Thom Yorke can say what he wants about the meaning of the title and the lyrics of Radiohead's new album Hail to the Thief. For me and for the wide public this will always be a political album criticising the fraudulent practices of the current president of the US and the people behind him. And that is all that counts. Maybe Yorke did not intend it as a protest album. In that case it is his unconsciousness speaking. Which actually would make the political statement even stronger. In any case the lyrics are ambiguous enough to provide clues for this interpretation.

The title of the first song for me symbolizes the new world disorder. The end of rationality and logic, the beginning of despotism and chaos. Whoosh is only in power as two times two votes have been counted as five. The maths has been twisted. The new calculus of power: the powerful decide the rules of arithmetics. Concerning the official reason for the Iraq war, the so-called WMD, the equation was equivalent. It read 0+0=1. Dumbsfeld said so.

Musically 2+2=5 is the most dynamic song on the album. Things pick up slowly. We can hear a low-key succession of notes of an acoustic guitar. Yorke sings in a normal tempo, volume and non-falsetto voice:

A melancholic guitar theme appears. The "vibrato" guitar play builds up the tension. Yorke sings:

Up till the peak when Yorke starts shouting and the song explodes into an up-tempo hard-rock number. The guitars are loud and fast now, the real drums kick in with all their ferocity. Lyrics:

After that middle part there is another change of level. The guitars jangle (think Unrest) for a short while before they change again and start sounding like a very fast car trying to brake. Yorke repeats the album title line which when written out always makes me think of the German Heil Hitler. One has to admit though that Hitler got elected by the people and not by the judges:

and all of a sudden the car comes to a stop and everything is over. As if it had only been a bad trip. Let's hope that this be the truth concerning current American politics as well.

An amazing opener going straight into the centre of things. Yorke et al. do not beat about the bush, they hit us right into the head. The listener has no time to reflect about this track, it passes by with an enormous speed and leaves only distant memories.

Thread on this song at I Love Music.

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