How I Made my Millions might just be them at their most melancholy. I'd argue it's on the same level as Street Spirit.
"I was stronger, I was better" I feel like this is an introduction into the slipping away of what you used to have. Things were better BEFORE, and BEFORE is gone, and BEFORE was the best you had. You've peaked, and now everything is falling away.
"Picked you out, now don't say a word, no, don't yell out, never mind" This feels like the loss of people in your life; breakups, drifting apart, and death. We pick who we want to know early in life, and as the opportunities to meet new people fades, it makes losing them even worse. However, this song is about acceptance, moving on from grief, so you learn how to make that specific person's leaving not hurt all that much anymore.
"Let you out, led you back" This ties into the powerlessness aspect, we have to upkeep the people in our lives. Often times, we let people out, and then have to win them back through apologies and understanding. And sure it makes us stronger, but
"Stay on, sit down" reminds us that there's an inherent cruelty to trying to get people back. They don't grow with us, we chain each other, and do we have the right?
"Let it fall x4" answers the question, saying no, when it's over it's over, you have to accept when things have fallen out of the place you were comfortable with them in. Thom's voice regains a lot of strength here, this is how you get back to BEFORE when you had all that strength, when you were better. Better isn't in the past, it's in the future, spreading your wings and going to new places and talking to new people. You have to learn to let things go if you ever want to be happy.
This is not what Thom Yorke had in mind, he was literally just making up lyrics, but art exists on an artist's murder scene. You can also get a lot from the tone Yorke sings in, his voice is weak, it's monotonal, he even sounds a little bit tired, and that tells me that there's more to it than improv.
How I Made my Millions might just be them at their most melancholy. I'd argue it's on the same level as Street Spirit.
"I was stronger, I was better" I feel like this is an introduction into the slipping away of what you used to have. Things were better BEFORE, and BEFORE is gone, and BEFORE was the best you had. You've peaked, and now everything is falling away. "Picked you out, now don't say a word, no, don't yell out, never mind" This feels like the loss of people in your life; breakups, drifting apart, and death. We pick who we want to know early in life, and as the opportunities to meet new people fades, it makes losing them even worse. However, this song is about acceptance, moving on from grief, so you learn how to make that specific person's leaving not hurt all that much anymore. "Let you out, led you back" This ties into the powerlessness aspect, we have to upkeep the people in our lives. Often times, we let people out, and then have to win them back through apologies and understanding. And sure it makes us stronger, but "Stay on, sit down" reminds us that there's an inherent cruelty to trying to get people back. They don't grow with us, we chain each other, and do we have the right? "Let it fall x4" answers the question, saying no, when it's over it's over, you have to accept when things have fallen out of the place you were comfortable with them in. Thom's voice regains a lot of strength here, this is how you get back to BEFORE when you had all that strength, when you were better. Better isn't in the past, it's in the future, spreading your wings and going to new places and talking to new people. You have to learn to let things go if you ever want to be happy.
This is not what Thom Yorke had in mind, he was literally just making up lyrics, but art exists on an artist's murder scene. You can also get a lot from the tone Yorke sings in, his voice is weak, it's monotonal, he even sounds a little bit tired, and that tells me that there's more to it than improv.