Live blogging Radiohead’s “The King of Limbs”

12:15 a.m. (or thereabouts) Feb. 19

So, I’ve live-blogged a time or two on this site, most recently, New Year’s Eve 2011, but I’ve never live-blogged the first listen of a new music album. I thought it might be a good time.

Today just after midnight, I paid the $14 and downloaded Radiohead’s new release, “The King of Limbs” (available here).  I thought for a second about how to best convey my initial listening of the album, and posting a series of Twitter messages initially came to mind. But I figured, I do own this space, so might as well put it to good use, especially since live blogging seems all the rave these days. I think I’ll live blogging my dachshund’s bowel movements one day. That should draw a hit or two to the site (It’s late. I think I am allowed some levity here).

But back to the music. Radiohead is well known by now for their innovative and groundbreaking knack for making music. Their last release, “In Rainbows,” was — dare I keep up the imagery? — a kaleidoscope of warming sound, from the stripped bare and falsetto-esque, “Nude,” to the searching lyrics and lilting beats of “All I Need,” to the pulsating, “Jigsaw Falling Into Place.”

While the music was grand, I actually thought “In Rainbows,” coming in at 10 tracks, was a bit short to hold up against “OK Computer” and “Hail to the Thief.”  That said, “Kid A” only featured 10 tracks as well, and it was nothing short of masterful.

Thus, as I look at the eight tracks presented to us on “The King of Limbs,” I’m admittedly a bit skeptic, for if the 10 tracks of Kid A made it a excellent album, an eight-song album had better arrest the listener’s soul with every tick of a second. Here is the track listing for The King of Limbs:”

1. Bloom
2. Morning Mr Magpie
3. Little By Little
4. Feral
5. Lotus Flower
6. Codex
7. Give Up The Ghost
8. Separator

And here is an article from The New York Times on the release.

Without further adieu and with headphones firmly in place, here we go.