Song · The King of Limbs era (2011)
The Butcher
Record Store Day got it in April 2011, two months after the album it was left off.
2010–11
the sessions
It comes from the same sessions as The King of Limbs and has the same beat-led minimalism, stuttering drums over a bassline that stays on one note.
16 apr 2011
the other side
It came out with “Supercollider” as a 12-inch double A-side for Record Store Day on 16 April 2011, and two days later as a free download for anyone who had bought the album from the band. Some pressings had the labels the wrong way round.
Marc Hogan, ranking every Radiohead song for Vulture, gave it credit for its rumbling percussion and not much else. Chris DeVille at Stereogum liked it far better, a cross between dance beats and the band's most dirge-like habits. Radiohead have never played it live.
There had been talk of a second King of Limbs made of what the sessions left behind. Ed O'Brien, talking to BBC 6 Music that week, said this and “Supercollider” were all that was finished.
There are songs that we have started, that we never finished, but there's not like seven or eight finished songs waiting in the wings to be released now, or in the autumn.
ed o'brien · bbc 6 music, april 2011
the video
The official promo film.· Radioheadwatch on youtube →
sources7
- Glenn Peoples, “Radiohead thanks online buyers with two free tracks”, Billboard, 20 April 2011.
- Michael Cragg, The Guardian, 18 April 2011.
- Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 25 April 2011.
- Marc Hogan, “I might be wrong: every Radiohead song, ranked”, Vulture, 28 March 2019.
- Chris DeVille, Stereogum, 18 February 2021.
- Matthew Perpetua, “Radiohead: There Is No Sequel to ‘The King of Limbs’”, Rolling Stone, 14 April 2011, and “Radiohead: No Quick ‘The Kick Of Limbs’ Follow Up”, DIY, 14 April 2011, for O'Brien on the leftovers.
- “There is no King of Limbs part 2”, Beats Per Minute, April 2011, for the talk of a sequel.