![]() ![]() The progression seems to go through so many tonal centers that it’s hard to say what the key is for the section. This slow section features some advanced chord sets:Ĭm G/B Gm/Bb A Dm A Dm Dm/C Bb F/A Gm F E A It’s an awkward transition that reveals the fact that these are sections spliced together, but the awkwardness doesn’t stand out when the whole song has intentional awkwardness built-in. The second section concludes with a big arrival on F, then proceeding to a new long and descending progression starting with C minor. But then a further twist is that once the band starts pounding the Ab is the one that gets one beat and Bb gets two, still retaining the rushed feel but this feels more pounding as well. Bb only gets one eighth note the first time we hear this section, this time the sense of rushing through is much more obvious. The response to a more traditional sounding C – Ab – Bb progression, but the big twist there is that the whole thing is laid out in 7/8 meter. But it’s not a regular A minor, it contains G# (which may be interpreted as A harmonic minor) which jumps up to C, creating an in-your-face nasty sound. The second section contains its own verse-chorus or call-and-response structure, starting with this sinister-sounding riff in A minor. The latter is not very noticeable because the vocal hangs over with a long note but it creates a sense that you skipped something you were expecting to hear, because thus far the song had more predictable harmonic rhythm that is divisible by twos and fours. The “chorus” of the first section appear to stay in G Dorian but again unsettles you with the double twists of an E major chord and three-bar progression. Not only that, the E minor chord has this the Bb addition emphasized, and that tritone interval from E creates unsettling dissonance, making it an awkward shift back up to the beginning in C minor. The arching melody on top goes through mostly smooth step-wise motion but ends on E natural, emphasizing this discomfort. ![]() This creates the unnerving feel because E natural doesn’t come down far enough to settle on Eb, the note you expected to hear when you got used to the C Dorian originally. The long progression has a downward trajectory over all, then transition down to what can be interpreted as G Dorian, ending in an E minor tonality. The song starts out with a common-but-still-unsettling harmony of C Dorian, which is close a minor scale but has one note (A natural) that makes it sound unstable. What adds to the sprawling feel is the fact that the song is broken up in four different sections, some of which appear to contain its own verse-chorus patterns. But is that what lifted this album and this song to new heights? Let’s look at the song as a whole and explore this.Īt six and half minutes, the song isn’t gigantic by progressive rock standards, but it definitely goes through an extended journey compared to the rest of Radiohead’s catalog from the era. This was the first album produced by Nigel Godrich, who went on to become their go-to producer from this point on, and there are notable production touches here. Bends was an excellent album on its own, but this was on an entirely different level. So when the third album OK Computer arrived with the lead single “Paranoid Android,” the audience was blown away. Radiohead evolved in leaps and bounds through their first four albums. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |