This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Genie let out the bottle
It is now the witching hour
Genie let out the bottle
It is now the witching hour
Murderers you're murderers
We are not the same as you
Genie let out the bottle
Funny ha ha funny how
When the walls bend
When the walls bend
With your breathing
With your breathing
When the walls bend
When the walls bend
With your breathing
With your breathing
With your breathing
They will suck you down
To the other side
They will suck you down
To the other side
They will suck you down
To the other side
They will suck you down
To the other side
To the shadows blue and red
Shadows blue and red
Your alarm bells
Your alarm bells
Shadows blue and red
Shadows blue and red
Your alarm bells
Your alarm bells
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
This is the gloaming
It is now the witching hour
Genie let out the bottle
It is now the witching hour
Murderers you're murderers
We are not the same as you
Genie let out the bottle
Funny ha ha funny how
When the walls bend
When the walls bend
With your breathing
With your breathing
When the walls bend
When the walls bend
With your breathing
With your breathing
With your breathing
They will suck you down
To the other side
They will suck you down
To the other side
They will suck you down
To the other side
They will suck you down
To the other side
To the shadows blue and red
Shadows blue and red
Your alarm bells
Your alarm bells
Shadows blue and red
Shadows blue and red
Your alarm bells
Your alarm bells
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
They should be ringing
This is the gloaming
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More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
Direct quote from a show in 2003: "The next song we're gonna do is a song about the rise of fascism and the right wing. The only way to stop them is to do something. If you do nothing, they'll win. And these people are fucking crazy." - Thom Yorke before performing this song.
i just need to say that i hate it when people waste time and space typing out that they dont know what this song is about.... if you dont have a sense or idea, then no need to type anything.. if you want, wait and see what others share. it can be a nightmare scrolling throgh dozens of useless messages to find gems of meaning in them...... thanks :)
k so i will add a little of my own interpretation.... i love the words witching hour. it just reminds me of a witch hunt.. of the crucible... the hype.. hyteria.. the bullshit in accusation... the manipulation.....
i also love the line ' we are not the same as you' because we ARE clearly ALL the same as each other. we all want power, freedom, safety....etc.... i find this as a pattern in thom's writing about war/politics etc.. it has a flipside.... its not always black and white..... good and evil. so while he does make his accusations... there is always the fingers pointing back... if you knwo what i mean....
the word 'gloaming' means "twilight" or "dusk"... inside the booklets lyrics it says "Hail to the Thief" (or, The Gloaming)... i have no idea what it might pertain to not only in the song but as the alternate title of the album as well
The title is indeed the last light of a sunset and obviously refers to mankind's impending extinction. I think it's one of the easiest Radiohead songs to interpret because most of the lyrics are literal. We HAVE let the genie out in terms of giving up any control over who runs the world. These people ARE murderers and try to claim it is done in our name. One day it will dawn on us what has been happening over the last few decades but it will be too late to do anything about it. Our heads will ache so much with this new-found reality that the walls will bend and we will feel totally trapped. His tone is increasingly desperate and to emphasise this, he repeats phrases over and over again (just like "sit down, stand up").
Agree with pretty much everything said... this is a wake-up call to the world, as if it weren't painfully obvious already that the human race is in danger of self-destruction.
The bassline in this song is pure genius, like the murmur of an earthquake before it begins, signalling its approach. Heard it's even more intense live.
I love its album version too
the part when he says when the walls bend with your breathin,
the feeling to me is when you're in a room or somewhere like that, and the air in the room is so depressing, and isolated, and you feel bounded somehow, it will feel like you are trapped in. Kinda claustrophobic. So much that walls bend when you breathe in. it is so in your mind. Like there's no air left. No air from outside.
and kind of the creativity block maybe. or an emotional block. or when u feel the world is all coming on you, weighing over you..
I can relate best to this song when I'm in a depressive mood, and I want to explode, I'm the reason why the alarms should be ringing.
:) though its obvious it has political meaning too. I agree with Thom. This is the gloaming. When you kill&use&abuse people that are innocent, it will bring the bad. It will let the nightly creatures out of their dens.
And the way the world is going, it will be the gloaming. If noone cares..
I like the hardness of the song. And the "hitting" kinda feeling of the rhytms. hitting and bouncing back. like to a wall.
And the frenzy feeling.
I also liked all the above comments.
For me, if I listen to this song while in bed, with the lights off, I feel as if something in my mind is overcoming me, like the shadow mentioned; just taking over. Chills every time.
A great song, however I've thought that it would sound better to me without the scratchy noise throughout the whole song.
The scratchy noise is the sound of the needle of the record player from which Johnny Greenwood took his sample.
...Old Radio broadcast with white noise from the special place... ...Someone's fist knock at your skull, someone's celestial voice penetrate deep into the brain ...It is inexplicable...
"Genie let out of the bottle It is now the witching hour"-"genie" let out of the already dead body along with the last exhalation... "Murderers, you're murderers We are not the same as you"-street spirits, our curse for deafness to the Truth's Voice, blindness to the Truth's Light... "When the walls bend When the walls bend With your breathin' With your breathin'"-this breathing too strong...if you forget whose child you REALLY are... "They will suck you down to the other side To the shadows blue and red"-This is not a tales.Trust in Thom.He never deceive you. Watch the clip "Street Spirit".This is The Gloaming.
Move on...
Aha! The Gloaming appears at last. Hard to say why but this is one of my favourite songs on HTTT. Great atmosphere, wonderfully sinister. The fast repetition is cool, too. Sort of like the illegitimate child of Idioteque.
(this song is amazing.) I read in Spin and in RollingStone (two of the worst music publications known to man) that this song was inspired by Thom Yorke's rainy drive through the night when he heard Bush was elected. ...don't know if it's true, but it explains the music...