"Everything in Its Right Place" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on their fourth album, Kid A (2000). It features synthesiser, manipulated vocals, and lyrics inspired by the stress singer Thom Yorke experienced while promoting Radiohead's album OK Computer (1997).
Yorke wrote "Everything in Its Right Place" on piano. Radiohead worked on it in a conventional band arrangement before transferring it to synthesiser, and described it as a breakthrough in the album recording. Though it alienated some listeners expecting more of Radiohead's earlier rock music, "Everything in Its Right Place" was named one of the best songs of the decade by several publications.
Following the success of Radiohead's 1997 album OK Computer, the songwriter Thom Yorke had a mental breakdown.[2] He suffered from writer's block and became disillusioned with rock music.[3] Instead, he listened almost exclusively to the electronic music of Warp artists such as Aphex Twin and Autechre, saying: "It was refreshing because the music was all structures and had no human voices in it. But I felt just as emotional about it as I'd ever felt about guitar music."[2]
Yorke bought a house in Cornwall and spent his time walking the cliffs and drawing, restricting his musical activity to playing his new grand piano.[4] "Everything in Its Right Place" was the first song he wrote,[4] followed by "Pyramid Song".[5] Yorke described himself as a "shit piano player", and took inspiration from a quote by Tom Waits saying that ignorance of instruments gives him inspiration. Yorke said: "That's one of the reasons I wanted to get into computers and synths, because I didn't understand how the fuck they worked. I had no idea what ADSR meant."[6] He would "endlessly" play the riff for "Everything in its Right Place", attempting to "meditate out of" his depression.[7]
Yorke denied that the lyrics were "gibberish", and said they expressed the depression he experienced on the OK Computer tour. He cited a performance at the NEC Arena in Birmingham, England, in 1997: "I came off at the end of that show sat in the dressing room and couldn't speak ... People were saying, 'You all right?' I knew people were speaking to me. But I couldn't hear them ... I'd just so had enough. And I was bored with saying I'd had enough."[8] The line "Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon" references the sour-faced expression Yorke said he wore "for three years".[8] Yorke said the line was "pretty silly ... But I thought it was funny when I sang it. When I listened to it afterwards, it meant something else.”[9]
According to the Radiohead bassist, Colin Greenwood, Radiohead's producer Nigel Godrich was initially unimpressed by "Everything in its Right Place".[10] Radiohead worked on the song in a conventional band arrangement in Copenhagen and Paris, but without results.[11] One night, while they were working in Gloucestershire,[11] Yorke and Godrich transferred the song from piano to a Prophet-5 synthesiser.[12][10] Yorke hesitated to use the line "Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon", but recorded it at Godrich's encouragement.[13] Godrich processed his vocals in Pro Tools using a scrubbing tool.[10] For live performances, Radiohead recreated the vocal effect by manipulating Yorke's vocals with Kaoss Pads.[14]
The lead guitarist, Jonny Greenwood, said the song was a turning point in the making of Kid A: "We knew it had to be the first song, and everything just followed after it."[10] He said it was the first time Radiohead had been happy to leave a song "sparse", instead of "layering on top of what's a very good song or a very good sound, and hiding it, camouflaging it in case it's not good enough".[10] The guitarist Ed O'Brien and the drummer, Philip Selway, said the track forced them to accept that not every song needed every band member to play on it. O'Brien recalled: "It forced the issue, immediately! And to be genuinely sort of delighted that you'd been working for six months on this record and something great has come out of it, and you haven't contributed to it, is a really liberating feeling."[11]
Composition
"Everything in its Right Place" is an electronic song featuring synthesiser and digitally manipulated vocals. ABC.net described it as "dissonant" and "ominous".[15] According to NME, it features "Warp-style electronica, minimalism and all manner of glitchy creepiness", with a "weirdly hymnal dreamscape of ambient keys".[16] O'Brien observed that it lacked the crescendos typical of Radiohead's previous songs.[11]
The minimalist composer Steve Reich, who reinterpreted "Everything in Its Right Place" for his 2014 album Radio Rewrite noted the song's unusual harmonic movement, observing that "it was originally in F minor, and it never comes down to the one chord, the F minor chord is never stated. So there's never a tonic, there's never a cadence in the normal sense." He also noted that the word "everything" follows the dominant and tonic: "The tonic and the dominant are the end of every Beethoven symphony, the end of everything in classical music ... I'm sure Thom did it intuitively, I'm sure he wasn't thinking about it ... but it's perfect, it is everything."[17]
Reception
"Everything in Its Right Place" alienated critics who had hoped for more of the rock music of Radiohead's previous albums. The NME described it as "the moment where Radiohead finally left behind the limitations of being an alt rock band and embraced a whole wide world of weirdness".[16] In 2009, Pitchfork described the shock some fans experienced hearing it for the first time:[18]
What was this shit? If everything was really in its right place, where were the fucking guitars ... And whose crackling old keyboards were those? And why did rock's razor-sharp voice suddenly sound as if it'd been broken into bits by a centrifuge? ... "Everything in Its Right Place" – a sharp-tongued kiss-off that stood on the shoulders of different giants, like krautrock, Stockhausen, and Squarepusher – poured new possibilities into several previously hermetic circles. And it was too hypnotic to dare apologise.
Reviewing Kid A, the Guardian critic Alexis Petridis called "Everything in Its Right Place" a "messy and inconsequential doodle",[19] and the Melody Maker critic Mark Beaumont dismissed it as a "haphazard and pointless synth'n'laptop experiment".[20] Reviewing Kid A for the New Yorker, Nick Hornby described his disappointment in the song: "'Hey! I can handle experimentalism!' you think, but your confidence is immediately knocked flat by the lyrics."[21]NME described it as a "beautiful triumph of understatement" and a "pointed" opener.[22]
"Everything In Its Right Place" was named one of the best tracks of the decade by Rolling Stone,[23]NME[16] and Pitchfork.[18] In a 2020 piece for the Guardian, the journalist Jazz Monroe named it the 25th-best Radiohead track, writing: "Like David Byrne before him, Yorke had renounced his authorship to flirt with self-erasure, yielding to gorgeously sunlit synths."[24]
^ abZoric, Lauren (22 September 2000). "I think I'm meant to be dead ..." The Guardian. Retrieved 18 May 2007.
^Smith, Andrew (1 October 2000). "Sound and fury". The Observer. Retrieved 19 May 2007.
^ abNaokes, Tim (12 February 2012). "Splitting atoms with Thom Yorke". Dazed. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
^Kent, Nick (June 2001). . Mojo. Archived from the original on 6 February 2012.
^Fricke, David (14 December 2000). "People of the Year: Thom Yorke of Radiohead". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
^"Radiohead's Thom Yorke recalls writer's block while working on Kid A". NME. 16 October 2021. Retrieved 16 October 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
^ abFricke, David (2 August 2001). "Radiohead: making music that matters". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
^Yamasaki, Yoichiro; Yamashita, Erica (December 2000). "I Don't Want To Be In A Rock Band Any More". Select. EMAP.
^Beaumont, Mark (11 October 2010). "Radiohead's Kid A: still not much cop". The Guardian. from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
^Hornby, Nick (30 October 2000). "Beyond the Pale". The New Yorker. from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
^"Radiohead: Kid A". NME. 23 December 2000. from the original on 4 March 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
^"100 Best Songs of the 2000s". Rolling Stone. 17 June 2011. Retrieved 16 June 2018.
^Monroe, Jazz (23 January 2020). "Radiohead's 40 greatest songs – ranked!". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
^"Canadian single certifications – Radiohead – Everything in Its Right Place". Music Canada. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
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May 05, 2023
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This article is about the song by Radiohead For other uses see Everything in Its Right Place disambiguation Everything in Its Right Place is a song by the English rock band Radiohead released on their fourth album Kid A 2000 It features synthesiser manipulated vocals and lyrics inspired by the stress singer Thom Yorke experienced while promoting Radiohead s album OK Computer 1997 Everything in Its Right Place Song by Radioheadfrom the album Kid AReleased2000 2000 RecordedJanuary 1999 April 2000GenreElectronica post rock 1 Length4 11LabelParlophone Capitol XLSongwriter s RadioheadProducer s Nigel Godrich RadioheadAudio sample source source filehelpYorke wrote Everything in Its Right Place on piano Radiohead worked on it in a conventional band arrangement before transferring it to synthesiser and described it as a breakthrough in the album recording Though it alienated some listeners expecting more of Radiohead s earlier rock music Everything in Its Right Place was named one of the best songs of the decade by several publications Contents 1 Writing 2 Recording 3 Composition 4 Reception 5 Personnel 5 1 Radiohead 5 2 Additional personnel 6 Certifications 7 ReferencesWriting EditFollowing the success of Radiohead s 1997 album OK Computer the songwriter Thom Yorke had a mental breakdown 2 He suffered from writer s block and became disillusioned with rock music 3 Instead he listened almost exclusively to the electronic music of Warp artists such as Aphex Twin and Autechre saying It was refreshing because the music was all structures and had no human voices in it But I felt just as emotional about it as I d ever felt about guitar music 2 Yorke bought a house in Cornwall and spent his time walking the cliffs and drawing restricting his musical activity to playing his new grand piano 4 Everything in Its Right Place was the first song he wrote 4 followed by Pyramid Song 5 Yorke described himself as a shit piano player and took inspiration from a quote by Tom Waits saying that ignorance of instruments gives him inspiration Yorke said That s one of the reasons I wanted to get into computers and synths because I didn t understand how the fuck they worked I had no idea what ADSR meant 6 He would endlessly play the riff for Everything in its Right Place attempting to meditate out of his depression 7 Yorke denied that the lyrics were gibberish and said they expressed the depression he experienced on the OK Computer tour He cited a performance at the NEC Arena in Birmingham England in 1997 I came off at the end of that show sat in the dressing room and couldn t speak People were saying You all right I knew people were speaking to me But I couldn t hear them I d just so had enough And I was bored with saying I d had enough 8 The line Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon references the sour faced expression Yorke said he wore for three years 8 Yorke said the line was pretty silly But I thought it was funny when I sang it When I listened to it afterwards it meant something else 9 Recording Edit A Prophet 5 synthesiser According to the Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood Radiohead s producer Nigel Godrich was initially unimpressed by Everything in its Right Place 10 Radiohead worked on the song in a conventional band arrangement in Copenhagen and Paris but without results 11 One night while they were working in Gloucestershire 11 Yorke and Godrich transferred the song from piano to a Prophet 5 synthesiser 12 10 Yorke hesitated to use the line Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon but recorded it at Godrich s encouragement 13 Godrich processed his vocals in Pro Tools using a scrubbing tool 10 For live performances Radiohead recreated the vocal effect by manipulating Yorke s vocals with Kaoss Pads 14 The lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood said the song was a turning point in the making of Kid A We knew it had to be the first song and everything just followed after it 10 He said it was the first time Radiohead had been happy to leave a song sparse instead of layering on top of what s a very good song or a very good sound and hiding it camouflaging it in case it s not good enough 10 The guitarist Ed O Brien and the drummer Philip Selway said the track forced them to accept that not every song needed every band member to play on it O Brien recalled It forced the issue immediately And to be genuinely sort of delighted that you d been working for six months on this record and something great has come out of it and you haven t contributed to it is a really liberating feeling 11 Composition Edit Everything in its Right Place is an electronic song featuring synthesiser and digitally manipulated vocals ABC net described it as dissonant and ominous 15 According to NME it features Warp style electronica minimalism and all manner of glitchy creepiness with a weirdly hymnal dreamscape of ambient keys 16 O Brien observed that it lacked the crescendos typical of Radiohead s previous songs 11 The minimalist composer Steve Reich who reinterpreted Everything in Its Right Place for his 2014 album Radio Rewrite noted the song s unusual harmonic movement observing that it was originally in F minor and it never comes down to the one chord the F minor chord is never stated So there s never a tonic there s never a cadence in the normal sense He also noted that the word everything follows the dominant and tonic The tonic and the dominant are the end of every Beethoven symphony the end of everything in classical music I m sure Thom did it intuitively I m sure he wasn t thinking about it but it s perfect it is everything 17 Reception Edit Everything in Its Right Place alienated critics who had hoped for more of the rock music of Radiohead s previous albums The NME described it as the moment where Radiohead finally left behind the limitations of being an alt rock band and embraced a whole wide world of weirdness 16 In 2009 Pitchfork described the shock some fans experienced hearing it for the first time 18 What was this shit If everything was really in its right place where were the fucking guitars And whose crackling old keyboards were those And why did rock s razor sharp voice suddenly sound as if it d been broken into bits by a centrifuge Everything in Its Right Place a sharp tongued kiss off that stood on the shoulders of different giants like krautrock Stockhausen and Squarepusher poured new possibilities into several previously hermetic circles And it was too hypnotic to dare apologise Reviewing Kid A the Guardian critic Alexis Petridis called Everything in Its Right Place a messy and inconsequential doodle 19 and the Melody Maker critic Mark Beaumont dismissed it as a haphazard and pointless synth n laptop experiment 20 Reviewing Kid A for the New Yorker Nick Hornby described his disappointment in the song Hey I can handle experimentalism you think but your confidence is immediately knocked flat by the lyrics 21 NME described it as a beautiful triumph of understatement and a pointed opener 22 Everything In Its Right Place was named one of the best tracks of the decade by Rolling Stone 23 NME 16 and Pitchfork 18 In a 2020 piece for the Guardian the journalist Jazz Monroe named it the 25th best Radiohead track writing Like David Byrne before him Yorke had renounced his authorship to flirt with self erasure yielding to gorgeously sunlit synths 24 Personnel EditRadiohead Edit Colin Greenwood Jonny Greenwood Ed O Brien Philip Selway Thom YorkeAdditional personnel Edit Nigel Godrich production engineering mixing Gerard Navarro production assistance additional engineering Graeme Stewart additional engineeringCertifications EditRegion Certification Certified units salesCanada Music Canada 25 Gold 40 000 Sales streaming figures based on certification alone References Edit Inductee Insights Radiohead Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 16 December 2019 Retrieved 14 October 2022 a b Zoric Lauren 22 September 2000 I think I m meant to be dead The Guardian Retrieved 18 May 2007 Smith Andrew 1 October 2000 Sound and fury The Observer Retrieved 19 May 2007 a b Naokes Tim 12 February 2012 Splitting atoms with Thom Yorke Dazed Retrieved 4 January 2019 Kent Nick June 2001 Happy now Mojo Archived from the original on 6 February 2012 Fricke David 14 December 2000 People of the Year Thom Yorke of Radiohead Rolling Stone Retrieved 5 January 2019 Radiohead s Thom Yorke recalls writer s block while working on Kid A NME 16 October 2021 Retrieved 16 October 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link a b Fricke David 2 August 2001 Radiohead making music that matters Rolling Stone Retrieved 6 January 2019 Yamasaki Yoichiro Yamashita Erica December 2000 I Don t Want To Be In A Rock Band Any More Select EMAP a b c d e Greenwood Jonny Greenwood Colin 20 October 2000 An interview with Jonny and Colin Greenwood Morning Becomes Eclectic Interview Interviewed by Nic Harcourt Los Angeles KCRW a b c d O Brien Ed Selway Philip 25 September 2000 Interview with Ed O Brien and Philip Selway Interview Interviewed by Paul Anderson XFM The 14 synthesizers that shaped modern music The Vinyl Factory 4 March 2014 Retrieved 5 March 2018 Doherty Niall 27 July 2022 Lost in music Nigel Godrich The New Cue Retrieved 27 July 2022 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link McNamee David 9 March 2011 Hey what s that sound Kaoss Pad The Guardian Retrieved 22 August 2018 Zwi Adam 13 October 2014 Steve Reich meets Radiohead with Radio Rewrite Radio National Australian Broadcasting Corporation Retrieved 5 December 2015 a b c 100 Best Songs Of The 00s NME 29 May 2012 Retrieved 6 January 2019 Petridis Alexis 1 March 2013 Steve Reich on Schoenberg Coltrane and Radiohead The Guardian ISSN 0261 3077 Retrieved 29 August 2016 a b The 200 Best Songs of the 2000s Pitchfork 21 August 2009 Retrieved 6 January 2019 Petridis Alexis 1 July 2001 CD of the week Radiohead Amnesiac The Guardian Retrieved 11 November 2018 Beaumont Mark 11 October 2010 Radiohead s Kid A still not much cop The Guardian Archived from the original on 2 April 2015 Retrieved 15 March 2015 Hornby Nick 30 October 2000 Beyond the Pale The New Yorker Archived from the original on 2 April 2015 Retrieved 14 March 2015 Radiohead Kid A NME 23 December 2000 Archived from the original on 4 March 2020 Retrieved 4 May 2020 100 Best Songs of the 2000s Rolling Stone 17 June 2011 Retrieved 16 June 2018 Monroe Jazz 23 January 2020 Radiohead s 40 greatest songs ranked The Guardian ISSN 0261 3077 Retrieved 24 January 2020 Canadian single certifications Radiohead Everything in Its Right Place Music Canada Retrieved 16 December 2022 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Everything in Its Right Place amp oldid 1143939799, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
