What an inspired choice it was to bring in Humphrey Lyttleton and his jazz band to take this song to another level. Radiohead knows how to wrap an album up, don’t they? They must have sensed they didn’t have the right candidate laying around to send off Amnesiac, which is why they went in and cut this monumental track in the period before the album’s release (whereas the rest of the album was recorded during the sessions which also yielded Kid A.) Good choice on the band’s part. “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” is some of the sexiest music the band has ever laid down, even as the song itself clinically deglamorizes the act of hooking up. He finally takes off in the chorus, warning his protagonists that, while they seek such fleeting physical pleasures to feel more alive, they’ll end up having no more choice as to how things turn out than inanimate puzzle pieces forever fated to end locked in the same position. He nails the impossibility of true connection between these two damaged souls, impassively rifling off his observations as if he were reading them from notes he had taken. Yorke’s lyrics get short shrift sometimes, but they shouldn’t be ignored here. The vibe of the song is reminiscent of “Hazy Shade Of Winter” by Simon & Garfunkel, which gives an indication of the level of songcraft on display. The band makes a typically atypical move here whereas the obvious choice might have been to go back to some of the artificial rhythms of Kid A or Amnesiac to portray the desired atmosphere, Radiohead goes with a whooshing acoustic groove that keeps right up with one of Yorke’s more wordier compositions. His descriptions, all flash cuts and quick shots, are practically cinematic. Who woulda thunk it? Yet here he is on this In Rainbows track, nailing the inner workings of a one-night-stand-to-be with lothario cool and anthropological attention to detail. O’Brien’s playing presses on through it all, unwavering, courageous even, beckoning us to do the same, steady as we go. In a way, they keep “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” from being too dark, melancholy as they may be. Through it all, those arpeggios persevere. Some light creeps in as Yorke sings “Immerse yourself in love” at song’s end, piercing through the Gregorian chant backing vocals, but it’s fleeting. From there the rest of the song can be built, and yet, at the end, it comes back to the arpeggios once again, not quite fading out so much as bidding us a melancholy farewell (and bidding a farewell to The Bends as well.) Thom Yorke has spoken about the dark alleyways that his lyrics traverse here, as they alternate between desperate hope and resigned despair, despair getting the better of it. On “Street Spirit,” O’Brien’s steadiness becomes brilliance right before our ears, playing arpeggios that tug at the heartstrings with every clarion note. And yet the steadiness of his playing is integral to the band’s success, because it allows Jonny to go off on his daredevil flights and sonic experiments knowing that the core of the song will remain strong. As the second guitarist in a band in which Jonny Greenwood usually plays lead guitar, it’s understandable how Ed O’Brien often falls off the radar in band discussions.
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