Monday, December 2, 2013

"The National Anthem" (Radiohead)

I have to be in the right mood to listen to Radiohead's Kid A (2000).  It's not an album I just put on for background music.  It demands a certain level of attention.  There's a lot going on, even though many of the tracks are stripped bare to very basic elements--spare acoustic guitar here, computerized blips and bloops there.  There are elements of Eno, but nothing that feels blatantly derivative.  There also are elements of free jazz, particularly in "The National Anthem."
The song begins with Philip Selway's drums and Thom Yorke's bassline, laying down an angular funk groove.  For about two minutes, it lulls you into thinking that maybe the electronica of the first two tracks on Kid A were a fluke and they're returning to alt rock form, à la OK Computer.
Then the horns come in.
There's this controlled chaos, with everyone going in his own direction, trying to be heard over everyone else.  You hear tension build as each soloist gets louder and louder.  Sonically, tempers flare.  Things calm down momentarily, and order breaks through.  Then all hell breaks loose, and it ends in a shouting match.
I think there's the obvious interpretation of the song, which is the chaos of trying to maintain a civilized society.  (Rather prophetic, considering the world events that transpired  in the years after Kid A's release.)
But I also think it's a sonic reenactment of Yorke's personal struggles and his long recovery  from a mental breakdown after OK Computer.  Amidst all of the noise and chaos going on around him, he tried to keep "holding on" to rediscover the reason why he became a musician in the first place.


  



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