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unless you are completely unplugged you heard about the new radiohead release, the king of limbs. i saw the notice, added it to my what cue for the ratio boost, watched the lotus flower video and fb/tweeted about thoms wiggle/dance before i left for work.
who didn't?
did you listen to it during the day or did you wait/try for a proper listening environment after work? try a must, tempting links/streams were everywhere. i was the recipient of timing this weekend - an empty house - and wanted to take full advantage. i even completely avoided all talk of it and saved it all for tonight. get home, change clothes, walk/feed shadow, crack open a nice bottle and settle down in my favorite listening chair. ahhhh....
i've had a few listens and my general thoughts from the first time through appear validated so far. little by little is the only track that will not be going into my "must play" playlist, but i still like that track. ed had said this was going to be departure and you wonder how much less guitar con they do but this harkens back to elements of the kid a/amnesiac era recordings and then goes beyond. it evolvs to a point during the give up the ghost/separator ending that just completely bubbles over and explooges in your lap.
a friend of mine described it:
One thing that strikes me as very unique about how Radiohead mixes their recent albums is how heavy/thick they sound. Basically saying "we don't care if your speakers can't handle all that low end and low mid-range. ours can.". They mix it how they think it should sound and doing a fantastic job at doing so.
generally the producer/mastering goes the route of lcd (lowest common denominator) as you want it to sound acceptable on as many types of devices as possible. i'm glad i waited and didn't listen to this at work as tracks such as feral and give up the ghost would have been rattling around cheap plastic! anyone remember some of those cure cd/album covers in late 80s/90s "this is mixed to be played loud" things?
that. crank it.
i wish my first listen had been over headphones...