Stanley Donwood Explains Radiohead's King of Limbs Artwork

Radiohead has recently released the “newspaper” version of their newest album The King of Limbs. Photos of the album’s deluxe edition began to surface last week, finally answering the question fans have had on their minds since the album was announced back in February: “What the heck is a newspaper album, anyway?”

The newspaper edition features the album on two clear, vinyl records, as well as in digital and CD formats. It also contains several large pieces of artwork, a sheet featuring 635 tiny pieces of artwork and a newspaper similar to the previously released Universal Sigh, all packaged in an oxo-degradable plastic.

Pitchfork recently spoke to King of Limbs artist and longtime Radiohead collaborator Stanley Donwood about the significance of the album’s artwork and packaging.

“The whole idea of this album was to have something that was almost not existing, so we chose clear vinyl and the newspaper format,” Donwood said.

He went on to describe the state of the band at the moment as “transitory,” much like a newspaper. “When a newspaper comes out, that doesn’t mean news stops,” he explained, “what you have is just a snapshot of how things were at the moment that newspaper was printed. And similarly, this album shows where Radiohead are at the moment the record was released. The music is a continuing thing. And we wanted to make the album representative of that.”

Donwood also expressed his love for newspapers, citing their disposability and the way they revolutionized mass communication as reasons for his fascination. When asked if there was a message of disposability with the newspaper album, Donwood responded, “The whole thing with this is, if you look after it, like most things, they will last. If you don’t, then they will disappear very quickly.”

Head over to Pitchfork.com for the full interview.

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