My Iron Lung, Radiohead

I'll be honest in saying that My Iron Lung has never come close to being my favourite Radiohead song, and probably not even one of my favourites from The Bends, but it just made a lot of sense to me today. It starts off slowly, almost dreamlike, as it develops into a song as rocky and angsty as Radiohead get. To me it's kind of a precursor to OK Computer as they're dealing primarily with the anxieties of the 90s, as well as the tiredness of their own career - being constantly made to perform Creep (oh how times have changed...) It could be about relationships and how they are kept alive when they may as well die (We're too young to sleep/Too cynical to speak), a commentary on society (We scratch our eternal itch/A twentieth century bitch), or, most likely, about everything I've mentioned and more. Their talent is to make their own concerns fit in with the concerns of wider society, as well as something really personal to many people.

The progression of the song really matches the lyrics perfectly. Yorke starts to simply contemplate all these things in his (and our) lives, as a guitar slowly creeps in. Then the more he thinks about it the more disgusted he becomes, which shows both in his voice and by the introduction of Selway's drums. By the end of the song the band break down, creating some really catchy rock in the process. I can't express how perfectly I feel Radiohead work as a band so that their arrangements match the lyrical content so harmoniously.

It speaks volumes for the band that something so well arranged, so subtly complex wouldn't rank too high on a fan's list of their songs. Though I suppose that's what happens when you keep putting out records with so many brilliant songs that work as a whole so brilliantly. Thus it's in songs like My Iron Lung, which so often go unrecognised, that you can observe just how talented Radiohead are.