Plunged into a shimmering dreamscape, Yorke observes a fleet of aliens surveying humanity. The timeline matches that relationship’s duration and, equally, the lifespan of Radiohead. In a lyric some have linked to his late long-term partner, Yorke finds himself sleepwalking “beyond the point of no return”, before repeating a mournful mantra, “Half of my life”, played in reverse. Daydreaming (2016)īeneath the tiptoeing pianos, Daydreaming is a gut-wrencher. With just a funereal, cinematic string section for company, Yorke sends his falsetto out over the trenches, an innocent witness to “demons coming up from the ground”.
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Harry Patch (In Memory Of) (2009)Ī later-career treasure, Radiohead’s tribute to the last surviving combat soldier of the first world war shows how much ground they have barely touched. Like David Byrne before him, Yorke had renounced his authorship to flirt with self-erasure, yielding to gorgeously sunlit synths. Where OK Computer declared “I am born again”, Kid A dives straight into obfuscation: its opener’s choppy vocal gibberish more closely resembles the “unborn chicken voices” plaguing the Paranoid Android.
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With Yorke “up in the clouds” and Greenwood making spaceship sounds, the rhythm section straps in and goes full New Order, hurtling towards an ecstatic climax. Sequenced in the mid-album swamp of Hail to the Thief, Where I End and You Begin is a maligned masterclass in broody synthpop. Its hooks and arrangement were deceptively crafty, though, making its turbulent climax hard to shake. There There (2003)Īfter the divisive Kid A/Amnesiac era, Hail to the Thief’s lead single felt diplomatic – no more sacrilegious than Blur’s experiments at around the same time. Creeping riffs, melodic blasts and shameless melodrama laid the groundwork for OK Computer while cementing the band’s partnership with the producer Nigel Godrich. The Bends had vamped and snarled for the gallery, but Lucky – recorded for a War Child compilation – signalled deeper concerns and higher stakes. Can a radical conscience coexist with suburban comforts, No Surprises asks? For all that it soothes, this one is pessimistic. Radiohead’s most misunderstood protagonist has it made: the house, the garden, the heart full up “like a landfill”, the “job that slowly kills you”… and how lovely it all sounds. Only a melody so blissfully innocent could withstand such jittery, nightmarish contortions. Kid A’s unorthodox breakup song was later resurrected as Morning Bell/Amnesia (“like a recurring dream,” Yorke observed), but keep room in your heart for the cold-sweats original. 2+2=5 is his polemical anthem for the era of mass-broadcast deception and enhanced interrogation techniques, captured thrillingly in this Com Lag EP version.
2+2=5 (Live at Earls Court) (2004)Īs the Iraq war protests floundered, Yorke sporadically logged on to to denounce New Labour and the warmongering “thief” in the White House. The chorus flips the grunge ethos on its head, swapping self-loathing for theatrical vitriol. Just is a time capsule at the crossroads: hailstorm distortion meets perky hooks, wily vocals and – Yorke’s mischievous challenge to Greenwood – an absurd pageant of guitar chords. Post-Creep, Radiohead were poised between grunge and Britpop. The tantalising, unresolved chords mock him, but enchant us. As birds and newspaper pages thrash in a gale, Yorke, too, longs for chaos. Scatterbrain (2003)Īn unsung gem from Hail to the Thief, Scatterbrain prescribes halting rhythms and deconstructed chords to a narrator fretting over his identity. Nowadays, Creep is a joke, but we’re all blissfully in on it.
In the end, the band’s disavowal of the song sent its credibility full circle. “I want you to notice when I’m not around,” Yorke broods, a perfect lyric he probably hates. Radiohead’s biggest hit is so beautiful and corny, it is impossible to accept it on its own terms. The iffy tour version – shorn of strings and charm – attests to his handiwork on the recording. Finally entrusted to build an arrangement from scratch, he turned the live favourite Burn the Witch into this orchestral jaunt. Once the band’s secret weapon, Greenwood is now a garlanded composer and Radiohead’s melodic powerhouse. Trying a new tack, the Amnesiac opener layers anxious ticks and gamelan-style chimes before gently lampooning a “reasonable man” with an uneasy conscience.
Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box (2001)Īfter decrying consumerism, swerving into outre avant-rock and selling millions of records anyway, Radiohead learned the hard way that condemning society would just make them even richer.
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