The first of piece of music that I will review is the Radiohead single “Supercollider/The Butcher”. This is the last fruits of the bands “The King of Limbs” sessions and it was released on vinyl for record store day. As I expected the single goes along with the sound and atmosphere which were established during “The King of Limbs”. The album itself was met with mixed reactions, some thought it held its own among their best work while others simply hated it, and I agree with the former over the latter. “Supercollider” is the first track on this single and the song greets the listener with a drum machine and chilly synths, a combination that has since alienated a lot of the bands early listeners. The track is seven minutes long, it slowly builds, doesn’t bother to rush itself and there is no actual chorus that stands out. It seems as if this is the new direction that the band has decided to take and I am all for it. As the song progresses, different layers and sounds are strategically positioned in the right places to keep pushing the song along.
The second track on this single is “The Butcher” and it starts off with a shuffling drum pattern that sounds like wooden blocks, but as the song goes on an interesting thing happens. Live drums enter into the mix as if they are battling the drum machine, some kind of “Human vs. Machine” motif that can be found in previous tracks like the In Rainbows opener “15 Steps”. Overall I am very pleased with the atmosphere that these two tracks establish, and I am definitely not disappointed with Thom Yorke’s writing which maintains its baffling beauty and strangeness. The words complement the instruments and they combine to bring about a sentiment that Radiohead is great at conveying.
8/10
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