page_title: The King of Limbs
section_title: Music and lyrics
hierarchical_section_title: The King of Limbs / Music and lyrics
caption_attribution_description: English: The King Of Limbs tree. The inspiration behind Radiohead's 8th LP title.
context_page_description: The King of Limbs is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was self-released on 18 February 2011 as a download, followed by a physical release on 28 March through XL Recordings internationally and TBD Records in North America.
  Following the protracted recording and more conventional instrumentation of In Rainbows, Radiohead and their longtime producer Nigel Godrich developed The King of Limbs through sampling and looping. Singer Thom Yorke described the album as "an expression of wildness and mutation". The artwork, by Yorke and longtime collaborator Stanley Donwood, depicts nature and spirits inspired by fairy tales.
  Radiohead released no singles from The King of Limbs, but released a music video for "Lotus Flower" featuring Yorke's dancing that spawned an internet meme. In 2012, they began an international tour, with several festival appearances. The European tour was postponed after the temporary stage collapsed in Toronto’s Downsview Park, killing a technician and injuring three others.
  The King of Limbs was named one of the best albums of the year by publications including The Wire, NME and PopMatters.
context_section_description: According to Rolling Stone, The King of Limbs saw Radiohead move further from conventional rock music and song structures in favour of "moody, rhythm-heavy electronica, glacially paced ballads and ambient psychedelia". Several critics noted dubstep influences. The album makes prominent use of sampling, looping, and ambient sounds, incorporating natural sounds such as birdsong and wind. Pitchfork described its music as "aggressive rhythms made out of dainty bits of digital detritus, robotically repetitive yet humanly off-kilter, parched thickets of drumming graced with fleeting moments of melodic relief". According to O'Brien: "Rhythm is the king of limbs! The rhythm dictates the record. It's very important."
  The first track, "Bloom", was inspired by the BBC nature documentary series The Blue Planet. It opens with a piano loop and features horns and complex rhythms. "Morning Mr Magpie" has "restless guitars". "Little by Little" features "crumbling guitar shapes" and "clattering" percussion. "Feral" features scattered vocal samples and "mulched-up" drums. "Lotus Flower" features a driving synth bassline and Yorke's falsetto. "Codex" is a piano ballad with "spectral" horns and strings and a Roland TR-808 drum machine. "Give Up the Ghost" is an acoustic guitar ballad with layered vocal harmonies. The final track, "Separator", has guitar and piano, a "brittle" drum loop, and echoing vocals.
  Yorke said he felt The King of Limbs was a "visual" album, with lyrics and artwork about "wildness" and "mutating" inspired by his environmental concerns. The album title derives from the King of Limbs, an ancient oak tree in Savernake Forest in Wiltshire, near Tottenham House, where Radiohead recorded In Rainbows.
  At eight tracks and 37 minutes in length, The King of Limbs is Radiohead's shortest album. O'Brien explained that Radiohead felt the ideal album was around 40 minutes long, and cited Marvin Gaye's What's Going On (1971) as a classic record shorter than The King of Limbs.
caption: The album title derives from the King of Limbs, an ancient tree in Savernake Forest, Wiltshire.
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