Composer Reacts to Radiohead - Burn The Witch (REACTION & ANALYSIS)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 พ.ค. 2021
- Bryan reacts to and talks about his thoughts on Radiohead - Burn The Witch
ORIGINAL VIDEO // • Radiohead - Burn The W...
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I'm so glad Radiohead finally made it! They are a weird band that inhabits an odd place too, they are pretty much household name, yet most people just know Creep and some of their 90's singles.
This is imo a great place to start because this is the first single from their last record so far (2016's A Moon Shaped Pool) and you've heard Creep which is their first single (I think) from their first album (1993's Pablo Honey). They've come a long way!
Getting into the song itself, the string arrangement includes that using the wooden part of the bow technique you mention (I think it's called playing "col legno"), and it was written by band member Jonny Greenwood. He has composed the scores for several movies and is very fond of using dissonance due to his love of Polish classical composer Penderecki.
I wouldn't see the nature vs. humanity to be reading in too much. Even though the birdsong is only in the music video, A Moon Shaped Pool has some commentary on global warming (explicitly so in The Numbers, my personal fave track from the album). The birdsong is also a homage to Twin Peaks, as the original run of the show at least, beings with a similar image of a bird singing. Lyrically the song is a warning about the (then) rise of authoritarian political views in the Western world. It certainly feels more poignant since 2016.
Great analysis as always, Bryan, and let's keep the Radiohead train going! I feel checking something from either OK Computer or Kid A, usually regarded as their best records (and certainly their most game-changing ones), could be a good next point. For OK Computer, most people have suggested the proggy Paranoid Android (I can't argue with that), although my personal pick would be Let Down. For Kid A, The National Anthem has some great use of brass for dissonance and a little bit of funkiness amidst the dispair. Now for a one-off song, I feel you'd love the full-lenght version of Life in a Glasshouse; a delicious slice of New Orleans-style funeral jazz.
I just Particularly loves thom yorke's collab with burial and four tet
@@afiqula and UNKLE.
Radiohead - How to disappear completely is an amazing song
Strong agree!
To me it's their magnum opus, but the entire kid A album is fucking phenomenal
Is it not amazing, it the fricking BEST 🔥🔥🔥
Although not the main songwriter (thom is) Jonny Greenwood is the main composer/ arranger - and has received as much notoriety as a composer as he has received in radiohead. He often conducts the London contemporary orchestra and scores numerous films, including most Paul Thomas Anderson movies and has been nominated for numerous Oscars and Grammys including for the scores for "there will be blood" "the Master" and "phantom thread" although they don't incorporate classical instruments into all their music a few strong ones of note would be Pyramid song, How to disappear completely, Spector, and the majority of the newest album Moon shaped pool in which Jonny's influence is on most every song. (esp the numbers, Glass eye, decks dark and tinker taylor...)
I'm really just discovering these guys, and the more I hear, the more I'm drawn in.
Paranoid Android from Radiohead is a must for a Composer 😇😉🔥
Thanks for the great reaction. There are so many Radiohead sounds that would be worthy of your critical ear, but I'd like to recommend Pyramid Song, and The Daily Mail as contenders. Both compositionally interesting and also real personal favourites 👍
I’ve only recently gotten into Radiohead. It took me way too long to appreciate them. I remember listening to them about 10 years ago and not having been too keen on the vocals. That has changed now.
Their discography is such a treasure trove of interesting, weird and beautiful music. I’m looking forward to hearing them again on your channel.
My favorite titles are:
- Pyramid Song (has beautiful strings, too and would be my recommendation to check out at some time)
- Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
- Reckoner
- There, There
Although I'm still discovering.
Hell yeah man. To me, Radiohead is the “rock” band that leads you to a much deeper and broader understanding of music. Like a jumping off point for the truly sublime works of jazz and classical.
Same! It’s taken me ten years to get into anything later than OK Computer, and my favorite songs are the same four you listed. For now, anyway! It changes as I get more familiar with their later albums.
Have fun for me Kid A and Amnesiac killed them I wanted OK Computer part 2 and those records pissed me off so much that I did not listen to them for like 10 years In Rainbows from the basement on You Tune totally random got me back into them and now I love all their records and b-sides.
Check out Thom Yorke's The Eraser.
Radiohead really is a genre unto themselves I feel that they are this generations Beatles they admitted they are not a rock band quite a while ago they really are great I envy you all their music is in the growers category they reward multiple listens and are amazing live it is so cool seeing them pull some of this stuff live without prerecorded stuff which they will not use.
This band extracts every possible sound, tone, and rhythm from string based instruments. From guitars to an Ondes Martenot, and on into the talented mind of Jonny Greenwood's endlessly creative orchestral arrangements.
The album this song opens is lush with composition. I'd analyze that.
Creep is actually a really bad representation of the band. Check out anything from Ok Computer or my personal fave, In Rainbows.
Creep was fine (even though they basically stole it). Kid A, In Rainbows, OK Computer, and Moon Shaped Pool are all far better indicators of the band.
Finally someone, who counts A Moon Shaped Pool as one of their best works 🙏
*our personal fave
Awesome track and really utilising the orchestra just as you pointed out and dove into. Great analysis!
Check out Pyramid Song! Arguably their best song (imo), it has beautiful string arrangements and a gorgeous piano+singing rhythm dynamic
Liked, and subbed (huge Radiohead fan, huge fan of this song and the album it came from). Jonny is a composer who's done multiple film scores (including There Will Be Blood), so the band are way ahead of most when it comes to composition and structure. My head's moving the same way yours is. So I know for sure you get it. Nice work man, I'm a new fan!
Radiohead have a big, diverse, interesting, and evolving discography, using many different sounds, musical instruments and styles.
Maybe check out some of their "best" songs, like Paranoid Android,Pyramid Song,No Surprises,How To Disappear completely.
It's an unusual pick to begin with for sure, but I really like that. Far too many music reactions are limited to the most obvious choices. And sure there's usually a reason why a band's most beloved songs are a particular few, but it's still disappointing when you sometimes can't find a reaction to anything a bit outside of that. So when people go for a bit of an off-the-path selection, I kinda love it. Especially with a band this consistent and prolific, where there are a lot of choices you can't go wrong with.
RADIOHEAD IS A GENRE!!!! PERIOD.
Nice breakdown. Jonny Greenwood is the guitarist in the band, and is also a classical composer who has composed many soundtracks for film. He composed the string section.
Radiohead is much more than a Rock/metal/prog band. I would say they are the bridge between Prog rock, and Jazz and classical.
If you want some more orchestral Radiohead, you should absolutely react to How to Disappear Completely or Pyramid Song. Those two are phenomenal
It's almost a crime that any modern music lover hasn't heard more Radiohead, at least The Bends, OK Computer, and Kid A (some would include In Rainbows). I've said it before, but they're as close as our generation has come to having a band as important as The Beatles. Radiohead is very much one of those bands--not unlike The Beatles, actually--where it's impossible to get an accurate impression of them from even several songs. They're incredibly versatile. While they started out as a pretty typical alternative rock band once they started incorporating electronic and avant-garde elements they really branched out to a wide variety of genres and styles: some of which are really hard to pinpoint beyond saying "well, that's Radiohead." It probably helps that Greenwood especially is so influenced by 20th century classical and has experience scoring films (There Will Be Blood is probably his best). As others have said, this track is from their last album, which is perhaps their most beautiful album overall. This is a fine song, but it's just a small sample of what they can do. Great analysis as always, but you really need to hear more Radiohead.
Radiohead suggestions? Yeah, just listen to all of The Bends, OK Computer, and Kid A! As for individual tracks there's almost too many. Going chronologically:
Fake Plastic Trees
Street Spirit
Paranoid Android
Let Down
How to Disappear Completely
Idioteque
Pyramid Song
There, There
Sail to the Moon
Reckoner
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
The Daily Mail
The Numbers
True Love Waits
Wait. The guitarist for Radiohead scored There Will Be Blood? And that's his best....so that means he's scored other films? If I wasn't intrigued by Burn the Witch already then I certainly would be now.
@@CriticalReactions Yeah, he's actually scored all (I think) of the recent Paul Thomas Anderson films.
Great reaction!
Free in the knowledge of The Smile is another beautiful song
I've always been a fan of Radiohead. When this album, and song, was released it was harder to listen to because it felt differnet than their older music. However, after listening to it on repeat, I've finally come to really enjoy this album as part of this discogrophy. Fun fact, I was in the 0.01% of listeners in 2021 for Radiohead according to Spotify.
Decks Dark or Ful Stop from the same album would definitely blow your mind
Ahhhh, Decks Dark was an instant favourite so good!
The plucking strings indeed sound like col legno (bow hitting the strings) but they're actually the strings being plucked with guitar picks. Jonny Greenwood (the band's lead guitarist) is also a composer and he's very into avant-garde stuff like Penderecki and Messiaen. He uses some pretty weird techniques in his arrangements.
That's really interesting. How did you find this info?
@@gravematter1 Jonny himself mentioned the guitar picks in an interview. I found it here on TH-cam but I don't really remember which one.
the video is an homage to an old british kids show called trumpton via the 1970's version of the Wicker man
Heck yes
Surprised that for your theme you did not check out ELO who were perhaps the first band to fully integrate the orchestra as a major feature of the bands own characteristic sound. They brought orchestral sounds to the 70s masses in mainstream pop. Check out the four songs that together make up ‘Concerto for a rainy day’ on vinyl side three of their album Out of the blue. Maybe it’s a bit mainstream for you but it seems to fit your theme perfectly.
Bryan, don't tell me you've never heard/seen Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin bow a guitar! "Dazed and Confused" and "How Many More Times".
One of my early introductions to Radiohead was 'Paranoid Android' off 'OK Computer'.
OK, I won't tell you.......but I'll imply that I've never seen this guitar bowing. 😁
However it makes sense and I don't know why I didn't think of it other than it isn't the conventional use of a guitar. I'm gonna dive into this and probably fall down a rabbit hole of unconventional guitar techniques.
i love watching musicians minds being blown by Jonny Greenwood
can you react to the strokes "Ode to the mets"
If you’re looking for orchestral elements blended with synths in a “modern music” context, the for the love of god you need to look at Bjork Homogenic it’s a goddamn masterpiece!!😀 even Thom Yorke would agree
Radiohead Reckoner - Live from the basement
The song at the end of the video sounds interesting, what is it called?
The filename is called "reaction_end_credits_song.wav" but I don't suppose I've ever given it a name. It's one of those ideas I've created and never really liked anywhere I took it so it's just this one idea. I should make it available on my compositions channel though for those who want to listen to it in isolation.
Radiohead doesn’t have a bad song as far as I’m aware!
The strings are being played with plectrums.
Please do Radiohead’s how to disappear completely
You’re welcome
mate, do you have a pause button?
It's in the corner of the video player 😄
Even the band Radiohead hates Creep. This band is worth a deep dive starting from their 3rd album...OK Computer. The first 2 albums can be listed to as a way if seeing their evolution.
Definitely agree on Pablo Honey. Don't really agree on Bends though, it definitely holds up and is worth including on any deep dive.
Videotape
Can't bow guitar? Listen to SIgur Ros.
Creepy as fuck
I wonder if there's a new youtube trend where fake "composers" reacting to songs, providing mind blowing analysis like "bow striking" was cool xD
What makes you think that it isn't just composers reacting? Plenty of composers in the world, doesn't seem suspicious to me.
In this video you said you cant bow a guitar. Watch the live version and youll see just how wrong you are
Power to Ukraine force's 😁
Great reaction but you definitely need to react to another track sooner than later because I guarantee you the majority of people waiting for your take on Radiohead would not have chosen this track lol
Can I suggest weird fishes
Good middle ground example