No Surprises
"No Surprises" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released as the fourth and final single from their third studio album, OK Computer (1997), in 1998. It was also released as a mini-album in Japan, titled No Surprises / Running from Demons.
"No Surprises"
- "Palo Alto"
- "How I Made My Millions"
1998
July 1996
Canned Applause, Didcot, Oxfordshire, England
3:49
Radiohead
- Nigel Godrich
- Radiohead
The singer Thom Yorke wrote the song while on tour with R.E.M. in 1995. It features glockenspiel and a "childlike" sound inspired by the 1966 Beach Boys album Pet Sounds. The song reached number four on the UK Singles Chart. In 2011, NME named "No Surprises" the 107th-best track of the previous 15 years.
The music video, directed by Grant Gee, features Yorke wearing a helmet as it fills with water. Gee was inspired by the 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey, underwater escape acts and the television series UFO. He fixated on the lyric "a job that slowly kills you", and conceived a real-time video that would convey the feeling of "murderous seconds".
Recording[edit]
Thom Yorke wrote "No Surprises" while Radiohead were touring with R.E.M. in 1995. Yorke presented the song to both bands in a dressing room in Oslo on August 3, 1995 as a sketch called "No Surprises Please".[1] Later, the lyrics were rewritten and a glockenspiel melody was added. In the early stages, the lyrics were different from the final result. The title character originally referred to a girl who doesn't "take off her dress when she bleeds in the bathtub", which journalist Tim Footman felt echoed the recurring blood/menstruation motifs of American lo-fi author Bill Callahan under the stage name Smog.[1]
It was the first song recorded in the sessions for OK Computer. Yorke said the "childlike guitar sound set the mood for the whole album" and that the band was aiming for a mood similar to the 1966 Beach Boys album Pet Sounds.[2] He also said Radiohead wanted to recreate the atmosphere of a song by Marvin Gaye or the Louis Armstrong song "What a Wonderful World".[3] "No Surprises" is in the key of F major.[4]
The version on the album is the first take recorded; the band recorded many further versions, but felt they could not improve on the first.[5] Hoping to achieve a slower tempo than could be played well on their instruments, the producer, Nigel Godrich, had the band record the song at a faster tempo, then slowed the playback for Yorke to overdub his vocals onto, creating an "ethereal" effect.[6]
The bassist, Colin Greenwood, said that "No Surprises" was Radiohead's "'stadium-friendly'" song. He said the concept was to frighten OK Computer listeners with "Climbing Up the Walls", then comfort them "with a pop song with a chorus that sounds like a lullaby".[3] Yorke told Q: "If you play it right, it is fucking dark. But it's like acting. It's on the edge of totally hamming it up but you're not. It's just the words are so dark. When we play it, we have to play it so slow. It only sounds good if it's really fragile."[7]
Lyrics[edit]
According to Yorke's definition, the lyrical hero is trying his best to keep everything as it was, but his attempts are unsuccessful. Yorke described the lyrics as a "mutilated nursery rhyme" rooted in his own "morbid obsession with where plastic bottles and boxes go... All this rubbish - the wreckage of our lives - is buried somewhere. It doesn’t rot, it just remains in the ground <…> this is what I do with many things - I hide them out of sight”.[8]
The gloomy mood of the original version deepened as the group worked on it; emotional claustrophobia and relationship dissatisfaction grew into extreme despair. In the final album version of the composition, the gentle melody contrasts with the harsh lyrics.[9]
Critics found in the text of “No Surprises” a reflection of the theme of suicide and dissatisfaction with modern social and political orders.[1] Some lines contain images of life in the countryside or residential suburbs. It has been suggested that Radiohead's composition does not deal with the topic of suicide - taking one's own life - but with its imitation, existence as a half-measure. The editors of Fact magazine identified several meanings for the text: “a cautionary tale about the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning” or “a metaphor about suicide and leaving a godforsaken planet”.[10] Such topics have led to speculation that Thom Yorke himself suffers from depression. Yorke rejected these hints many times, admitting that he was "moody, thin-skinned, pessimistic and prone to worry"[1]
Release[edit]
"No Surprises" was released as the fourth single from OK Computer in 1998 and reached number four on the UK Singles Chart.[11] In the United States, it was serviced to modern rock radio on 27 April 1998.[12] In 2008, it was included in Radiohead: The Best Of.[13] An early version with different lyrics was included in the 2017 OK Computer reissue OKNOTOK 1997 2017.[14] In October 2011, NME named "No Surprises" the 107th-best track of the previous 15 years.[15]
Radiohead
Additional Personnel