Radiohead is no stranger to anxiety. A tense tone—like a taut cord reverberating—runs through the high-energy opener “Burn the Witch,” from their latest record, A Moon Shaped Pool. Thom Yorke’s delicate wail floats over the brazen guitar and strings as the tempo speeds up and the anxiety mounts. His allusions to the Salem witch trials remind listeners that Radiohead has commented obliquely on world events before. It is anybody’s guess exactly which recent events they were thinking of, as, unfortunately, there are so many troubling ones to choose from.
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