MuchMusic.com

VIDEO YEARBOOK: RADIOHEAD

06.10.03

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

1996 [cont'd]

High and Dry

Director: David Mould

Album: The Bends

Video Checklist:

» Thom enjoying a bathroom featuring a built-in telephone:
Yes.

» Shifty character inserting a key into bowl of butter, then licking his finger, YUM!:
Yeah...eww...

» Murderous cook preparing the worst take-out meal you've ever had:
Yes. It's the bomb.

» Watch the video now!
[Dur. 4:17]

Synopsis: A video documenting a caper unfolding at a roadside diner - the band become involved because they're in the wrong place at the wrong time. They set up shop in a booth with a TV and everything, but then Thom goes to the bathroom and all hell breaks loose. Bombs are planted, people start screaming, cars (and the people inside them) blow up and a child's innocence is lost. It's all very complicated, confusing and very much like Pulp Fiction might have ended up, had it been written by Thom Yorke instead of Quentin Tarantino.

1995

Just

Director: Jamie Thraves

Album: The Bends

Video Checklist:

» Anonymous business-suited drone:
Yes.

» Subtitles:
You bet.

» What did that guy say:
Maybe, "It's comfy down here."? What do you think?

» Watch the video now!
[Dur. 4:02]

Synopsis: A man walks to a business district and lies down on the sidewalk. Another man trips over the one lying down and, after apologies, asks him what's wrong. Refusing help, the man draws a crowd that can't understand why he's lying down. He's asked: "You don't think there's any point, right? What, that we're all going to die? Is that it? Is that why you're lying here?" "No," comes the response. Finally, the lying-down man tells the crowd why he lays there...and we're left trying to read his lips for eternity.

Fake Plastic Trees

Director: Jake Scott

Album: The Bends

Video Checklist:

» Guns:
Yes.

» Lots and lots of stuff to buy:
Yesh.

» Michael Moore's worst nightmare:
come to life!

» Watch the video now!
[Dur. 4:52]

Synopsis: Thom awakens in an ultra-modern supermarket - all white and sterile. Hanging off a shopping cart, he laments the artificiality of things as a woman sits on a lawn chair in an aisle, seemingly mesmerized by the array of products to purchase. Thom shakes his head as if he can't believe it and cries: "It wears me out - if I could be who you wanted - all the time". A multi-faceted video for a complex song, at once condemning commercialism, consumerism and the fame factory.

ALSO FROM 1995:
» Lucky (HELP: A Charity Project for the Children of Bosnia)

1994

My Iron Lung

Director: Brett Turnbull

Album: My Iron Lung EP

Video Checklist:

» Enough already!:
Thom is just never happy...

» We bet we know:
what would make him happy.

» What if: we gave him a lolly?
Lollies make us happy, anyway.

» Watch the video now!
[Dur. 4:36]

Synopsis: Radiohead's first live performance video is mellow until halfway through when it turns into proto-grunge-punk noise - it's a welcome catharsis for band and audience at a vulnerable time in Radiohead's career. They're readying their second album and their star is on the rise - and it feels like everyone knows it. They're partying as if they can see the end of innocence coming on far too quickly.

1993

Stop Whispering

Director: Michel Gondry

Album: Pablo Honey

Video Checklist:

» Video shot in post-modern wasteland:
Yes.

» Artsy closeups of plungers:
Uh huh.

» If anyone's looking for a boom microphone:
Radiohead's got, like 30 of 'em. They're collectors, or something.

» Watch the video now!
[Dur. 4:08]

Synopsis: Ants, bees and bombed out landscapes fill this video as Thom, curled up fetally in a corner, sings to himself. The scene with the man putting on an old-school diving suit is highly disturbing - it's a visual metaphor for the sense of dread that permeates this clip. Especially noteworthy is the director's use of objects in the foreground to confuse viewers' sense of scale on screen. Uneasy and complicated, this video is Thom and Radiohead beginning to examine themselves and society, deeply and painfully.

Creep

Director: Brett Turnbull

Album: Pablo Honey

Video Checklist:

» You, or someone you know, used this song as a salve after a bitter break-up:
Yep.

» How different would this tune have been if Thom was a Tony Robbins' follower:
Can you say R.E.M.'s "Shiny Happy People"?

» Rock:
Present and accounted for.

» Watch the video now!
[Dur. 3:55]

Synopsis: A video immediately reminiscent of early U2 - the band performs live in a club while slow camera moves introduce you to each band member in turn. This mellow mood gives way to turbulent audience shots when the band rocks out. Even at this early stage in their career, singer Thom Yorke already looks pained and uncomfortable and he sings with a self-deriding sneer. With dark, existentialist lyrics - 'What the hell am I doing here/I don't belong here...' - this song became an unexpected brit-pop hit for legions of angsty, self-loathing youth everywhere.

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

» For more on Radiohead, check out our artist feature.
» Radiohead have launched an online TV station -- watch: radiohead.tv.
» To join the Hail To The Thief listening party, click here.


	What else has been going on around here? Take a trip through our archives.


		Upcoming Guests Check out who's dropping by MOD

Have a great idea for our site? Got a burning question that you need answered? Want to tell us how great we are? (no, you're great...no, you're great!) Email us!

| | |

| |