As someone who quite liked In Rainbows, and... hell - basically a little bit of everything the band has put out, I was prepared for an exciting collection of songs again this time around. Plus, it's eight songs - which could mean that they've trimmed the fat and delivered the top round of their material. However...Starting with track one, I would call "Bloom" fairly uninspiring. Thom pines on the meaning or non-meaning of life or non-life while an incandescent electronic rhythm lays underneath. Odd time signatures makes not a great song. Neither does throwing in visions of jellyfish. And then, it's track two and I'm afraid that this collection is going to be all animal references and crazy rock-less beats.
The polyrhythmic landscapes continue throughout. Songs are non-descript trance-like electronic collages. It feels like Yorke's "The Eraser". Only the single, "Lotus Flower" feels like a fully realized song, but the rest sound like they tried to make Lotus a 15-minute song and then convinced themselves to break it apart. This half of the album gives us bastardized sons of one song.
The other half gives us a morbid piano ballad, which- and I'm sorry - could be on a Coldplay record and no one would know the difference. A lazily remixed acoustic guitar track and another quiet pop tune.
So now, instead of thinking they trimmed the fat, I feel like the band got together and rushed out the first thing that came to their collective heads. Next time, instead of aspiring to be the king of limbs; you should try being the Assistant Director to the heart, mind, body & soul. (1.5 of 5 stars)
No comments:
Post a Comment