Was anyone else really confused about the new Radiohead song ("These Are My Twisted Words")? I mean...Who? How? WHY? The innovators of pop-music dispersal posted this song all by its self to a fan site, At Ease, on August 12 with very little info to go along with it, setting the internet abuzz. Was it foreshadowing a new EP? Was it Thom Yorke's contribution to the impending New Moon sound track? Nope. The band officially claimed credit for it on August 17. It turns out they had finished the song and just really wanted to get it out there, sans more conventional accompaniments (like other songs). So now that we've had time to get our minds around where the song came from (and get over our disappointment that there are no others coming in the foreseeable future), lets think a little about the song its self.
"These Are My Twisted Words" is pretty damn eery. The song starts with around two and a half minutes of instrumentation, during which reverberant flourishes (guitar?) float in and around a dissonant chord progression. The beat is frenetic and persistent, nothing distinguishing verse and chorus (but come on, would you expect that from Radiohead?).
And the mood certainly doesn't lighten when Thome Yorke's vocals kick in. A haunting, wind-like echo follows his lyrics which I won't even bother to try to decode for you. As per usual nearly any interpretation is valid, though they do seem suggestive of a mind struggling to get a grip on something ("When are you coming back?/I just can't handle it"). During the vocal section the creepiness is ratcheted up, as the rest of the band throws in some sonic daggers reminiscent of "Climbing Up The Walls".
The song certainly sounds very Radiohead. The linear structure, the weird sounds, the reverb all over EVERYTHING is all very familiar. But let's be honest here. Doesn't this sound a little sparse for a Radiohead song? The opening two and half minute instrumental seems a little too atmospheric. It just sort of runs across the same ground over and over. And with the exception of 3 cymbal crashes towards the end, the drum beat virtually never deviates from its original course.
Overall, "These Are My Twisted Words" is absolutely more interesting than 90 percent of the music being made these days. But after the sweeping statement made by In Rainbows a little over a year ago, this song seems to fall a little flat. Maybe that's the problem, though. Maybe putting an individual song up against an entire album, with the depth of In Rainbows, will always fall in favor of the album. "These Are My Twisted Words" would certainly be a solid contribution to a well rounded collection of songs. So maybe Radiohead just needs to get down to some serious work.
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