptly after 37 minutes and eight (mostly) impressive tracks. An almost four-star album. See radiohead.com

Download tracks: Codex, Separator, Morning Mr Magpie

Sinéad Gleeson

Sinéad Gleeson

Sinéad Gleeson is a writer, editor and Irish Times contributor specialising in the arts