"How to Disappear Completely" | |
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![]() Belgium promotional single cover | |
Promotional single by Radiohead | |
from the album Kid A | |
A-side | "Idioteque" (double A-side) [lower-alpha 1] |
Written | June 1997 |
Released | 27 September 2000 [lower-alpha 2] |
Recorded | 1 December 1999 – 4 February 2000 |
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Songwriter(s) | |
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Licensed audio | |
"How to Disappear Completely" on YouTube |
"How to Disappear Completely" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead from their fourth studio album, Kid A (2000). It was produced by the band with their producer, Nigel Godrich, and was released as a promotional single in the US, Poland and Belgium.
Radiohead wrote "How to Disappear Completely" in mid-1997 during the tour for their third album, OK Computer (1997). The title derives from Doug Richmond's 1985 book How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found . Radiohead first performed it in 1998 during the tour, and an early soundcheck performance appears in their documentary Meeting People Is Easy (1998).
"How to Disappear Completely" is an acoustic ballad backed by orchestral strings and guitar effects. Radiohead recorded demos in various studios before recording it at their Oxfordshire studio in January 2000. The following month, the strings were recorded and performed by the Orchestra of St John's in a church near the band's studio, arranged by the multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood on an ondes Martenot.
"How to Disappear Completely" was included on the special edition of Radiohead: The Best Of (2008). The isolated string track was included on the compilation Kid A Mnesia (2021).
One of the earliest songs written for Kid A (2000), [4] "How to Disappear Completely" was written primarily by the Radiohead singer, Thom Yorke, [5] [6] during the tour for their third album, OK Computer (1997). [4] [7] [8] Yorke began writing it in Toronto, Canada, in June 1997. [9] Later that month, Radiohead performed their then-biggest-ever show at the RDS Arena in Dublin, Ireland. [10] [11] The performance was held in windy and rainy conditions. [12] The song was inspired by a dream Yorke had on the night of this show, [13] in which he was running naked down Dublin's River Liffey and being pursued by a tidal wave. [14]
According to the guitarist Ed O'Brien, "How to Disappear Completely" was inspired by the RDS performance and the stress the band members, especially Yorke, experienced on tour. [15] Yorke's experience performing with Radiohead at the 1997 Glastonbury Festival, a week after the RDS performance, [15] was another inspiration. [8] After technical problems, Yorke almost abandoned the show, but continued after urging from O'Brien. [16] Yorke recalled: "I just needed a break. And in fact I didn't get one for another year and a bit, by which point I was pretty much catatonic." [16]
In an interview with Terry David Mulligan in Canada in July 1997, Yorke said he had written a song the previous month with the chorus: "I'm not here / This isn't happening". [18] The chorus came from advice given to Yorke by his friend, the R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe, on how to deal with tour stress by repeating the phrase "I'm not here, this isn't happening" to himself. [4] [6] [8] [17] In turn, "How to Disappear Completely" inspired Stipe to write the song "Disappear" from the R.E.M. album, Reveal (2001). [13] When Stipe called Yorke to apologize for stealing the concept, Yorke told him Stipe had inspired "How to Disappear Completely". [19]
In late August 1997, Yorke performed an early acoustic version during a soundcheck in New York; [20] footage from this performance features in the 1998 documentary Meeting People Is Easy . [7] Radiohead performed further versions during the OK Computer tour in 1998. [21] [22] [23] The versions were purported to be between seven and ten minutes in length; [9] [24] the final studio version lasts six minutes. [25] Melody Maker likened one version in a 1998 review to Radiohead covering Unbelievable Truth, [26] an acoustic band led by Yorke's younger brother, Andy. [27]
Yorke cited "Once in a Lifetime" (1980) by Talking Heads as a reference for writing the song. [15] It had the working titles "This Is Not Happening" and "How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found". [9] [28] The second title is taken from that of Doug Richmond's 1985 book, [29] which explains how to erase personal identity and assume a new one, [30] with a focus on taking a French leave. [31] According to some accounts, the song was dedicated to the Manic Street Preachers guitarist Richey Edwards, [32] [33] who disappeared in February 1995 and was declared dead in November 2008. [34]
After the OK Computer tour ended, Yorke suffered from writer's block and could not finish writing new songs on guitar. [35] [36] "How to Disappear Completely" was one of the few songs that was almost completely written prior to the Kid A and Amnesiac recording sessions. [21] [37] In early 1999, Radiohead attempted to record a version at Guillaume Tell Studios in Paris, but Yorke dismissed it, saying: "That sounds great, but it sounds like old Radiohead." [38] On 27 July, [39] during their sessions at the Batsford Park mansion in Gloucestershire, [40] Radiohead recorded a new demo version. [39] In September, O'Brien denied in his online diary a rumour that Radiohead was collaborating with the post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor for the song. [39]
Within the same month, [21] [41] Radiohead moved to their new studio in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire. [42] On 1 December 1999, Radiohead recorded Philip Selway's drums in preparation for a collaboration with the Orchestra of St John's. [39] The band chose the orchestra as they had performed pieces by the composers Krzysztof Penderecki and Olivier Messiaen. [43] Yorke said he had no involvement with the song after recording this demo, [lower-alpha 3] and that the multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood had completed it by himself. [6] [45]
The 1998 early version was more guitar-driven; instead, Radiohead rearranged the song by replacing their rock-tinged arrangement with an "extensive" string section. [28] On 2 December 1999, [39] with assistance from the producer, Nigel Godrich, [6] Greenwood, the only Radiohead member trained in music theory, [47] began composing the string arrangement. [39] He worked by multi-tracking his ondes Martenot, [48] inspired by Messiaen, [49] who popularised the instrument, [50] and finished after two intermittent weeks the following month. [39] [43]
Radiohead booked a three-hour session at Dorchester Abbey, [48] a 12th-century church about five miles from their studio, [51] where strings were recorded and performed by the Orchestra of St John's, [46] [31] [lower-alpha 4] conducted by John Lubbock. [39] [44] [48] The orchestration was influenced by Penderecki, [53] who, like Messiaen, is an influence on Greenwood. [54] According to Godrich, when Greenwood introduced his score to the orchestra members, "they all just sort of burst into giggles, because they couldn't do what he'd written, because it was impossible — or impossible for them, anyway." [55] Nonetheless, Lubbock encouraged the orchestra to experiment and work with Greenwood's ideas. [44]
According to Greenwood, the orchestra followed a technique for recording the strings that differed from most string sessions for rock songs in that they would not play consecutive half or long notes because they likened this to making "a row of balloons". [48] The strings and Greenwood's ondes Martenot parts were recorded in one take using some microphones and an Apple G3 computer owned by Godrich. [48] The concerts director, Alison Atkinson, said the session was "more experimental" than the orchestra's usual bookings. [44] An isolated string track, titled "How to Disappear into Strings", was included on the Kid A reissue Kid A Mnesia (2021). [56]
"How to Disappear Completely" is an acoustic-driven ballad backed by "forlorn" strings and "compelling" guitar effects, [57] [5] with elements of orchestral and ambient music. [58] [59] [31] Several writers described it as a ballad; [60] [61] [62] [63] others classified it as post-rock. [60] [64] Ryan Pinkard of Tidal Magazine described it as a "majestic" pop ballad. [65] Jazz Monroe of The Guardian categorised the song as avant-garde balladry, calling it a "masterpiece" that "orchestrates a stage-fright reverie with fragments of Robert Wyatt and Penderecki". [66] Stephen Dalton of Uncut called it a "sumptuous" orchestral ballad. [67] Steve Lowe of Q called it a "ghostly waltz-time" folk song with influences from the Smiths' album Meat Is Murder (1985). [68]
"How to Disappear Completely" is the first Kid A track that features Yorke's vocals clearly, with no processing effects, unlike the album's first three tracks: "Everything in Its Right Place", "Kid A" and "The National Anthem". [69] It features strummed acoustic guitar, [70] a Chris Squire-influenced bassline, [71] and a base layer of strings that progresses to "paranoid" electronica and "lush" orchestration, [70] influenced by the music of the Moody Blues. [71] The song is played in the key of F♯ minor in a 6
8 time signature with a tempo of 102 beats per minute (BPM), [72] [73] while Yorke's vocals span a range of C♯4 to A5, [73] which he performed in a "long-drawn-out" falsetto. [74] The chord progression follows a sequence of Cadd9–Em–Em6–G–Gsus4–D–Dadd4–EM6. [73]
The song begins with a discordant string harmony, [75] then a strummed D ninth chord acoustic guitar played by Yorke, [76] backed by B♭ string tunes, creating a dissonant noise that moves between the D major and F♯ minor chords. [75] O'Brien used guitar reverbs and delay effects, creating a melody that sinks between the A and E chords. [76] The bassline enters at 0:23, [77] playing chords of F♯–A–B–E–C♯, followed by two separate chords of E and F♯. [75] The B♭ note ends at 1:37, the beginning of the chorus. [75] The strings are attached to Yorke's vocals throughout the song. [78] By the end of the song at 5:23, all instruments join together to produce a high-pitched note ranging from A to F♯. [79] Greenwood's ondes Martenot parts appear low in the mix because of the string sounds. [48] Jamie Kahn of Far Out praised the string section for blending with acoustic guitar and Yorke's "haunting" vocals to create an "eclectic, harmonious" mix. [31]
The string section was inspired by Penderecki's Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1961), [80] which previously inspired the string section on the OK Computer track "Climbing Up the Walls". [81] However, the author Peter Carney wrote: "It is true that guitarist Jonny Greenwood writes many atonal fragments after Penderecki's style, but structurally, 'How to Disappear Completely' mixes atonal exceptional fragments into tonal architecture." [80] Carney explained that Greenwood derived the style from the jazz of Charles Mingus more than Penderecki. [82]
The lyrics address themes of escape, social alienation, the search for peace, emotional turmoil, and dissociation, which is sometimes used as a way to deal with stress or trauma. [70] John Hugar of Uproxx wrote that the song is "about being so miserable you just want to escape into the void, into the nothingness, having never been part of this universe to begin with." [83] The lyrics are poetic and referential, with no literal interpretations, as in the lines: "Strobe lights and blown speakers / Fireworks and hurricanes / I'm not here / This isn't happening". [84] James Oldham of NME wrote that the chorus, "I'm not here / This isn't happening", reflects Yorke's mental state of what he and the rest of the band experienced from their tour for OK Computer. [85]
"How to Disappear Completely" was released as the fourth track on Kid A, [69] released on 27 September 2000. [65] The music press predicted that the song would be released as a single due to its potential to be a hit, [86] but Radiohead eventually did not release singles from the album. [87] [88] However, "How to Disappear Completely" was released in 2000 as a CD promotional single in Poland on Parlophone and in Belgium on EMI Belgium. [89] [90] In the US, it was released as a double A-side promotional single with "Idioteque" on Capitol Records. [91]
Along with "Idioteque", "How to Disappear Completely" was included on the compilation album 2001: A Sound Odyssey, released in the US in 2000 on Capitol. [92] The song was included on the special edition of the greatest hits album Radiohead: The Best Of (2008) and the Kid A Mnesia reissue. [93] [94] An audio live version, recorded on 15 November 2000 for broadcast on BBC Radio 1's Evening Session, [95] was included on the Kid A "Special Collectors Edition" reissue in 2009. [96] A 2001 live performance was also included on the 2009 DVD-disc of "Special Collectors Edition"; [96] this televised performance was filmed on 28 April 2001 in Paris, France, for broadcast on the French TV channel Canal+. [97]
"How to Disappear Completely" was featured in an episode of the American TV series Roswell (1999–2002). [98] The music supervisor, Alexandra Patsavas, recalled:
Jason Katims and Ron Moore were keen to get the track for an episode, but Radiohead for television—even great television—seemed so out of reach. It's hard to remember now, but the climate for licensing was different in 2000, and bands were much less apt to say yes. But we tried. I remember sending the scene to Capitol Records and waiting and waiting and following up endlessly. I'll never forget getting the call in my tiny office on Sunset and Cahuenga [Boulevards] overlooking an especially unseemly Jack-in-the-Box parking lot: They had approved. [99]
"How to Disappear Completely" was featured in the American film Life as a House (2001). [100] In 2004, the Argentine writer, Mariana Enríquez, published her Spanish-language novel, Cómo desaparecer completamente, which was named after the song. [101] Along with other several Radiohead songs, "How to Disappear Completely" was featured in The Island President , a 2011 documentary about then-President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed. [102]
In a 2000 article published prior to the release of Kid A, Melody Maker 's Andre Paine described "How to Disappear Completely" as "several minutes of music that sounds like the Smiths produced by DJ Shadow". [103] Reviewing Kid A in 2000, NME's Keith Cameron wrote that the song sees Radiohead's "return to the big ballad template, as massed strings swoon and Yorke's voice soars transcendentally for the first time". [104] The Rolling Stone critic David Fricke wrote that the song "moves like an ice floe: cold-blue folk rock with just a faint hint of heartbeat." [105] Brent DiCrescenzo of Pitchfork stated that the song "boil[ed] down [OK Computer tracks] 'Let Down' and 'Karma Police' to their spectral essence", claiming it "comes closest to bridging Yorke's lyrical sentiment to the instrumental effect. [...] The strings melt and weep as the album shifts into its underwater mode." [62]
Billboard called "How to Disappear Completely" "haunting", noting that "vocalist Thom Yorke is as tortured as ever, proclaiming 'I'm not here/This isn't happening' [...] as if he'd already vanished long ago." [106] Cam Lindsay of Exclaim! described the song as "a moody acoustic number" and "the most radio compatible track" on Kid A, comparing it to the OK Computer track "Exit Music (For a Film)". [107] Simon Reynolds of Uncut described the song as a "missing link" between Scott Walker's orchestral music and the "swoonily amorphous" ballads on My Bloody Valentine's album Isn't Anything (1988). [108] He also likened it to a Walker ballad composed by Krzysztof Penderecki, in an article for another magazine, The Wire . [109] Tom Coombe of The Morning Call likened the song's "haunting and calming" sound to the sound of the ocean. [110] The author Greg Kot wrote that the song sounds like a "lost soundtrack" to Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo . [111] The author Steven Hyden wrote that the song could have been on OK Computer if Walker had produced it. [78] He also compared the acoustic guitar, which "slowly builds to an operatic emotional climax", to previous Radiohead songs such as "Fake Plastic Trees" and "Exit Music (For a Film)". [112]
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: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. They comprise Thom Yorke ; brothers Jonny Greenwood and Colin Greenwood (bass); Ed O'Brien ; and Philip Selway. They have worked with the producer Nigel Godrich and the cover artist Stanley Donwood since 1994. Radiohead's experimental approach is credited with advancing the sound of alternative rock.
Kid A is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 2 October 2000 by Parlophone. It was recorded with their producer, Nigel Godrich, in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. Departing from their earlier sound, Radiohead incorporated influences from electronic music, krautrock, jazz and 20th-century classical music, with a wider range of instruments and effects. The singer, Thom Yorke, wrote impersonal and abstract lyrics, cutting up phrases and assembling them at random.
Amnesiac is the fifth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 30 May 2001 by EMI. It was recorded with the producer Nigel Godrich in the same sessions as Radiohead's previous album Kid A (2000). Radiohead split the work in two as they felt it was too dense for a double album. As with Kid A, Amnesiac incorporates influences from electronic music, 20th-century classical music, jazz and krautrock. The final track, "Life in a Glasshouse", is a collaboration with the jazz trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton and his band.
The Bends is the second studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 13 March 1995 by Parlophone. It was produced by John Leckie, with extra production by Radiohead, Nigel Godrich and Jim Warren. The Bends combines guitar songs and ballads, with more restrained arrangements and cryptic lyrics than Radiohead's debut album, Pablo Honey (1993).
Hail to the Thief is the sixth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was released on 9 June 2003 through Parlophone internationally and a day later through Capitol Records in the United States. It was the last album released under Radiohead's record contract with EMI, the parent company of Parlophone and Capitol.
Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood is an English musician. He is the lead guitarist and keyboardist of the rock band Radiohead, and has composed numerous film scores. He has been named one of the greatest guitarists by numerous publications, including Rolling Stone.
Thomas Edward Yorke is an English musician who is the main vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Radiohead. He plays guitar, bass, keyboards and other instruments, and is noted for his falsetto. Rolling Stone described Yorke as one of the greatest and most influential singers of his generation.
"Paranoid Android" is a song by English alternative rock band Radiohead, released as the lead single from their third studio album, OK Computer (1997), on 26 May 1997. The lyrics were written by singer Thom Yorke following an unpleasant experience in a Los Angeles bar. The song is over six minutes long and contains four sections. The name is taken from Marvin the Paranoid Android from the science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Nigel Timothy Godrich is an English record producer, recording engineer and musician. He has worked with acts including Radiohead, Travis, Beck, Air, Paul McCartney, U2, R.E.M., Pavement, Roger Waters, Arcade Fire, and Idles.
Dan Rickwood, known professionally as Stanley Donwood, is an English artist and writer. Since 1994, he has created all the artwork for the rock band Radiohead with their singer, Thom Yorke, plus Yorke's other projects, including Atoms for Peace and the Smile. In 2002, the pair won a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package for the album 2001 Radiohead Amnesiac. Donwood also creates artwork for Glastonbury Festival, and has published books of short stories and a memoir.
"Idioteque" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on their fourth album, Kid A (2000). Radiohead developed it while experimenting with modular synthesisers. It contains samples of two 1970s computer music compositions.
"The National Anthem" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on their fourth album, Kid A (2000). The song is set to a repeating bassline, and features horns playing free jazz, influenced by the jazz musician Charles Mingus.
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"Optimistic" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead from their fourth studio album, Kid A (2000). It was produced by Radiohead with their producer, Nigel Godrich, and was released as a promotional single in the US and Europe, receiving radio play.
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Kid A Mnesia is a reissue compiling the albums Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001) by the English rock band Radiohead. It also includes a bonus disc, Kid Amnesiae, comprising previously unreleased material. It was released on 5 November 2021 on XL Recordings.
"If You Say the Word" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 7 September 2021 as the first single from the compilation Kid A Mnesia. It was recorded during the joint sessions for Radiohead's albums Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001), but remained unreleased until 2021.
Kid A Mnesia Exhibition is a 2021 exploration game published by Epic Games for macOS, Windows and PlayStation 5. It serves as a digital exhibition of music and artwork created for the Radiohead albums Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001). It was developed by Namethemachine, Arbitrarily Good Productions and Epic Games in collaboration with the Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, Radiohead's producer Nigel Godrich and the Radiohead cover artist Stanley Donwood.