Tag Archives: radiohead

#736: Radiohead – Life in a Glasshouse

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Continuing their run of awesome album closers, ‘Life in a Glasshouse’ is the last track on Radiohead’s album Amnesiac and, in a way, put an ominous end to their remarkable reinvention era of 2000/2001 when they wowed critics and confused listeners with the aforementioned album and Kid A eight months earlier. Obviously Radiohead always reinvent themselves in some way, but in this period people really questioned what the band were trying to do with this new anti-rock route they were going with.

‘Glasshouse’ is probably the group’s most unique track. There is no other song in Radiohead’s discography that is like it at all. And that’s not me trying to say that it differs in just a minor area from their other material. The track is this sad-sounding, jazzy funeral dirge complete with clarinets, trumpets and a huge big band section. I seem to remember lying in bed, half-asleep, listening to Amnesiac for the first time in late 2012. Though I thought the rest of the album was alright (an opinion I still hold today, it’s probably one of my least favourite Radiohead albums) this track stood out to me as a highlight while also bringing a downer to whatever dream I was having. The track itself is inspired by an incident where a wife of a famous actor covered her windows with newspapers to prevent paparazzi and the tabloids from getting any proper photos of her. But Thom Yorke’s delivery on ‘someone’s listening in’, especially at the end, is very creepy. Makes me feel like I’m being watched. We are all being watched in some way.

Because the jazzy instrumental was provided by a specific band, led by musician Humphrey Lyttelton who passed away in 2008, the band have never performed the song live. Except for that one time that they did in 2001. Below is Lyttleton’s band and Radiohead on Later with Jools Holland performing the track.

#728: Radiohead – Let Down

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Ah, ‘Let Down’. A firm fan favourite from OK Computer for many a Radiohead follower. A running joke on the band’s subreddit is calling the track ‘underrated’ even though there are so many posts that declare a huge love for it. It’s a sad song with really uplifting music, which brings many listeners to wonder whether it’s meant to be happy or truly depressing. Truly, it is a track that conveys conflicting emotions. For many years, the band didn’t play it live because they found it difficult to play and then suddenly around the time A Moon Shaped Pool was out in 2016, they played it for the first time in ten years at Madison Square Garden.

I was convinced that I had heard ‘Let Down’ somewhere at some time when listening to the album for the very first time…. Was it used in an advert/commercial for something? That’s a question I’ve been wondering for ten years now. If not it’s probably just a testament to how great the melodies within the song are, because it was like I’d known that song for years I was already singing the chorus before the track fully ended. Thom Yorke, double tracked with the two vocals in your left and right ear, sings about feeling distant and despondent in a world that is failing to impress him. When he dreams of growing wings and being able to fly away from it all, he realises that that too is just a large fantasy, becoming disappointed in the process. But this is all surrounded by a twinkling glockenspiel and a wall of arpeggiated guitars – one of those which play in 5/4 time for the majority of the track.

The track also contains one of the most beloved moments in the Radiohead discography where one of Yorke’s vocals overlap one another during the climactic part of the track. I, myself, think that part is very nice – I’ve never given it much thought even if I always at least try and sing along with it. I’ve actually found Colin Greenwood’s bass on here the most overlooked component of the whole ordeal. If you pay attention to it, you’ll see it’s the melodic ground that anchors everything together.

#703: Radiohead – Knives Out

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It took me a while to really appreciate this song. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Amnesiac as a whole, but it does contain some of Radiohead’s best work. In the past I would always hear this song and maintain my focus on Thom Yorke’s vocal. For a long time it never impressed me. Seemed kind of aimless. It rises and falls and that was about it. Quite run of the mill for his voice.

Then, some time last year, I revisited the album. Instead of focusing on Yorke’s voice, I turned my attention to the band’s performance. The ‘Paranoid Android-esque’ lick that opens the track, the wispy hiss that comes from Phil Selway’s ride cymbal… Colin Greenwood’s bassline. All these little things suddenly became much more apparent. ‘Knives Out’ isn’t all about Thom Yorke’s voice, but how every other instrument interplays with it. When you take all of those elements into consideration, it makes Yorke’s melody so much more engaging.

The song is a very atmospheric one. Dark and pessimistic in tone. There’s a lot of cannibalistic imagery in there, though it’s also based on the ideas of looking into a dying person’s eyes and someone walking out on their family. Not the cheeriest of songs but one of those you need when you’re feeling quite low.

#693: Radiohead – Kid A

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The title track from Radiohead’s fourth album is a strange one. At least that’s what I thought of it when I first listened to it. I’ve just grown to like it because of its unsettling nature. I was a child in 2000 so I can only imagine how people who were expecting an OK Computer Part 2 reacted when hearing Kid A upon its initial release. 2012 was when I decided to take it on. I didn’t think ‘Everything in Its Right Place’ was too out there, but ‘Kid A’ certainly takes things in another direction.

The music, written by the band’s lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, has an innocent child-like music box quality to it, which is layered upon by these soothing guitar chords that feel very warm and very comfortable. Then Thom Yorke comes in. He had some lyrics for the song that he didn’t want to sing. Instead, he spoke them into the microphone and Greenwood improvised a melody when processing the vocal through an Ondes Martenot. As a result, Yorke’s voice as a robotic tone to it that greatly contrasts with the comforting music box notes that persist throughout.

The lyrics, like many others, were assembled randomly after having been written and cut up. There aren’t many present on the track. There are six phrases throughout: “I slipped away/I slipped on a little white lie/We’ve got heads on sticks and you’ve got ventriloquists/Standing in the shadows at the end of my bed/The rats and children follow me out of town/Come on kids”. Very dark, visual and mysterious imagery on show. Clearly, there aren’t a lot of lyrics either. But the group are still able to make something grand out of very little. That’s a reoccurring theme throughout the album.

With a piercing wail, the song comes to an end and transitions into ‘The National Anthem’, which takes the unsettling tones to another level.

#686: Radiohead – Karma Police

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‘Karma Police’ is the sixth track on OK Computer, Radiohead’s third studio album, released in 1997. That is an album that immediately was praised by critics as one of the best albums of the 20th century. It’s regarded as one of the best albums of all time to this day. I think everyone knows this one. Crowds are able to drown out Thom Yorke when he sings the ‘For a minute there’ section. It’s definitely one of Radiohead’s most popular songs. ‘Creep’ probably takes the crown as the one that really everyone knows, even if they don’t know who the band are. But ‘Karma Police’ is more engaging by a large distance.

I think I saw its music video (above) first before anything else. That’s how it went with me and Radiohead – I saw their music videos before I actually sat down and listened to any of their albums. The band’s videos were always randomly shown on MTV2 in the mid-2000s. For good reason too because they were always worth watching. But I would have been about 10 around that time and not paying so much attention to the music. I don’t know how the track ended up on the family computer – I’ll say one of my sister’s school friends sent her the song through MSN because it wasn’t anything to do with me – but it was there. I listened to it here and there. Been a big fan ever since.

The track is probably seen as an ‘entry-level’ Radiohead track but I feel a lot of emotion when listening to it. A lot more now than when I was a kid because… I guess music moves me a lot easier as I get older. It’s just so gloomy and dark and atmospheric. It has those little moments that add so much to the track, like that ‘aaaaahhh’ vocal that appears on the left side during the verses (recorded on a telephone if you didn’t know), those choir-like ‘oohs’ during the ‘this is what you get’ parts which are actually a synthesizer played by Jonny Greenwood….. the piano that sneaks in and plays its fills. It’s a track that’s full of surprises. And if you don’t feel something when Thom Yorke belts out the last ‘I lost myself’ then you know… you’re just into other stuff I guess. But I like it. Never grown tired of it. Don’t think I will any time soon.