Radiohead surprised everyone when they announced on Valentine's Day that they would in just five days release their eighth studio album, "The King of Limbs." Even their most loyal fans could not have predicted that the record would come out so soon, or at all: The band had kept unusually quiet about its production and content.
So when Radiohead decided to trick fans again and make the album available a day earlier than its scheduled release, many students could barely contain themselves. Apparently, barely advertising at all was a clever way to market the album. As an established band with such a loyal following, Radiohead can afford to take big risks in their advertising strategy. By promising to release an album not later this year or this month, but this week, Radiohead was sure to catch the attention of not just a few devoted listeners, but their entire army of fans.
Sophomore Nico Gomez, whose favorite band happens to be Radiohead, hosted a listening party in Cabot Auditorium on Saturday evening, open to anyone who was interested in hearing the album from loudspeakers in a space with good acoustics. WMFO also hosted one later that night. Though the album was unexpectedly released the day before the planned events, they were nonetheless successful, garnering mostly positive reactions to "The King of Limbs" from students.
It struck many students as unusual, however, that these listening parties lasted less than one hour. The entire album, at 37 minutes, 24 seconds long, is Radiohead's shortest to date. "I was surprised and a bit disappointed by how short the album was," sophomore Averi Becque said. "When we had finished listening in Cabot, I didn't want to get up and leave. I wanted more," Becque said.
Rumors are floating around that the album's length may be some kind of message from Radiohead about the evolving, or deteriorating, attention spans of modern listeners. It can be interpreted from both sides: a band decreasing its album length in order to appease shorter attention spans or a band decreasing its album length because they don't trust listeners to pay attention longer than 37 minutes. In reality, it could be some bizarre mixture of the two, or neither.
In regard to future albums, lead singer Thom Yorke said in a 2009 interview with The Believer magazine, "None of us want to go into that creative hoo−ha of a long−play record again. Not straight off. I mean, it's just become a real drag. It worked with ‘In Rainbows' [(2007)] because we had a real fixed idea about where we were going. But we've all said that we can't possibly dive into that again. It'll kill us." Evidently, the band members changed their minds somewhere along the line, but compromised by releasing a shorter−than−usual album.
Despite the album's minimalist approach, most fans seemed to agree that its content was superb.
"The album is fascinating, because it's a natural progression from ‘In Rainbows,' yet, at the same time, something completely unexpected and new. And awesomely apocalyptic," said sophomore Molly Wallace, who attended both listening parties.
"I think it's going to take a lot of listens. I mean, obviously it's immediately recognizable as a work of art — it's Radiohead. But, like ‘In Rainbows' did, it will probably grow on me way more over time," Wallace said.
Sophomore Eric Archibald echoed those sentiments. Although he does not consider himself a huge Radiohead fan, he attended the Cabot listening party. "I thought their album was, as always, innovative and very well−made. I also think that it gets better with each listen, something that isn't true of every band or album," he said.
Along with the release of the album, Radiohead has also put up a music video for the album's fifth track, "Lotus Flower." The music video is available immediately on the band's official blog at radiohead.com. The video is shot entirely in black and white, and features some peculiar dancing. We'll leave the rest for you to discover.
For those who missed out on the hype and haven't listened to "The King of Limbs" at all yet, it's not too late. We guarantee people will be talking about this album for quite some time.
