Fair assessment and kudos for trying something new. I thought it was meh on my first couple of listens, but it’s among my favorites now, especially with good headphones. I really like the guitar tones, the vocal reverb, and everything the bass is doing. The drums very much have a “less is more” vibe, and I’ve always been a sucker for simple or classic stuff executed well. No solos or crazy fills because the album really doesn’t call for it.
It sounds like you were digging the spacey, atmospheric bits and the atypical rhythms. If I’m understanding correctly, this was never gonna be the Radiohead album for you. The King of Limbs is more of a dark haunt with punchy percussion in the first half and then atmospheric I’m the second half. Kid A is spacey af but has a couple of very danceable tracks like Optimistic and Idioteque. Hail to the Thief is kinda both in every track, but I think you’d also like the time signature and changes of Go To Sleep as well as the general vibe of There There. I doubt you’ll think any of those are masterpieces per se, but I think you’ll find that they’re closer to what you wanted, even if you only check out the tracks I singled out. Personally, I fucking love In Rainbows and only like the 3 albums I just recommended to you, but I think In Rainbows is safe in a lot of ways and you seem to be into the aspects that are a bit more experimental. For context, Kid A came out in 2000 after the smash hit albums The Bends and OK Computer, which were 90s guitar rock albums; the world expected the next album to be more of the same, but they took a hard left turn and got weird with it. How To Disappear Completely is on that album and I’d say that that song is an absolute masterpiece of atmospheric, uncomfortable honesty about dissociating from crippling anxieties that are impossible to actually escape from, centered around a two-note motif that will send shivers down your spine the first time you hear it on your second listen.
Sorry for the wall of text. Just excited to share stuff that might impact you in the way that art should.
Fair assessment and kudos for trying something new. I thought it was meh on my first couple of listens, but it’s among my favorites now, especially with good headphones. I really like the guitar tones, the vocal reverb, and everything the bass is doing. The drums very much have a “less is more” vibe, and I’ve always been a sucker for simple or classic stuff executed well. No solos or crazy fills because the album really doesn’t call for it.
It sounds like you were digging the spacey, atmospheric bits and the atypical rhythms. If I’m understanding correctly, this was never gonna be the Radiohead album for you. The King of Limbs is more of a dark haunt with punchy percussion in the first half and then atmospheric I’m the second half. Kid A is spacey af but has a couple of very danceable tracks like Optimistic and Idioteque. Hail to the Thief is kinda both in every track, but I think you’d also like the time signature and changes of Go To Sleep as well as the general vibe of There There. I doubt you’ll think any of those are masterpieces per se, but I think you’ll find that they’re closer to what you wanted, even if you only check out the tracks I singled out. Personally, I fucking love In Rainbows and only like the 3 albums I just recommended to you, but I think In Rainbows is safe in a lot of ways and you seem to be into the aspects that are a bit more experimental. For context, Kid A came out in 2000 after the smash hit albums The Bends and OK Computer, which were 90s guitar rock albums; the world expected the next album to be more of the same, but they took a hard left turn and got weird with it. How To Disappear Completely is on that album and I’d say that that song is an absolute masterpiece of atmospheric, uncomfortable honesty about dissociating from crippling anxieties that are impossible to actually escape from, centered around a two-note motif that will send shivers down your spine the first time you hear it on your second listen.
Sorry for the wall of text. Just excited to share stuff that might impact you in the way that art should.