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VIDEO YEARBOOK: RADIOHEAD

06.10.03

Navigate » Video Yearbook: Radiohead » Page 1 . Page 2 . Page 3

What a long, strange trip it's been! Radiohead, since your 1993 breakout album 'Pablo Honey', you've consistently impressed us with groundbreaking music and artful music videos - clips that perfectly complemented and highlighted your sonic creations. So, after more than a decade of bandhood, we thought that the time was right for a look back at where you began, where you are now - and perhaps, somewhere between the lines, we'll catch a glimpse of where you're going. Hail to you!

2003

There There

Director: Chris Hopewell and The Bolex Brothers

Album: Hail To The Thief

Video Checklist:

» Cats getting married:
Yes

» Giant freaking bats:
Yes

» Is this what Hunter S. Thompson's dreams must look like:
More or less...

» Watch the video now!
[Dur. 4:50]

Synopsis: "There There" features a sinister fantasyland that is a mixture of live action, greenscreen studio work and 3D stop animation. Singer Thom Yorke stumbles through a fairy-tale forest filled with strangely civilized woodland creatures. After observing the animals' dinner parties and weddings, Yorke spies an overcoat floating between the trees. When he puts it on, with an accompanying pair of glowing boots, he is attacked by a flock of crows. As he runs, his shoes come off in the underbrush; his feet turn into roots and he turns into a tree.

2002

Push/Pulk Spinning Plates

Director: Johnny Hardstaff

Album: Amnesiac

Video Checklist:

» Spinning plates
Yes.

» Are they pushing or pulking?
Wait, what does pulk even mean?

» Song title containing made-up words like 'pulk':
Yeah. Nearly had us fooled.

» Watch the video now!
[Dur. 7:50]

Synopsis: An atmospheric combination of two tracks from 'Amnesiac' that at first features wireframe geometric structures; it's kind of like an advertisement for an art school. Then, the visuals become a control screen for perhaps an engine or a microscope. The video takes on shades of '2001: A Space Odyssey' and 'The Matrix' as two babies are connected together. At the end, Thom sings through digital distortion. A swirling, cautionary tale of the digital age.

2001

I Might Be Wrong

Director: Sophie Muller

Album: Amnesiac

Video Checklist:

» Darkness:
Yes.

» Wait, was that a guitar we heard?:
Hmm...

» Was the guitar digitally distorted at least?:
Yeah, whew.

» Watch the video now!
[Dur. 4:51]

Synopsis: A solid guitar riff melded with an electronic beat hooks you into this underexposed, grainy video shot in a parking garage. Thom & Co. strobe in and out of darkness, which makes the clip look as if it's been videotaped off a TV getting bad reception. Director Sophie Muller, who's helmed clips for No Doubt, Coldplay, Blur and Pink, creates a claustrophobic feel for this video - it's like the band members are drowning in the blackness that fills the screen.

Knives Out

Album: Amnesiac

Director: Michel Gondry

Video Checklist:

» # of giant human hearts:
2

» # of dancing skeletons:
1

» # of times we imagined this is what would happen if a train full of body parts swung by Mister Rogers' Neighbourhood:
1

» Watch the video now!
[Dur. 4:02]

Synopsis: Radiohead investigates the surreal in a clip that is akin to a Dali painting except with a serious, self-loathing, dark side. Thom lies on a cot in a hospital room next to his video girlfriend who is a patient in a real-life game of 'Operation'. Suddenly, Thom's head is a human heart - now his feet are in microwaves - next, a model train pulling coal cars full of body parts chugs 'round the bend. This clearly isn't Mister Rogers' Neighbourhood. A dancing, guitar-playing skeleton closes what might be the weirdest clip in the Radiohead catalogue.

Pyramid Song

Director: Shynola

Album: Amnesiac

Video Checklist:

» Distorted humanoid figure:
Yes.

» Positive outlook for humanity:
Nowhere to be seen.

» A Disney/Pixar movie:
This isn't...

» Watch the video now!
[Dur. 4:56]

Synopsis: A familiar helicopter shot over the ocean opens this video - we've seen it in many movies before, but this time, the shot is digitized and pixelated. Arriving at a concrete structure, we see a blocky humanoid figure going diving. The figure dives through a submerged city, passing ghostly, transparent skeletons. Eventually, the humanoid settles on a chair in one of the city's houses and releases its breathing tube. A bleak, apocalyptic vision with the merest hint of hope.

ALSO FROM 2001:
» Motion Picture Soundtrack (Kid A)

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