Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke shocked virtually no one when he released himself from the constraints of making music with a band and chose to work only with a laptop on his solo 2006 release named “The Eraser.”

The blogosphere credits “The Eraser” with saving Radiohead by allowing Yorke an outlet with which to experiment further with his passion for electronic music. Without “Eraser,” there may have been no 2007’s “In Rainbows,” a return to more audible, yet subdued guitar parts and live drums.

Not known for continuing in a clear or discernible path, Yorke and Co. seem to have retooled some old tricks on their eighth full-length release dubbed “The King of Limbs,” a set of eight tracks full of looping Yorke vocals marred in electronic reworkings over robotic drum beats and quiet, swooping guitar parts that keep the sound way up somewhere in the abstract.

The sound largely expands upon their prior release “In Rainbows,” in which Yorke’s falsetto reached higher than before and Phillip Selway’s drums were funky, tight and fast. Fans looking to hear an entirely new sound may be surprised that there is no radical change in the new material, save for some louder, club-like bass and an extra emphasis on looping Yorke’s background vocals for spooky effects.

Literally, “Limbs” picks up where “Rainbows” left off as album-opener “Bloom” begins with repeating piano chords and a quiet drum machine before it opens up into louder, human-made percussions and disjointed, electronic sound effects.

But whereas Yorke turned his subject matter on “In Rainbows” to more everyday human thoughts, lyrics on the new album more closely resemble “Kid A”-era themes. As “Bloom” fades into an orchestral outro, Yorke croons: “I’m moving out of orbit/turning in somersaults/ A giant turtle’s eye as jellyfish float by.”

Yorke reached back even further and channeled some 1997 Radiohead and borrowed a lyric from “Ok Computer” single “No Surprises” and recycled it as-is on “Little By Little.”

For comparison’s purposes, “No Surpirses” goes: “A heart that’s filled up like a landfill/ A job that slowly kills you/ Bruises that won’t heal.” “Little by Little” reads: “Obligations, complications/ Routines and schedules/ A job that’s killing you.” That’s something you don’t see Yorke do everyday.

Radiohead’s newest sounding track is the instrumental “Feral,” which contains some of Selway’s finest time keeping and low-down, pulsating bass reminiscent of Dubstep (one of Yorke’s favorite new genre’s). The instrumental is the fourth of eight tracks and therefore separates the album in two, much as Kid A’s instrumental “Treefingers” and Ok Computer’s quasi-instrumental “Fitter Happier” marked the halfway point in those respective albums.

The second half of the album differs in sound from that of the first, which is generally the case on all Radiohead’s great albums. Except for the single “Lotus Flower,” the last few tracks have less glitchy sound effects and frantic drumming than earlier tracks.

“Give Up The Ghost” is the closest Radiohead have come to writing a ballad since perhaps “Fake Plastic Trees.” Not sure who should be given the credit here (producer Nigel Godrich or the band), but leaving the slow-strumming acoustic guitar audible over layers of backing vocals and minimal electric guitar filler was the track’s saving grace. Lyrics like “Don’t haunt me/ Don’t hurt me,” are a lot more relatable and human-like when accompanied by acoustic guitar.

Imagine the same lyric being from “Kid A” and you might get visuals of Yorke cowering in a corner pleading with futuristic androids bent on mind control through use of physical and emotional force.

Radiohead might have saved the best for last in the case. The track “Separator” (no, not “Reckoner”) contains the usual themes of isolation, yet phrases it in the most human and heartbreaking way imaginable as Yorke recounts waking from a dream where he and a female parted ways. Instead of adding glitches and electronic drums to the track, the band ends the album with echoing and discernible guitar parts and piano chords. If you thought humans facing isolation from a world or robots was lonely, try facing the same fate in your own head with real players and actual, physical memories.