The apocalyptic Radiohead song Thom Yorke called “the most joyful we’ve ever written”
The opinion held by many regarding Radiohead’s sound was cemented back in 1995 when Alicia Silverstone’s character made several digs at the band in the classic teen comedy Clueless, calling them “cry baby music” and “maudlin”. To many, Radiohead had that self-pitying act nailed, best seen in their debut single, ‘Creep’, in which Thom Yorke labelled himself a “weirdo” and wished he was “special”.
Yet, to see Radiohead as such is a rather narrow-minded view. After the release of their debut album, Pablo Honey, the band honed their skills and released The Bends, which contained an array of indie classics and emotionally charged slices of melancholy. It was refined, complex and personal, exploring themes that related more widely to the state of the world. They continued to tap into political and social issues on OK Computer, their magnum opus, exploring the alienation, isolation and tense state of affairs as a result of heightened consumerism and capitalism.
Radiohead might have emerged on the scene with a song about being lonely and wanting to be loved, but they developed this general idea into the rest of their discography with much more depth. The isolating nature of existing in a world defined by dictatorships, war, capitalism, societal expectations, and constant technological developments is enough to make anyone anxious, and the Oxfordshire band have always communicated these themes extraordinarily well.
At the same time, they’ve developed their sound, becoming one of alternative rock’s most innovative bands. Most notably, they’ve explored electronic textures, becoming one of rock’s most prominent bands to significantly incorporate synths and other electronic instruments into their sound. With Kid A, Radiohead shocked fans with this new direction. The album opened with ‘Everything In Its Right Place’ – Yorke’s voice manipulated and artificial-sounding, shooting across the synth soundscape to create a poignant introduction to this new era for the band.
The record featured ‘Treefingers’, an ambient number, while ‘The National Anthem’ contained free jazz influences. Then there’s ‘Idioteque’, perhaps the song that listeners remember best. It’s danceable, with modular synthesisers forming the basis of the transfixing instrumentals. Jonny Greenwood was in charge of creating the song’s iconic sonic palette, which Yorke subsequently wrote around for the rest of the song.
Lyrically, the song deals with apocalyptic themes, with Yorke singing lines such as “Who’s in a bunker?” and “Ice Age coming”. Yet, Yorke once claimed that “it was the most joyful thing we’ve ever written,” telling Select that the interviewer he initially said this to “just didn’t get it”.
The singer continued: “He was saying, ‘But you’re singing about the Ice Age coming.’ Well, yeah, that’s because it is. But that’s not the point, the point is the joy of watching everything working”.
He added, “When we finished it I remembered how I always wanted to do a dance tune, something you hear when you go to a club. I used to go to a club when I was at university that played hip hop, James Brown and stuff. The speakers were really bad and blown up. I remembered that, because I always used to think, ‘Wouldn’t it be amazing to try and get that feeling, but have all the things that freak you out, the most worrying images you could have, and rattle them off in the middle of the rhythm?’”
