Listening Journal #8

The final song for this eight part listening journal contains only one song: Bodysnatchers by Radiohead. The song begins with a particularly thick, distorted guitar texture. The guitar riff sets a gritty tone and the repeated rhythmic idea builds continuity throughout the song.

Thom Yorke's lyrics call to mind an image of someone trapped in their own body. The subject is unable to communicate with the outside world. The message could certainly be meant to correspond to Radiohead's battle with commercialization and the more general demand on pop performers. It brings up an important point about the relative free will of entertainers in a for-profit endeavor. How much artistic freedom can musicians have when making something for mass consumption? Though Radiohead is an alternative band, they still have record label executives and producers to work with how have their own agendas.

The overall feel of the song is disorienting with tons of reverb and a thick texture. Thom Yorke's vocal delivery is fuzzy and hard to understand at first both owning to the added effects and his pop musician delivery that is less concerned with diction than expression. The song starts and ends abruptly as if to be a brief window into the disorienting, noisy yet hollow world of the singer/songwriter.