THE KINGS OF LIMBS - LIVE FROM THE BASEMENT

Here is the Live From The Basement of "The Kings Of Limbs". It was supposed to be put on youtube for a while, then I think someone did, I watched it on Vimeo I think. Then I watched it again. And now it's on DVD.

The thing about this is for me, it made me love The Kings Of Limbs. I was not enjoying a lot of the material shown on the album, but when they come live, somethings are more obvious like some layers that most of the people don't even hear (because of low quality mp3's or bad earphones or the worst scenario, laptop speakers for god's sake!!) so this video made it worthwhile for me to really get used to the album. And it's a hard one to get used to either. And it's always cool to watch the radiohead guys(especialy Thom Yorke) doing their thing, playing and enjoying their material. You know there are two drummers playing simultaniously on this DVD. I think maybe another watch of this show will make me a true King of Limbs fan. Will watch soon!

Even if you didn't enjoy The King Of Limbs at all, I'd recommend at least check the video on the radiohead youtube channel out for yourself. They put Bloom from the show. If you like it like I did, I'd recommend buying the DVD.

A worthy entry in Radiohead's discography. I'm not the only one who has remarked that some of the songs actually sound better in this version than they do on the original version. Furthermore, the band performed 2 songs not found on the album. Which, as others have also noted, are arguably better than anything on the album. So much so, that they have been released as singles now: Staircase and The Daily Mail. For my part, "Staircase" (the version on this DVD) is my favorite Radiohead song in a long time, and watching them play it somehow even enhances the song.

The film was shot very well; Lotus Flower and Codex still sound great, and the band is full of energy and goodwill (so it seems). (The "In Rainbows" Live from the Basement performance from several years a go on the other hand didn't seem as energetic or entertaining to me; maybe that's just me...)

The King of Limbs has received a somewhat mixed reception when compared to Radiohead's previous albums since The Bends. In truth, the songs on it are all quite good, but it's the sort of album that requires repeated listening to unpack, since it's rather unlike anything the band or (for that matter) anyone else has done previously, and it has a rather significant problem in that nearly every song is better live than it was in the studio.

Hence, this live release. The band is joined by extra percussionist Clive Deaver (also known for his work with Portishead) and several wind instrument players. The benefit to the band's sound is substantial. "Bloom" is a case in point; while the studio version was an endearing composition already, the expanded sound just adds to the song's effect. The majority of songs here are vastly superior to their studio counterparts.

This live collection also benefits over the studio release in another important manner: it has more songs. The King of Limbs has often been criticised for being too short, especially since the band had several other excellent songs from the sessions that were released on singles shortly after the album's release. Three of those songs are included here, and they're worthy additions to the corpus of the album, making listeners wonder why they were left off the album in the first place. (The band claims that they didn't flow right with the rest of the material, but given the fact that no song on the album sounds like any other song on the album, listeners will probably not find this to be a satisfactory explanation).

My only complaint is with the terrible mastering, but unfortunately that's been a problem with nearly all of Radiohead's material going back to Amnesiac (including most of these songs' studio counterparts), so nothing new here.

In any case, this live release is strongly recommended, and should convince sceptical listeners that this period in Radiohead's career was just as worthwhile as any of the others.