Dissect - S11E10 - Jigsaw Falling Into Place by Radiohead

Episode Date: November 28, 2023

We continue our dissection of Radiohead's In Rainbows with its penultimate track "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" - a song about looking for romantic connection at a bar. Among the many things discussed is the song's odd guitar tuning, chiastic structure, and a potentially very ominous hidden narrative. Shop Dissect Season 11 Merch. Follow @dissectpodcast on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Host/Writer/EP: Cole Cuchna Additional Analysis: Dr. Brad Osborn Song Recreations: Andrew Atwood Audio Editing: Kevin Pooler Theme Music: Birocratic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Spotify and the Ringer, this is Dissect, long-form musical analysis broken in the short digestible episodes. This is episode 10 of our season-long dissection of radioheads and rainbows. I'm your host, Kul Kushner. Last time I dissect, we examined in Rainbow's eighth track House of Cards, a warm, intimate song that explores themes of desire, seduction, and escape. It was here Tom embodied a character pursuing a sexual experience outside of his current relationship as a respite from the responsibilities required to uphold his house of cards. As in Rainbows continues, we'll find Tom once again pursuing a similar experience in the

album's next track, the subject of our episode today, Jigsaw Falling Into Place. Like many of the songs on In Rainbows, the origins of Jigsaw falling into place can be traced back to 2006, when the song was performed live under a working title Open Pick. The open here almost certainly refers to what's called the open tuning of the song's central guitar part. Since their invention in the early 15th century, the strings on a guitar have primarily been to tuned a fourth apart, which on a modern guitar is as follows. E, A, D, G, B, E. This is known as standard tuning. The guitarist tuned this way to make the fingering of basic scales and chords easier to play. But unlike the piano, which almost never deviates from its standard

tuning, there's a vast array of alternative tunings for the guitar, including what are known as open tunings. These tunings are constructed so that when the guitar is strummed without any fingers on the fretboard, they produce a chord. For instance, when you strum a guitar in open G tuning without any fingers on the fretboard, it plays a G major chord. Contrast this with the sound of a guitar and standard tuning being strummed without any fingers on the fretboard. Not as pleasant, right? That's because open G tuning prioritizes one key, G major, over all others,

and strives to make playing in that key as easy as possible. Now, the central acoustic guitar and jigsaw falling into place uses a pretty uncommon open tuning, which is as follows. D, A, D, F sharp, B, D. This is essentially a variation of open D tuning, but is altered to seemingly emphasize B minor, D major's relative minor key. If some of this is going over your head, that's okay.

Really all you need to know is that the song uses an unconventional tuning system that results in really interesting tonality and unique chord voicings throughout the song. For Tom, experimenting with guitar tunings is one of the things that reinvigorated his interest in the guitar itself. As we noted in the first episode of the season, Tom became disillusioned with guitar-based music following OK computer, and subsequently turned to the piano as his primary writing instrument for almost 10 years. In Rainbows was a return to a more guitar-dominant album, and when asked about this, Tom said, quote, I'm still quite bored with guitars, hence my obsession with the piano. The thing is, I know only a couple of things at the piano, and it's beginning to show.

Maybe I should take lessons. I've come back to the guitar with a slightly different approach. I urge everybody to go to the website of Sonic Youth. Thurston Moore gives great advice and amazing ways to tune a guitar. It makes me have a good time, unquote. On the Sonic Youth website, the band provides a list of tunings used on every single one of their songs, the vast majority of which are open tunings. We might then assume this website is responsible for Tom's experimental open tuning on Jigsaw. Now, the pick and the working title OpenPick almost certainly refers to the picking style Tom employs on his open-tuned

guitar, which is heard very clearly in the song's introduction. It's a really great guitar part, one that could only be written the way it is because of its irregular tuning. We should also notice the song's tempo, clocking in at a scorching 163 beats per minute. It's actually the second fastest radiohead song in their entire catalog, eclipsed only by body snatchers, which is only slightly faster at 168 beats per minute. The chord progression itself is loosely based on a descending bass line as we start on a B minor chord, which then moves down a half step to an A sharp minor, a chord that doesn't belong in this key signature. So immediately we're deviating from a traditional chord progression, one that adheres to the quote-unquote rules of standard harmony.

We then move to a D-major 7th chord, which does belong to the key. Next, there's a quick shift from a G-major 7 back to a D-major 7, but now in first inversion, with the F-sharp and the bass. These two chords then repeat to complete the 12-measure progression. After this progression is introduced, it's repeated, only now accompanied by bass and drums. The chemistry between drummer Phil Selway and bassist Colin Greenwood really shines here. Specifically, I want to isolate the interplay between Phil's kick drum and Colin's baseline, as they intentionally move and lockstep to create an incredible backbeat. Interestingly, after establishing this opening chord progression,

heard once on acoustic guitar alone and once with bass and drums, the band immediately moves away from it, turning now to a new progression for what will become the song's verses. It's here where the open tuning of the acoustic guitar really emerges, as the four upper strings are left open and resonate throughout the entire part. This allows the majority of the changes to occur in the bass, which when doubled by Collins' bass guitar part and Tom's wordless vocals, create a lead melody all on their own. It's just a really cool, very unique part, with that underlying bass melody and a minor key, giving it a hauntingly seductive quality, It thus makes for the perfect musical accompaniment for Tom's lyrics detailing the pursuit of a woman while getting drunk at a bar.

Tom enters a song singing, Just as you take my hand, just as you write my number down, just as you write my number down, just as you play your favorite songs, you barely disappear like a spring before your head, because again. Tom enters a song singing, Just as you take my hand, just as you write my number down, just as, the drinks arrive just as they play your favorite song. In terms of dropping us into the song's narrative, these opening lines do an incredible job of effectively setting the scene as well as establishing the drunken, non-linear, impressionistic tone of the storytelling as we experience this night out from Tom's first person perspective. The drinks arriving and playing the person's favorite song lets us know they're at a bar or club drinking, while take my hand and write my number down implies two people with a mutual attraction meeting for the first time. Typically, the phrase just as,

is followed by a description of another action taking place simultaneously. Like in the sentence, just as I picked up the phone, the fire alarm went off. But Tom actually never provides that simultaneous second action. And for me, this helps create the hazy, drunken, first-person perspective, where things kind of blur together, where your recollection of the night is just a patchwork of non-linear images. According to Tom, Jigsaw's lyrics were partly inspired by the drunken nights from his college years and living in Oxford.

He told NME, quote, I would never say it was personal because it's always a set of observations. Jigsaw falling into place says much about the fact that I used to live in the center of Oxford and used to go out occasionally and witness the chaos of a weekend around here. But it's also about a lot of different experiences. The lyrics are quite caustic, the idea of before you're comatose or whatever, drinking yourself and getting fucked up to forget. When you're part of a group of people who are all trying to forget in mass,

it's partly this elation, but there's a much darker side, unquote. Tom here reveals the core themes of the track, the dichotomous experience of a drunken night out being both a way to relieve stress, but also the reality that there's a need to do this in the first place, that your life is something you want to escape. As the verse continues, Tom firmly establishes this fucked up to forget motif, as he sings, as your bad day disappears, no longer wound up like a spring. It's a great analogy, articulating the way the initial effects of alcohol wash over your body, instantly dissolving the tension of stress and anxiety. Of course, using alcohol as a tool in this way is a dangerous game and can easily lead to dependency. And as Tom makes clear the next lines,

the relaxing, numbing effects only last so long, because as you keep drinking, the initial buzz evolves into belligerence, which evolves into total loss of consciousness. He sings, Before you've had too much, come back and focus again. This latter line vividly captures the kind of woozy, blurred perception of someone who's drunk, where you may momentarily lose yourself in the void of intoxication, only to suddenly realize you're still out in public. Now before continuing to follow the story of this night out, we have to acknowledge Tom's melody throughout these verses. He's singing in his low register and sticking with the same three notes throughout, D, E, F sharp. It's almost speech-like, with no dramatic leaps or arcs. As we'll see,

this restraint will pay off later in the song when Tom actually does break away from this minimal three-note range. It's a similar technique as weird fishes. where Tom mostly sing a D over and over, and when he finally diverged from this note, it felt all the more dramatic. And also like weird fishes, Jigsaw is setting itself up as a slow build, where over time more and more instrumental layers will be added to the mix until we suddenly find ourselves in the song's climax. Indeed, because the acoustic guitar, bass, drums, and vocals to this point have been more than enough to sustain our interest, we haven't yet heard from guitarist Johnny and Ed, who smartly saved their additions for when the song requires further development

and dynamic elevation. Tom continues the verse, The walls are bending shape. You got a Cheshire cat grin, all blurring into one. What began as a stress relieving buzz has evolved into an almost psychedelic bender. The woman now having a Cheshire cat grin implies a kind of foolish, self-satisfied smile. Tom could also be alluding to the most famous iteration of the Cheshire Grin, and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, where the grining cat vanishes from view, with its grin being the last part to vanish. If intentional, then it's a very appropriate image

to draw from, as the drunk woman in this story is also slowly vanishing further and further into her intoxication. But the reference gains dimension when considered in tandem with the next line, this place is on a mission. This seems to personify the bar or club itself, as if it had its own agenda. In this way, it would seem Tom is elaborating on the idea of a Wonderland. In the story, it's the Cheshire cat that explains to Alice that Wonderland as a place has a stronger influence than any of its citizens. Wonderland is ruled by nonsense or madness, and as a result, Alice's normal behavior is inconsistent with its operating principles, so Alice herself becomes mad in the context of Wonderland. It would appear Thomas relating this idea to a bar or club, which is ruled by its own kind of drunken madness,

and therefore influences its inhabitants to abide by its principles. I mean, just think about how awkward it is to be sober around a bar full of drunks. It's a little like the normal alice and the chaos of Wonderland. The line also seems to play into what we heard Tom say earlier. Quote, when you're part of a group of people who are all trying to forget in mass, it's partly this elation. And this way, this place and the people in it are on a mission, a mission to forget in mass.

Things only get more surreal from here, as Tom, still singing the same three notes in his low register, says, before the night owl, before the animal noises, closed circuit cameras, before your comatose. It's certainly a dark turn. The repetitions of before the are similar to the previous just-as-you repetitions in that they're incomplete. Tom never clarifies what the narrator wants to happen before the night owl appears, before the animal noises start, before she's comatose or unconscious. However, given the romantic connection established at the start, we might suspect he means sex, that his character wants to hook up before this woman has too much to drink and passes out.

There's also the possibility that he's seeking genuine connection and potential partnership, and he fears he might lose this potential love interest to her increasing intoxication. Now the images themselves are certainly abstract, but they all seem to imply blacking out, a turn toward darkness. A night owl is nocturnal, only appearing in the dark. This reference introduces a subtle predator and prey dynamic that might apply to the narrator's pursuit of this woman. Animal noises might reference other nocturnal creatures that fill the night air with unfamiliar sounds only heard at night. It could also refer to the more animalistic sounds we make after having too much to drink, like heavy breathing, snoring, or even vomiting. It could even imply

sounds we make during sex. Close circuit cameras, which are typically associated with security cameras, adds a sinister quality to this interaction. With Tom's character so focused on this woman, we might wonder if he's describing watching her every move, and in this this way might relate to the night owl reference, as owls are known for their keen vision that allows them to track their prey, gauge distances, and perfectly timed their attacks. Now, as the song continues, jigsaw transitions into an instrumental bridge section, where a new central guitar part is introduced, and we hear both Johnny and Ed join the song for the first time. We'll cover this section along with the rest of jigsaw falling into place, right after the break. Welcome back

to dissect. Before the break, we approached Jigsaw's bridge section, where Johnny and Ed will enter the song to accompany Tom's new acoustic guitar part. The acoustic guitar during this section continues to make use of the open tuning, as Tom allows the lowest string on the guitar, a D, to resound throughout this part as he climbs up the scale and a syncopated rhythm. Johnny highlights this ascension with a clean electric guitar, as does Colin on the bass. Meanwhile, Phil switches over to the louder ride symbol and his kick drum pattern matches the syncopated rhythm of the guitar parts.

And so for the first time in the song, we have all five members playing together, increasing the overall dynamics of the track. And while these electric guitar textures will drop out when the song returns to the verse, new textures replace them in order to sustain the new dynamic intensity. Specifically, we're going to hear the entrance of Johnny's Owens-Martineau, the rare early analog synthesizer we heard both on body snatchers and nude. It doubles Tom's backing vocal melody. There's also a second instrument that doubles the same melodic line, which is more than likely Ed's guitar played with the Ebo, though it's a bit hard to make out clearly.

We should also note that rather than switching back to his hi-hat symbol to match what he played throughout the first verse, Phil remains on the louder ride symbol, a subtle decision that helps sustain the dynamic intensity as Jigsaw continues to incrementally work towards its climax. Tom begins verse 2 in the same low vocal register, singing, before you run away from me, before you're lost between the notes. Again, Tom uses incompletely. phrases here, and we're left to assume his character fears losing this woman to her increasing intoxication and the pull of the dance floor, a chance encounter with the potential for romance lost to the night. If we're exploring the darker undertones of the song, before you run away

from me is certainly a potent choice of words, as commonly running away from someone implies danger or even captivity, an unsettling possibility that ties back to the ominous closed circuit cameras and night owl references. He then repeats, the beat goes round and round, which is a clever phrase in this context, as it seemingly refers to the music playing at the club or bar, but also implies a room spinning, referring to the spins or vertigo experience when you're incredibly drunk. Now the second time Tom sings this line, he suddenly ascends into a high register for the first time, jumping up a full octave from the low verse melody. For me, this moment is always very cathartic, as it pays off beautifully on the increasing tension and elevating

dynamics of the track. Tom finally matches the intensity of the music with the intensity of his vocals, because to this point, he's shown so much restraint. This intensity carries through to the end of the verse, as Tom continues singing, I never really got there, I just pretended that I did. Now, this is where things turn potentially very dark depending on your reading of these lines. Tom's character could be admitting that he wasn't as drunk as the woman, and because he liked her, pretended that he was just to keep her company as long as possible, to fit in with the madness of Wonderland. On the other hand, Tom could be portraying someone who's intentionally remaining less intoxicated in order to manipulate the woman into bed, potentially without her consent.

We recall the predator prey implications of the previous Night Owl reference and Tom's own statements about the song, how there's a much darker side to groups of people going out to forget their problems. Unfortunately, manipulation, drugging, non-consensual sex and flat-out rape is a bleak reality that plagues nightlife and party culture, and it's possible Tom is alluding to this ever-present danger, this much darker side as he said himself. Next, Tom sings, words are blunt instruments. Words are sawn-off shotguns. The references to actual weapons here only furthers my suspicion of the potentially sinister narrative. Blunt instruments are things like hammers or baseball bats that are used as weapons to inflict blunt force trauma,

while sawn-off shotguns are more portable, concealable versions of long-barrel shotguns. At the very least, choosing weapons as his metaphors adds to the dark undercurrent of the song, joining references like night owl, animal noises, closed circuit cameras, and comatose. Of course, Tom here is comparing these weapons to the power of words, noting their ability to hurt or cause emotional damage. If the song's narrative is about a man pursuing a genuine romantic connection, we might wonder if the implication here is that he's been rejected, either in this specific situation or that his past rejections have him fearing one now as he worries he'll lose this girl to the night. We also think of alcohol's ability to temporarily suspend inhibition.

allowing us to say things we never would while sober, which can sometimes reveal hurtful truth. If we're exploring the possible sinister narrative, these metaphors could refer to manipulation, the word said to this woman in a vulnerable state in order to persuade her to go home with them. Now, as the verse cycles around again, Radiohead continues to apply dynamic pressure as Johnny enters with a brand new part played on electric guitar, heard in the left speaker. This elevates the final verse to its most climactic expression of itself, With this new guitar part, Phil's ride symbol, the Owens Martino and Ebo guitar doubling the backing vocals, and Tom's high register singing all working in tandem to transform this iteration of the verse.

Just for comparison's sake, let's hear a bit of the first verse played back to back with this climactic version of the verse, as it displays just how skilled radio head is and making the same part feel dramatically different through carefully considered alterations and additions to the arrangement. Tom repeats the phrase, come on and let it out four times in a row. It's an incredibly effective moment, as the catharsis encouraged in the text is matched by the catharsis achieved in the music and melody at this very moment. Perhaps the narrator is encouraging the woman to let go of her inhibitions, let go of the stress that has her wound up like a spring.

After all, drunken nights out are a release, a temporary escape from the practical realities of daily life. for following the sexual threat of a potential one-night stand or even something more ominous, come on and let it out refers to the catharsis of sex, its own kind of escape and release. Tom then returns to previous lyrical material, before you run away from me, before you're lost between the notes. He then returns to the opening repetitions of Just As, only now with new lyrics to complete the phrase, just as you take the mic, just as you dance, dance, dance. The music motif continues here, with Mike being short for microphone, perhaps implying

this is a karaoke bar, or at the very least that she's singing along to the music loudly, letting it all out. In a song with so much sexual tension, we also have to point out that a microphone shape is phallic, which makes just as you take the mic, a possible sexual innuendo. The reference to dancing continues the theme of letting it all out, but also makes for an interesting callback to in Rainbow's seventh track, Reckoner. Recall it was there Tom sang, Dancing for Your Pleasure, you are not to blame for bittersweet distractor. It's an empathetic observation about our search for escape, using dancing as a symbolic act of pure momentary joy and release. It appears that Tom is once again making a similar analogy, observing this woman

becoming lost in dance as she joins a group of people doing the same, forgetting en masse, as Tom said. Now as Jigsaw continues, the band is going to return to the song's introductory material for the first time. Recall this chord progression was first heard on its own, and then was joined by bass and drums when it repeated. After this, the band moved to the verse material, which has been the primary musical material save for the instrumental bridge sandwiched between the two extended verses. The introductory chord progression now undergoes a similar transformation as the verses, as it will be heard with a number of new additional parts.

On its first iteration, both Johnny and Ed play noodley guitar parts over Tom's acoustic chord strums. After playing through the chord progression once, Tom will return with vocals over this part, at which point we'll hear the entrance of strings for the first time in the song. These strings will later be doubled with the owns Martino, a unique layered texture that has become a staple in Radiohead's catalog. Let's now hear how all this plays out in the actual song, noticing how these additions to a part we've already heard make it sound new yet familiar. Tom voices the song title, A Jigsaw Falling Into Place. The expression Fall Into Place is used to mean when things suddenly make sense or produce an ideal outcome. This is of course tied to the idea of a jigsaw puzzle.

puzzle, where the correct location of a puzzle piece suddenly reveals itself and the overall picture becomes clearer. This idea of clarity is reinforced by the next line, so there is nothing to explain, which seems to mean things have been made clear, revealed themselves for what they are. Within the context of the song's narrative, it feels like this might express the instantaneous mutual attraction and connection between the two parties, and the feeling that going home together is their fate, a predetermined outcome given that they are both out getting drunk, looking for the same thing. This would be the jigsaw falling into place, things happening as intended, two people connecting like a puzzle piece into its intended place. Also, given the sexual

undertones of the song, I can't help but think Tom might have created another sly innuendo here, with the puzzle piece slotting into an empty space alluding to the sexual act itself. This reading would also work if we're considering the possible sinister version of the story, as things falling into place could evoke a scheme going as planned, in this case taking advantage of an intoxicated woman. The connection motif continues in the following lines. You eye each other as you pass, she looks back and you look back, not just once and not just twice. Narratively, this might be a jump back in time, to the moment these two first laid eyes on each other. Recall we began the song when the two already hit it off, when the woman took his hand when she wrote his number down. A quick

flashback to when they first saw each other, works to reinforce things falling into place. It was at this moment that a connection was made, and from there it was only a matter of time until things unfolded toward a romantic end. Now the drama of this climactic moment is heightened by the melody Tom sings here. He begins by remaining in that high register he jumped up to in the second half of the previous verse, oscillating between an E and F sharp when he sings, a jigsaw falling into place. Then when he sings, so there's nothing to explain, he at first continues this oscillation. oscillation on the words so there is nothing. And then on the words to explain, he suddenly leaps up to a high B natural,

which is five semitones above the previous F sharp, an extremely high note that forces Tom to switch to his falsetto voice. This same melodic pattern is more or less used throughout this section, with those high notes really stretching Tom to his vocal limit. Combined with the song's scorching tempo and rich instrumentation, it makes for an incredibly cathartic experience. Tom sings, Wish away your nightmare. Wish away the nightmare. Here at the song's end, Tom is laying bare the dark side of this narrative.

The night out is a reprieve from the nightmare. Becoming comatose is a remedy for the dreary conditions of their everyday lives. The underlying point seems to be that if people in mass are gathering together to forget, then maybe the system we all live in or our collective priorities need examining. Still, nightmare feels like a pretty strong word to use in this context. and for those who are open to the possible sinister angle, this certainly could be considered additional evidence that something very terrible is going on. Once again, the melody Tom sings here really enhances the emotional resonance of the text.

As we discussed, before the falsetto jump, Tom has been primarily oscillating between an E and F sharp, and he continues this when he sings, Wish Away Your Nightmare. But the second time, when he sings, Wish Away the Nightmare, he stretches for the first time beyond that F sharp to the next highest note, G, heard on the word nightmare. The interval between the F-sharp and now this new G is a minor second, one of the most dissonant intervals in music. This dissonance makes for the perfect tonal embellishment of the word nightmare, which of course evokes darkness and terror. The evocation of a nightmare makes for a blatant contrast with the next lines. You got the light, you can feel it on your back. A light,

you can feel it on your back. On one hand, simply contrasting nightmare with light is a potent summation of the narrative's dynamics. The levity of a night out to escape the darkness of your day to day. The phrasing is interesting, though, as I'm not exactly sure what Tom means by feeling a light on your back. It could just be a description of the numbing weightlessness when under the influence,

as all your troubles temporarily fall off your shoulders. It could also call back to the previous lines, she looks back and you look back, not just once, not just twice. Perhaps it's this attention, the gaze of attraction, that has them feeling the light on their back, as if they know they're being watched and desired by someone new.

At its most ominous, especially considering it comes directly after the nightmare line, feeling a light on your back could be similar to the closed circuit camera and night owl references. The idea that being watched is not an innocent attraction, but an ill-intention plan being executed. Finally, Tom restates the song's title, your jigsaw falling into place. Structurally, it's a smart decision as he both begins and ends this climactic section of the song with this title, providing a clear feeling of closure. This feels important because before this story, section, the portions of the song with lyrics were essentially two verses and no chorus whatsoever.

While still extremely compelling, there wasn't a refrain or repeated lyric to grab hold up. That is, until the end of the song, where things finally fall into place and were given that repeated, memorable lyric we typically associate with the song's chorus. It's another example of Radiohead avoiding blind adherence to formulaic song structures, yet still providing listeners with crucial aspects of successful songwriting, like memorability, dynamic arc, and catharsis. Striking this balance between accessibility and experimentation is a big reason the band is beloved and respected by so many. Indeed, if we look back at Jigsaw's structure, we can see that it actually most closely resembles a chasm, which is a literary structure that presents

a sequence of ideas or events and then repeats them in reverse order, often with a crucial center point. For example, a common expression of a chasm is A, B, C, B, C, B, A. Here, two events or ideas are presented in succession, represented by A, followed by B. Then a central event or ideas presented, C, and from that center point, things regress in reverse order, B, followed by A, giving us the symmetrical, reflective structure of A, B, C, B, B, and this is more or less how Jigsaw is structured. It begins with that introductory chord progression without vocals, which will call Part A. It then moves to the verse progression with vocals, Part B, which is followed by an instrumental bridge

section that's only performed once, Part C. It then returns to the B verse section, which is followed by the introductory A section, only now with vocals. Altogether we get A, B, C, B, A. However, what makes the song truly unique is what Radiohead does within this structure, as they create a long, dynamic arc across the entire song, with each part becoming louder and more intense than the one that came before it, even when that part has been heard before. Thus we achieve true catharsis at its very end, when the opening A section returns in its climactic version of itself and is lyrically bookended by the song's title. Jigsaw then ends with a brief outro, where the band moves to an eight-measure vamp on a single chord, B minor, the song's home chord, the chord of clear resolution, the tonal jigsaw falling into place.

Conclusions Despite being in Rainbow's first official single, their highest charting song since OK Computer, and the most popular song in rainbows in terms of streams, is perhaps surprising to know that Jigsaw falling into place almost didn't make the album and was the last song to be added to the final track list. It appears the band had a complicated relationship with this song from its inception. After performing it live in its early stages back in 2006, when it was still known as Open Pick, a fan told Tom backstage how much they loved it, to which Tom allegedly responded, I'm not sure about that one. And while the band briefly included Jigsaw and their set list

after the release of In Rainbows, they haven't performed it live since 2009, despite his popularity. Luckily for us, the song did make the album, and however the band might feel about it themselves, the recorded version of Jigsaw falling into place is truly immaculate, a blistering romp that uniquely centers an acoustic guitar in a rare open tuning, driven by a propelling drum and bass groove and colored with multiple layers of electric guitar, strings, and owns Martineau. It's an idiosyncratic arrangement that's easy to take for granted at this point in Radiohead's career. Yet, ask yourself, have you ever heard a song that really sounds like Jigsaw falling into place?

At first blush, it might pass for a somewhat straightforward rock tune. But when you take a look under the hood, the song's oddities quickly reveal themselves, from its rare tonality, chord voicing, odd phrase lengths, atypical song structure, and unique arrangement choices, and that's to say nothing about his lyrics and themes. Indeed, Tom's lyrical ambiguity once again allows for a number of potential readings of the song's narrative about a drunken night out. It could be about a guy struggling to find genuine connection while surrounded by the madness of a club. It could be about a mutual one-night stand between two people looking for an escape from their daily lives.

And it could even expose a much darker side to the nightlife, where predators lurk and look to take advantage of intoxicated women. And while these ideas might feel out of place on the album at first reading, the broader idea of people going out to forget, actually slots perfectly into the album's central theme encapsulated in the title in rainbows, the idea of wishing beyond where you are. Jigsaw's central characters are doing just that, looking for escape from the, their present reality, be it through intoxication or sex or human connection. Also recall Tom described the second half of in rainbows as expressing elation, the same exact word he used to describe what people experience when going out together to forget en masse. Thus, jigsaw falling into place functions as a final blast of elated energy here at the album's end, hurling us into in rainbow's

final track, where the turbulent energy grinds to a halt. It's here that the feeling of elation is expressed with intimacy and the kind of raw emotion that rips your heart out and leaves you weeping alone because life is so tragically beautiful. Of course, this is in Rainbow's next and final track videotape. A song will dissect note by note, line by line, in our season 11 finale. Next time on Dissect. Today's episode was written and produced by me, Cole Kushna. We still have some limited season 11 merchandise available at dissectpodcast.com.

So head there today before we sell out. You can also support the show by sharing it with a friend or leaving a review wherever you're listening. All that stuff really helps. Additional analysis by Dr. Brad Osborne. Song Recreations by Andrew Atwin. Audio editing by Kevin Pooler. Theme music by Beirocratic. All right.

Thanks, everyone. Talk to you next week.