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VIDEO YEARBOOK: RADIOHEAD

06.10.03

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2000

Idioteque

Director: Intro

Album: Kid A

Video Checklist:

» Acoustic instruments:
Yes

» Electronic instruments:
Yes

» Absolute harmony between both:
Pretty darn close...

» Watch the video now!
[Dur. 4:14]

Synopsis: This video features footage of the band jamming in a practice space - but with a Radiohead flair. The camera slides around, arriving at strange, precarious angles, before dissolving into slow, deliberate tracking shots. The band's sound is disorted and tweaked - as is the video itself; it's grainy, pixelated and very digital. With Kid A, Radiohead continues to evolve. They've certainly become more than just your average rock band.

ALSO FROM 2000:
» Optimistic (Kid A)

1999

	FROM 1999: » Palo Alto (No Surprises single)

1997

No Surprises

Album: OK Computer

Director: Grant Gee

Video Checklist:

» Thom staring blankly at camera again:
Yeah...that's his "thing", man.

» Moby:
...owes Radiohead royalties. Have you seen his 'We Are All Made of Stars' video?

» We think:
...there should be some goldfish swimming around in the helmet. Just for fun. And Thom should swallow one. That'd be cool.

» Watch the video now!
[Dur. 3:44]

Synopsis: A brilliantly compelling piece of film finds Thom's head encased in a glass astronaut helmet, or perhaps an upside down fishbowl. Either way, as stars twinkle, Thom stares at the camera singing as the song's lyrics scroll upwards inside the helmet. The helmet fills slowly with water and suddenly it's over his head; he stops breathing as the song continues. We wait, in agony, as we wonder how long he'll be able to hold out, and finally, when it becomes too much, the water drains so he can breathe again. He takes a few breaths and resumes singing - a grand metaphor for life and the way to live it.

Karma Police

Director: Jonathan Glazer

Album: OK Computer

Video Checklist:

» Thom looking like he's been drugged:
Yes.

» Thinly veiled political commentary:
Present.

» Still:
...we dig how subtle it is.

» Watch the video now!
[Dur. 4:22]

Synopsis: A car drives along a deserted road at night. We're in the driver's seat and see, in the distance, a person running away from us. From the back seat, Thom intones: "This is what you'll get when you mess with us..." Eventually, the man tires, falls, then gets up to face the car. The hunter-hunted dynamic is reversed - the man has a gleam in his eye. The car backs up and we see a trail of gas leading from him to us. A match drops and we can't escape the flames. We turn to see that Thom is no longer in the car with us.

Paranoid Android

Director: Magnus Carlsson

Album: OK Computer

Video Checklist:

» Nakedness:
Yes.

» Potentially blasphemous religious references:
Plenty.

» Does Radiohead know how to party or what?:
You bet! Here's proof!

» Watch the video now!
[Dur. 6:31]

Synopsis: Radiohead's only cartoon-type video begins with a purple-hatted character deliberately shampooing his eyes. This is the central metaphor as we wind our way through scene after scene of twisted debauchery - prostitutes living in trees, politicians drinking fish, a man with a spare head (attached to his stomach) table-dancing. It's all a bit much for us, and for the purple-hat guy; it's as if Radiohead took all the world's problems and threw them together in this video to fight it out. The result is a blast of dysfunction that makes your head spin.

1996

Street Spirit

Album: The Bends

Director: Jonathan Glazer

Video Checklist:

» Thom leaping gracefully off a motor home:
Yes.

» Thom levitating:
Yes.

» Is there anything Thom can't do?:
If there is, we'd like to see it.

» Watch the video now!
[Dur. 4:19]

Synopsis: A study in combining artful slow motion and regular-speed photography within the same frame. Thom falls backwards off the roof of a motorhome while Jonny leaps slowly out its door; kung fu ballet dancers float; a giant dragonfly stops by; various band members run, fall and break glass - and we're encouraged to savour each moment. In perhaps a nod to the story of The Little Prince, one shot shows an enormous baobab tree covering half the earth with its roots. And finally, Thom levitates - and we feel somehow fulfilled.

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