Dissect - S11E7 - "In Rainbows" Title Analysis + Faust Arp

Episode Date: November 7, 2023

Our season long dissection of Radiohead's In Rainbows continues with an analysis of its title and how its themes have appeared in every song thus far. Then we examine the album's sixth track "Faust Arp" - a unique song that features two acoustic guitars, strings, and Thom Yorke's cryptic, impressionistic lyrics. 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

Good news, everyone. Dysect Season 11 merchandise is now available to order at Dysectpodcast.com. The designs this year are absolutely amazing. I am really excited about them. They're inspired by In Rainbows and contain a bunch of Easter eggs that reference the album. We're also printing on extremely high quality garments, specifically the hoodie this year is beautiful. And like always, this merchandise is going to be available for a limited time and it will not be restocked. So head over to Dysectpodcast.com or hit the link in the episode description to grab yours today. From Spotify and the ringer, this is Dissect, long-form musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes. This is episode seven of our season-long dissection of radioheads and rainbows. I'm your host, Cole Kushner. Last time on Dissect, we examined

In Rainbow's fifth track All I Need, a song that expresses the phenomenon known as limerance, the unrequited obsessive passion for someone. At the end of the episode, we heard a key quote from singer Tom York that gave insight not only into All I Need, but illuminated one of the central themes of In Rainbows as a whole. When asked whether all I need was about obsession, Tom responded, quote, that's why it's called In Rainbows, that obsession thing, thinking beyond where you are at the time. It's a phrase I had for a while. It kept coming up in my notebooks. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to go with the idea of trying to reach something you can't. It's there, but you can't reach it, unquote. Now that we're halfway through our analysis of In Rainbows,

I thought this would be an appropriate time to reflect on the ways this theme has been expressed so far. We can start by unpacking the concept and title itself. In my estimation, in rainbows is a kind of shorthand for being inside or inhabiting a rainbow, being so close to one you could reach out and touch it. Technically speaking, a rainbow is a distorted image of the sun created when sunlight enters a water droplet, slowing down and bending as it goes from air through the denser water. The light reflects off the inside of the droplet, separating into its component wavelengths, a spectrum of colors.

When the light exits the droplet, it makes a rainbow. Being an image of the sun, the actual location of the rainbow image is at the same distance behind the raindrops as the sun is in front. It's effectively at infinity. This is why when you move toward a rainbow, it moves with you, just as the sun does. And so while you could technically touch the water droplets that produce a rainbow, you can't actually touch a rainbow. Thus we see how Tom viewed the title in rainbows as expressing the idea of obsessively trying to reach something you can't. It's akin to the idiom chasing rainbows, which is used to refer to someone attempting to achieve lofty or impossible goals. The concept gains depth when we consider the traditional

symbolism of rainbows, which commonly signify hope, promise, dreams, and new beginnings, as they often appear after a thunderstorm. They are something beautiful, produced from something tumultuous. Given how fleeting rainbows are, they also reflect the idea of impermanence, here one moment and gone the next. And it's with this idea in mind that we should recall another insight Tom revealed when as whether in rainbows was about middle-age malaise. He responded, quote, It was much more about the fucking panic of realizing you're going to die, and that anytime soon, I could possibly have a heart attack when I next go for a run, unquote. Thus we can see how the existential themes of mortality and impermanence organically relate to the idea of reaching beyond

where you are, to inhabiting a rainbow, and inspires thoughts about the uncertainty in the meaning of our finite time on Earth and our attempts to achieve happiness and contentment while we're here. Thus, at its heart, in rainbows addresses the very essence of the human condition. for Tom focusing on universal themes was a conscious reaction against Radiohead's previous album Hailed to the Thief, which was very much a political record. He said, quote, I wrote in Rambos from a very harmonious thought. I didn't want to fight anything, but at the same time I didn't want to be apathetic, that kind of mood. The other band members caught it as well, that it was a personal record, or at least a human one. I didn't want to judge everything,

just sing like how I am, like what I'm feeling, unquote. Guitarist Ed O'Brien also noted that quote, On In Rainbows, I liked the fact that Tom was writing about universal human emotions again, which he hadn't done for a while. Personally, I was very touched by the lyrics of this album, by what they tell us about the human condition and how they touch on the universal. After all, we are no different from anyone else. The album's opener 15th step wastes no time immersing us in the album's central themes,

as the idea of ending up where you started implies the attempt and failure of reaching a destination. The attempt to, as Tom said, reach something you can't. Tomlin formally introduces the mortality theme when later he sings, one by one, it comes to us all, 15 steps, then a sheer drop. Death looms omnipotently over all that we do. The timeline of our life is but a countdown clock to this unavoidable end. It is perhaps the most universal theme there is. Our mortality is the one thing we're all forced to reckon with during our time here.

Body Snatchers continues to develop the theme of thinking beyond where you are at the time, as we hear Tom express his confusion about being human, feeling trapped in its own body and not being able to escape. At its core, it's another universal expression of the human experience. We are born without consent into a body we didn't select, into circumstances we didn't choose, and we're forced to live out the results of this biological environmental equation. The album's third track, Nude, is perhaps the most transparent expression of the in-raimbo's theme, as Tom describes various attempts to achieve ambitious ideas, only to fall short the moment he thought he was close, just like someone attempting to touch a rainbow. Thus we get the potent chorus of,

Now that you've found it, it's gone. Now that you feel it, you don't. You've gone off the rails. In other words, our continual efforts to exist in rainbows, to find in sustained fleeting states of happiness or contentment can drive us mad, can result in finding solace in destructive vices and pursuits. In weird fishes, we unconcidentally find Tom stuck in. at the bottom of the ocean looking for escape, again looking to be somewhere he's not, thinking beyond where he is at the time, chasing rainbows. He ultimately does find escape through a mysterious catalyst he follows out of the darkness, an entity that might be a romantic interest or some symbolic, subconscious spirit or force. The possibility of a

liberating romantic interest gains depth in the album's next song, All I Need, where Tom talks obsessively about his desperate reliance on a single person. Of course, all I need is the album's most direct expression of the obsession motif Tom related to the album title, representing the ways our desperate search for contentment can manifest in unhealthy ways, or as Tom said on nude, can have us going off the rails. And so throughout the album so far, we're starting to see how the ideas and themes present in the title in Rainbows had permeated every song. While the album doesn't have a traditional narrative or story in line, this thematic connective tissue unifies the tracks into a colorful, complex composite of the human condition. And with this in mind,

let's continue our examination of In Rainbows with its sixth track, the subject of our episode today, Faustarp. Foustarp begins with two acoustic guitars played by Tom and Johnny. They play the same guitar part, but one guitar is paned left, the other is pan right, creating a rich, immersive, intimate stereo effect. Right away, these guitars illuminate the song's title, where ARP seems to be an abbreviation of arpeggio, the musical term that describes the notes and accord being played individually, like they are throughout Faust Arp. You might remember this from our discussion of Weird Fishes Arpeg. Another title that refers to the multiple arpeggios or arpeggy heard in the song. Meanwhile, Faust is almost certainly a reference to the band Faust,

a 70s experimental German crot rock group Radiohead has long been fascinated by. Faust's song Gigi smile might have been the specific inspiration source, as it features an acoustic guitar. playing arpeggios and unpredictable meter changes very similar to Faustarp. Meaning something like arpeggios played in the style of Faust, it seems likely that Faustarp was a working title that eventually stuck. The Faust-like guitars heard throughout the song are the primary instrumental force, joined later only by a string ensemble. Thus Faustarp is notable not only for its unique instrumentation of two guitars and strings, but also for its lack of drums, bass, electric guitar, electronics, or any other

obscure sounds we come to expect from a radio. radiohead song. But what Faustart might lack in timbrel and instrumental complexity is more than made up for in the song's unpredictable meter changes and bizarre unconventional harmony. The guitar part itself is based on a three against four polyrhythm. A polyrhythm describes two or more contrasting rhythms playing at the same time. In Faustarp, the low notes of the guitar play a steady pulse of eighth notes grouped in fours. At the same time, the high end of the guitar plays in groups of three quarter note triplets. So essentially what's happening is the two rhythms are dividing the same unit of time differently.

One is playing four evenly spaced notes in the same amount of time that the other plays three evenly space notes. The notes in three are slightly longer than the notes in four because they have to fill the same amount of time with less notes. Hearing both simultaneously thus results in an intricate yet still accessible rhythmic pattern. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 4, 1, 2, 4, 1, 2, 4, 1, 2, 4, 1, 2 3, 1, 2. Of course, Tom and Johnny immediately complicate things by changing meters almost directly after establishing this rhythm. The meter of a song is how we feel its groove. It's the thing we're following when we tap our foot or clap along to a song. Foustart begins in duple meter, where we count and feel a guitar in large groups of 2.

1, 2, 1, 2. One, two, one, two. What we're feeling here are groups of two quarter notes, a very simple meter to follow. But almost as soon as we get into this groove, Tom and Johnny play three successive bars of three eight time, where the grouping is three eighth notes. This disrupts our initial groove or meter because three eighth notes is equivalent to one and a half quarter notes. In other words, when the guitar switch to these bars of three eight time, they are suddenly adding an extra half of a note to the pulse that we were feeling,

which throws off the groove. If you were tapping your foot or nodding your head to the beginning of the song, you would instantly fall out of sync when these bars of 3-8 are played. As an example, I'll count over the song in groups of two quarter notes as it's established at the start, and listen to how the count suddenly feels wrong when we hit those measures of 3-8. 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, feels off right?

One, two, one, two. Feels off, right? Now let me count the three eight bars correctly, just so you can hear what's actually going on. One, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, one, two, one, two. As you just heard, after the three bars of three eight time,

the song returns to the original meter of two. The bars of 3-8 then function like little glitches in the metrical matrix, unpredictable pockets of rhythm that keep us on our toes throughout the verse. I mean, this is classic radiohead. Even in a song that appears to be a simple folk-inspired tune, there's something musically interesting happening, something that sets it apart from your run-of-the-mill formulaic song. Let's listen again to Faust Arp's opening verse,

appreciating its nuanced polyrhythm and meter changes, then we'll finally talk about its lyrics. Tom enters a song singing, Waky, Waky, Rise and Shine. It of course evokes a new day, a common idiom used when just getting out of bed. Thus, when this line is followed with, it's on again, off again, on again, begin an image of successive days, the continuous cycle of our waking lives separated by periods of sleep. The three repeated phrases, on again, off again, on again,

are heard during the three repeated measures of three eight time, with the three syllables of each phrase matching the three eighth notes of each measure. Tom then sings, Watch Me Fall Like Dominoes and Pretty Patterns. This would seem to continue the idea of successive days, which are now being compared to the domino effect, where standing dominoes are pushed over to cause a chain reaction. These domino runs can be arranged in intricate shapes and colors, creating beautiful and compelling sequences, or as Tom says, pretty patterns. If we continue the symbolic line of thinking, this opening line feels like a metaphor for the construction of our lives,

how successive individual days create the entirety of our life, just like individual dominoes can create a larger construct or pattern. Additional evidence for this interpretation can be found in the way Tom used these specific lyrics on Radiohead's blog leading up to the release of In Rainbows. On Friday, February 9th, 2007, Tom posted, quote, Now that was a long and eventful week, sheesh, and an eight over, unquote. A few empty lines separates this statement from the next. Waky, waky, rise and shine. It's on again, off again, on again, watch me fall like dominoes and pretty patterns. Tom here uses the lyrics to reinforce his statement about the end of a long work week and knowing there's still more work to be

done. We might then wonder whether this opening verse addresses the exhausting grind of life and endless work. When talking about his process of writing lyrics for in Rambos with Mojo magazine, Tom discussed his observations about the obsessive working class in Oxford and eventually ended his comments with a reference to Faustarp. Quote, the more you absorb yourself in the present the more likely that what you write will be good, especially in this fucking town, where everybody's sitting in front of their desks for far too long, endlessly sweating over words that don't ever get heard. People are obsessive in this city, and work becomes an end in itself, unquote.

We'll find more evidence for this working class interpretation later in the song, but we should also take a look at how Tom used the lyrics in a second blog post just a week after the first one. This blog post read, quote, is global warming and anti-capitalist conspiracy. Yeah, right. For people who prefer pseudoproof rather than the chilling reality of science. For people who prefer the fantasy of conspiracies to watching the ice melting and feeling the seas getting warmer. For people who would much rather find someone to blame. Tom then punctuated these statements with, Waky Waky, Rise and Shine. Tom here used the opening phrase of Fowostarp as a

reality check, kind of like the idiom, wake up and smell the coffee. At the time of this posting, the International Panel on Climate Change had just published its four assessment report and concluded that global climate change is very likely man-made, which was met with pushback from some conservative media outlets. With this context in mind, the phrasing, Watch Me Fall becomes more potent, as it shades the entire opening phrase with a tinge of darkness, perhaps alluding to the fall of humanity at the hands of climate change. In this way, the domino run metaphor gains dimension, as it could represent the way technology advances humanity and destroys it at the same time, just like a domino run ultimately destroys its own carefully

sequenced stack of dominoes. It's a beautiful destruction, but it's still destruction nonetheless. Now as Faustarp continues into its second verse, Tom will cite an 18th century British nursery rhyme. Why? We'll find out right after the break. Welcome back to dissect. Before the break, we reached the end of verse 1 of Faustarp, which seemed to address the successive days of our lives, the seemingly endless grind of work, and maybe even humanity's destruction via climate change. Musically, verse 2 of Faustarp repeats the same chord sequence verse 1, only now strings composed by Johnny Greenwood enter beneath Tom's new lyrics. Tom begins verse 2 singing, Fingers in the Blackbird Pie. This seemingly combines two English

references into one. The first is the idiom, have a finger in a pie, which means showing interest or being involved in something, most often when it's unwanted. The specific use of Blackbird pie seems to reference the 18th century English nursery rhyme, sing a song of sixpence. The rhyme goes like this. Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye. Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie. When the pie was open, the birds began to sing. Wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king? The king was in his counting house, counting out his money. The queen was in the parlor, eating bread and honey. The maid was in the garden, hanging out the clothes when down came a blackbird and pecked off her nose. Now, believe it or not, baking live

animals and birds into pies was actually a thing during the medieval period, a practice known as entremont, and meant to serve as dinner entertainment in between meals, most often for royalty. Blackbird pie specifically was most common in England, where live blackbirds were inserted into a pie crust from a hole in its bottom and released when the pie was cut into, surprising dinner guests. While the meaning of sing a song of sixpence is debated, it does contain pretty clear class implications, with the king and queen gluttonous and wealthy, while the unsuspecting working maid has her nose pecked off by an angry blackbird seemingly after being freed from the pie set before the king. Thus, we might suspect Tom's finger in the blackbird pie is being used to mean that he's involving

himself in the affairs of the elite, even when that involvement is unwanted. This would seem to relate to the possible climate change and political threat in the previous line, and Tom's history of publicly criticizing government decisions and actions. More evidence for this interpretation is found when we look at another time Tom referenced sing a song of sixpence. Here on the song, Burn the Witch from a moon-shaped pool, Tom sings from the perspective of a dictator who encourages the masses to burn the witch or single out and destroy any possible dissidents or threats to the status quo. In the song's first pre-chorus, Tom says, sing the song on the jukebox that goes. This is then followed by the song's refrain, burn the witch, burn the witch, we know where you live.

The implication seems to be that this refrain is the propaganda music meant to influence. the masses. In the second pre-chorus, Tom alters the lyric to sing a song of sixpence, which is again followed by the refrain, burn the witch, burn the witch, we know where you live. In this way, Tom positioned song of sixpence as propaganda music as well, perhaps a cautionary tale about the execution of dissidents all of the working classmate who gets her nose pecked off. Despite Burn the Witch being released in 2016, the song was actually written during the in Rainbow's era, so Tom seems to have been drawn to the symbolism of the six-pence nursery rhyme during this time. If we assume he's using the reference in Fowlstarp in a similar way as Burn the Witch,

fingers in the Blackbird pie might stand to mean the working class meddling in the affairs of authority, outspoken dissidents who might share the same fate as the maid when Blackbirds surprisingly emerged from the pie. The next lyric Tom sings is, I'm tingling, tingling, tingling, tingling. Following the finger in the blackbird pie line, we first think of birds pecking at Tom's nosy finger, causing a tingling sensation. But tingling is also related to the feeling of numbness, which would most likely tie back to the grind of successive, non-stop working days and feeling numb as a result of this lifestyle. Next he sings, it's what you feel, not what you ought to.

Directly following the tingling line, we might assume that's the feeling he's referring to, which is at odds with what he ought to be feeling. Here we can recall the album title discussion at the top of this episode, as this is another instance in which Tom is feeling something and thinking he should be feeling something else, wishing beyond where he is at the time. Fowsterp then transitions into a brief pre-chorus,

which is followed by the chorus. Tom here sings reasonable and sensible, dead from the neck up. I guess I'm stuffed, stuffed, stuffed. I guess I'm stuffed, stuffed, stuffed. Dead from the neck up is an idiom used to describe someone who is stupid or brainless. The idea of being stuffed in this context then seems to play on the idea of taxidermy, where the outside of an animal is preserved, but they are dead inside. They are literally stuffed with filling. If we view these lines within the context of the verses, it seems Tom is portraying someone who has worked themselves dumb and numb,

someone who has fulfilled the reasonable and sensible request of becoming a productive member of society and as a result is all but dead inside. These kinds of kinds of critiques of modern life and capitalist corporate-driven societies are not uncommon in Radiohead's discography. And if we again think about the themes of Burn the Witch, this kind of mindless pacifism is the ideal state of the masses from the point of view of those in power. Go to work, go to sleep, spend your money on the weekends, and don't ask questions. Be reasonable, be sensible. Do not challenge the status quo. The following lines express a general sentiment of disappointment. We thought you had it in you, but not, not, not for no real reason.

There's a feeling of lost potential here, with for no real reason adding a sense of futility, a feeling that all of this is pointless. Of course, the irony of this chorus is that Tom sings these bleak lyrics with such beauty, and is accompanied by lush strings in a bright G major harmony. That is what you feel now, what you are to, what you are too, little fit that's in the moon is tumble in, tumble in, tumble in, tumult, and jupecker and triplicar and plastic bags and triplicating, plastic, plastic, and plastic, Tom begins the second verse singing, Squeeze the tubes and empty bottles.

This seems to continue the work motif, with the image of squeezing tubes and bottles until they're completely empty, feeling like a potent metaphor for working until you're exhausted, dead from the neck up. Tom then repeats, I take a bow, take a bow, take a bow. It feels like there's a few possible readings here.

Tom, where the character he's portraying could be bowing out, which means to resign. Bowing could also refer to what artist due after completing a performance, and in this way, squeezing the tubes and emptying bottles might refer to paint tubes and bottles, a symbol of artistry. Music or art is Tom's work after all, and we recall the strenuous two-year journey it took the band to complete in rainbows, and the real possibility that it could have been their last album together. In this reading, taking a bow would be a kind of symbolic gesture of appreciation and acknowledgement of the end. Finally, bowing is a common

gesture of respect and deference, like someone bowing before their master, which feels in line with the possible class and power motif in the track. After repeating, it's what you feel, not what you ought to. Tom begins another verse with the line, the elephant that's in the room is tumbling, tumbling, tumbling, and duplicate. Tom here surreely visualizes the metaphorical idiom, elephant in the room, which is used to express an enormous issue that's visible or understood by everyone, but no one wants to talk about or acknowledge. This would seem to most closely in line with the possible political thread, recalling Tom's blog post that called out climate change deniers, those who don't want to acknowledge the elephant in the room. This interpretation carries over to the

next line, plastic bags and duplicate and triplicate. On one hand, Tom is continuing the tumbling imagery, as the elephant tumbling over multiple times morphs into a plastic bag tumbling in the air. But multiplying plastic bags also calls to mine plastic's contribution to climate change, which generates heat-trapping gases at every stage of its life cycle. Now after these verses, Faustarp continues with another chorus, only this time it's extended a few measures and contains new lyrical material. After repeating the first chorus, Tom adds, Exactly where do you get off? Is enough is enough? This to me feels confrontational,

and coming after the second verse that seemed to have clear political undertones, perhaps Tom is speaking directly to those in power. But this is immediately undercut by the following line, I love you, but enough is enough. Enough of that stuff. There's no real reason. Saying I love you here is pretty shocking given the lyrics to this point. It's possible Tom has been addressing a failing relationship in this song,

the monotonous days, the numbness or lack of passion, and the elephant in the room being the lifeless state of the relationship itself. It's yet another way to interpret the ever-cryptic lyrics of Faust Arp, calling to mind what Tom said about in rainbows, quote, of all the lyrics I've ever written, I hope that the ones on this record will deliver the widest range of interpretations. Faust Art modulates to a new key area for this bridge section, though the song will never return to the chorus, so we can also consider this an outro or even a terminal climax. In any case, with beautiful swelling strings behind him, Tom for the first time in the song abandons the faster, almost speech-like delivery, and stretches his words with elongated high

notes. The first line he sings is, You've got a head full of feathers. This recalls the taxidermy imagery of the chorus, dead from the neck up, I'm stuffed. But coming off the aggressive, accusatory tone of the extended chorus we just heard, Tom could also be cleverly calling someone a chicken. If so, this would continue the coded attacks on the cowardice authority that fails to acknowledge the elephant in the room. He then sings the song's final line, You've Got Melted to Butter. Butter is soft and malleable, which could extend the chicken, cowardice motif of the previous line, those overworked people who have become numb to political issues, who are reasonable and sensible, who don't stand on their convictions and are easily

influenced. These two lines end up being Tom's final words on the song, a surreal, cryptic pair of lines that punctuate one of Radiohead's most cryptic, ambiguous songs to date. The abstraction of Faustarp recalls something Tom said when asked about the meaning of his obscure lyrics. He brought up one of his favorite songwriters, Neal Young, specifically his song, Ambulances. Quote, is just a series of stanzas that are seemingly unrelated. In fact, he even starts talking about the fact there's no meaning to the song halfway through it. But the set of images and the set of lyrics add up to an emotion that you can't quite put your finger on, but it leaves you sort of better off at the end of it.

And that to me is the idea, unquote. We could say the same thing about Faustarp. While I did my best to explore potential meanings, the lyrics are impossibly cryptic, yet I do feel the totality of the imagery and references create a composite image that seems to express the threat of monotony in our daily work-centered routines, and the apathy to political dangers and global threats that results from this monotony. And when contextualized by the broader themes explored and in rainbows, we can see these apathetic drones are feeling something they ought to not to, perhaps wishing beyond where

they are, chasing rainbows. Conclusions At just two minutes and nine seconds long, Faustarp is the shortest song on in Rainbows and the second shortest in Radiohead's entire discography. Statistically speaking, it's the least popular song on the album. Yet I don't think many Radiohead fans would consider it bad, just not as strong as the others when comparing the songs individually.

But with that being said, I think Faustarp is absolutely essential to in Rainbows, and its placement on the album illuminates an interesting and often under-discussed aspect of album making, which is track selection, track sequencing, and the way, when done right and with intention, the whole becomes more than the sum of its parts. At 10 total songs, In Ramos had the fewest tracks of any Radiohead record to that point in their career.

However, the band had finished and recorded at least 18 tracks for the album. According to bassist Colin Greenwood, they played all the recordings for their manager, Chris Hufford, who compared it to an overwordy book. The band agreed and decided to make the album 10 songs, roughly 45 minutes long. They spent three to four full days trying different combinations of songs and track orders, arguing amongst themselves, with each member lobbying for their favorite songs. But ultimately, the band said it became clear which songs sat together best and made the complete statement they were searching for,

even when that meant a favorite song of theirs got left off the record. About this process, Tom said, quote, The problem was just to find the most adequate way for all the songs to go well together. It seems simple to say, but it's really a fucking nightmare to do. because played in a certain order, the pieces of this album can be too heavy to digest, unbearable. It's hard because we had to eliminate tunes that were as good as what's on there, but for some reason didn't bounce off the other tunes right.

They were to the detriment of them. That was a real head fuck for me. If you get it right, which we've done in the past, songs bounce off each other and they create something different, unquote. Ed O'Brien also added, quote, Whatever we tried, more than 10 songs put together was too much, too heavy. we had to find the best way to give people doors of entry as well as moments of rest within the album, while remaining very consistent with this idea of achieving the best possible thing, unquote.

And it's this particular quote that to me helps explain Faustarp's inclusion on the album and its contribution to the whole. It's a moment of rest, a warm, beautiful, ephemeral interlude placed in the center of the album, transitioning us from the generally more emphatic side A into the gentler, more intimate side B. Indeed, of the album's sonic and thematic progression, Tom said, quote, In Ramos very much explores the ideas of transience. It starts in one place and ends somewhere completely different. That was the only way we can fit it together, but it turned out to be a real upside in the end.

The first half of it is pretty raw, pretty hectic. Even though you have nude, what the lyrics are actually saying is pretty messed up, nasty. After a while, everything calms down and you get it out of your system. You feel better. There's this feeling of elation. unquote. Tom here acknowledges the contrast between the two halves of the album, and to me, foul start functions as a threshold over which we cross into the album's second half. Thus, the song is hard to pluck out of context. It's not the song we're adding to a playlist or skipping

ahead to hear on the record. It's best experience only within the sequence of the complete album. It's neither a peak nor valley. Rather, it's a slope, helping us come down from the heavy, oversaturated intensity of all I need's terminal climax, and cleansing our oral palette. for In Rainbow's Next Dish and Reckoner. And the fact that all the members of the band agreed to include Faustarp, even when three out of five of them don't even appear on the song, should say a lot about how important it is to the flow, coherence, and experience of In Rainbows in Full.

Somewhat ironically, it wasn't until Radiohead had finally settled on the album's 10-song track list that they really felt like they'd made something great. Drummer Phil Selway said, quote, The first time we all sat down and felt that the album worked was when we finalized the track listing and had the finished CD. It was only at that point that we completely believed that we had made the record that we wanted to, unquote. Tom also added, I believe in the rock album as an artistic form of expression. In Ramos is a conscious return to this form of a 45-minute statement. I believe this is the way that albums make the most striking

statements, those to which the listener returns, gives time again and again. Of course it was possible to make it shorter, but our aim was to describe in 45 minutes as coherently and conclusively as possible, what moves us. In Ramos is, at least in our opinion, our transformer, our revolver, our hunky dory. It's our classic album. Today's episode was written and produced by me, Kolkushna. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a review of the show wherever you're listening right now. It really helps. Additional musical and lyrical analysis by Brad Osborne. Audio editing by Kevin Pooler. Theme music by Bureaucratic. All right, thanks for listening, everyone. Talk to you next week.