I was in Slovakia a few weeks ago, and I felt like listening to OK Computer, by Radiohead. This is already an incredible album, and pretty much kills me every time listen to it, but I came upon a really strange realization while I listened the 4th track, Exit Music (for a film). I wanted to pay attention to the lyrics, because if there’s one thing I do with songs, is overlook (or overlisten?) the lyrics, which a lot of the time are just as powerful, if not more powerful, than the music itself. I started listening to the lyrics, but found myself unable to concentrate. Not even after a verse I found myself so taken by the music that I forgot that I was listening to the lyrics.
I start the song from the beginning and this time I make sure to listen to the lyrics only. It wasn’t easy, but I managed to follow the lyrics up until the buildup, where the bass comes in, with minimal restarts. The pinnacle of the buildup is THE part of the song that always gives me the shivers, and I found it impossible to concentrate on the lyrics beyond that point. The music is just too powerful; it’s just too raw, too honest and too authentic. I don’t know, but I couldn’t do it. The music just felt too good. I am absorbed by it so much every time that I don’t care about anything else; I just enjoy it as it comes. It fills me from my head down to the bottom, to the tips of my toes.
It’s a rare experience, and few groups are able to do this. Few groups are able to reach that level and are able to hit that nerve within me.
Radiohead somehow manages to consistently combine the music and lyrics into a homogeneous mixture of beautiful emotional sounds which must resonate at the same frequency as the human body.
This is how music should be, all the time. Thank you, Radiohead.
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