Lit or Nah? – Daydreaming / Burn the Witch by Radiohead

Daydreaming / Burn the Witch by Radiohead

Verdict: Lit or Nah?…who even knows anymore.

To say the experimental-indie-electronic band out of England has been stigmatized by popular media would be an understatement. Ever since their first hit in 1993, CREEP, the band has been constantly evolving their sound with deep experimentation in instrumentation, vocals, and production. And Thom Yorke’s creativity has seemed to come to a tumultuous head with the impending release of Radiohead’s latest (maybe even last) album and the antics that came along with it, including threatening-sounding letters sent to UK fans. All of this in the past, it all seemed to work out, or at least make some sort of sense to the fans, as the ‘burning of the witch’ mentioned in those envelopes came to the public with the release of Radiohead’s first single from the new project, Burn the Witch.

The song features heavy plucked instrumentation and is hard to see how it would fit into an album, since it sounds as if pulled from the mind of a panicked harpsichordist living in the 18th century. May 6th, the second track was released, and the vision of the album became a little clearer.

Daydreaming starts off with Thom’s usual falsetto, “Dreamers, Dreamers never learn” but something is off, as if he got out of a screaming match and is struggling to bring his voice up to the level that has been cannon to Radiohead’s sound since OK computer. ON daydreaming, Thom’s voice wavers, and the instrumentation swells with emotions. Here the album is still greatly anticipated, but there has been more light shed on the concept. A blurry line between a perfect dream and the feverish nightmare that comes with being pulled out of it. – Ryan G