Pyramid Song

Following the tour for Radiohead's third album, OK Computer (1997), songwriter Thom Yorke bought a piano and wrote "Pyramid Song" and "Everything In Its Right Place" in the same week.[2] For "Everything In Its Right Place", he programmed his playing into a synthesiser, but found that "Pyramid Song" sounded better untreated.[2] He said of the composition: "The chords I'm playing involve lots of black notes. You think you're being really clever playing them but they're really simple."[2] According to journalist Alex Ross, Yorke's piano chords are "laced with suspended tones" and "hang mysteriously in the air, somewhere between serenity and sadness".[3]

Yorke said the song came from being "totally obsessed" with the song "Freedom" by jazz musician Charles Mingus, first released on the album The Complete Town Hall Concert. One version of "Pyramid Song" included similar handclaps, but, according to Yorke, "our claps sounded really naff, so I quickly erased them".[2] The lyrics were inspired by an exhibition of ancient Egyptian underworld art Yorke attended while Radiohead were recording in Copenhagen,[4] and ideas of cyclical time found in Buddhism and discussed by Stephen Hawking.[4]

The string section, arranged by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, was performed by the Orchestra of St John's in Dorchester Abbey, a 12th-century church about five miles from Radiohead's studio in Oxfordshire.[5] Greenwood instructed the players to swing in the style of jazz musicians.[6]

Drummer Philip Selway said the song "ran counter to what had come before in Radiohead in lots of ways ... The constituent parts are all quite simple, but I think the way that they then blend gives real depth to the song."[7] In a 2001 Rolling Stone interview, guitarist Ed O'Brien said he felt "Pyramid Song" was Radiohead's best work.[5]

"Pyramid Song" is an art rock song,[8] with elements of jazz, classical and krautrock.[9]

"Pyramid Song" was Radiohead's first single in four years, after none were released from their previous studio album Kid A (2000).[10][5] It peaked at number five on the UK Singles Chart,[11] and NME named it their "single of the week".[12] Outside the UK, it reached number one in Portugal,[13] number two in Canada,[14] number three in Norway,[15] number six in Finland[16] and Italy,[17] and number 10 in Ireland.[18] The song also charted well in Australia,[19] France,[20] and the Netherlands.[21] On the Eurochart Hot 100, "Pyramid Song" debuted and peaked at number 13.[22]

Guardian critic Alexis Petridis described "Pyramid Song" as "a beautiful, intricately wrought mesh of complex time signatures, keening vocals, elegiac strings and subtly disturbing audio effects".[23] Rolling Stone placed it at number 94 on their list of the "100 Best Songs of the Decade", writing that it "might be [Yorke's] most blissful recorded moment".[24] In October 2011, NME placed the song at number 131 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years", calling it a "ghostly hymn of stunning beauty".[25] Pitchfork named it the 59th best track of the 2000s, describing it as "an absolutely singular track in a catalog with no shortage of standouts".[26] In 2020, the Guardian named it the 4th best Radiohead song, writing: "Lyrics alluding to Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, piano seemingly exhumed from ancient civilisation and a newly spiritual Yorke, swimming with 'black-eyed angels' and a shoal of exes towards some nebulous afterlife. Torture for some; otherwise, cult-making."[27]

Adapted from the Amnesiac liner notes.[28]

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics