Hear Me Out: ‘Last Flowers’ is Radiohead’s best-kept secret
Radiohead‘s catalogue is practically bulletproof, best exemplified by the fact that some of their least-known songs also happen to be their finest. Few songwriters have bonus tracks and bootlegs to their name that fans still rank among their all-time favourites, and Thom Yorke is one of them.
Hidden quietly between the LPs and singles that’ve made it on every variation of ‘The Greatest’ lists since the early 1990s is the second disk of In Rainbows. Whereas the original ten-part record was released digitally in October 2007, the group followed it up with a second tracklist of bonus songs as part of the retail package in December that same year.
The second bundle comprised a total of eight additional tunes that were left off the final draft simply because they didn’t fit the theme of the main album. However, Yorke told NME that those songs are just as great as the ones from the first batch. Although he singled out ‘Down Is the New Up’ as one of his favourites from Disk 2, there’s another cut on there that captures his brilliance just as clearly but rarely gets its due shine.
Elemental and straightforward, ‘Last Flowers’ is structured almost like a demo due to its stripped-back arrangement, so its obscurity only seems appropriate. Given the song’s breathtaking songwriting and lyrics, it almost feels wrong to bring it up and have even the band’s biggest fans not immediately recognise it, but that’s also what makes it special to those who hold it close to their hearts. While the second disk of In Rainbows is no secret, its components are. By virtue of being an add-on to an album that is already perfect by itself, those eight songs have never enjoyed the same visibility.
The song is arguably one of Yorke’s most heartfelt to date. Although this isn’t directly stated, the submissive exhaustion behind each word captures the struggle of negotiating and trying to overcome emotions that suffocate us. Some parts of the song even hint at those feelings closing in at the threshold between life and death, as the narrator lies in a hospital bed surrounded by machines in anticipation of long-overdue relief.
There really isn’t much to the track in terms of building blocks, because it only comprises vocals, piano and guitar. Almost like a Radiohead songwriting masterclass, it proves that delicate chord progression and two instruments are all it takes to create something that resonates with people on a deep level.
From the opening lines up to the climax that features Yorke repeating “Too much, too bright, too powerful”, this cut has a melancholic tenderness to it that shows up in several other songs by the band, but its acoustic arrangement makes it ten times more intimate than any of its other counterparts. Allowing listeners to let their guards down is the whole point of songs like ‘Last Flowers’, and to have the soul behind it unprocessed on record is an exceptionally heartfelt experience.
Yorke had been performing ‘Last Flowers’ live as early as 1997, and so it remained a mystery for a full decade before its official release. Just as haunting as it is pretty, it is one of Radiohead’s best-kept open secrets even today because an external nudge is typically what it takes for people to properly give it their time, and with that in mind, here’s one from us.
