Aaron Frank has his own website. You should read it.
When the most common complaint about an album is that “it’s too short”, it’s difficult to deny its artistic merit. After all, if you’re left wanting more, then it must have made an impact. Somehow these laws don’t apply to Radiohead, a band whose critics are prone to nitpicking about inconsequential things such as an album’s length or the way it’s released.
Should you approach it with patience and an open mind, King of Limbs might be the most deceptively progressive and fulfilling 38 minutes of music released this year. Had those 8 songs been split up into 12 three minute pop songs, it’s inevitable that the general public would have digested the whole thing a lot more smoothly.
That’s why it’s all the more surprising that in the coming weeks, we’ll be hearing two new unreleased Radiohead tracks from the King of Limbs sessions, “The Daily Mail” and the recently leaked “Staircase”, which will both air as part of the band’s upcoming hour-long live show for the BBC titled “In The Basement”. “The Daily Mail” had been tested out on a few dates prior to the release of the King of Limbs, but “Staircase” is brand new and luckily we don’t have to suffer through 4 different live YouTube versions to get decent quality this time. The track showcases the more rhythm and groove-driven style of most of the King of Limbs, while projecting an even darker tone during the chorus, as the percussion flutters in the background with the addition of an extra bald drummer.
Meanwhile, Thom Yorke, sporting his cool-dad blazer, rides the groove perfectly with his vocals while an entrancing keyboard part backs him up, making for quite an enjoyable 5 minute bonus track. “Staircase” could have easily existed alongside similarly rhythm-heavy tracks like “Lotus Flower” on the King of Limbs, but at the same time it feels right at home with songs like “How I Made My Millions” and “True Love Waits”, isolated as another legendary Radiohead bonus track that never really quite found its place on a major release.
Download:
MP3: Radiohead-”Morning Mr. Magpie”
