TV Obsessive
Radiohead, “If You Say the Word” Video
Caemeron: While the song was released a couple of weeks ago, this past week saw Radiohead also putting out a video for “If You Say the Word” that is quite striking. The song is from the sessions during which Kid A and Amnesiac were recorded. Previously unreleased, the track is seeing the light of day now in the run up to the anniversary edition of Kid A Mnesia, which will come out in November.
The video, however, is reminiscent of that for “Just,” further bolstering my sense of this track as kind of standing outside of time. We can fit it in the line of Radiohead’s progression but only retrospectively, potentially causing us to rethink the band’s development. Or not.
Some might find the video for “If You Say the Word” to be more straightforward than I do. It depends how much you read into the imagery of the various characters in suits, and what you think is going on with them at the end in particular. Do we imagine some coming cataclysm ever the frame cuts to black, or are we seeing some kind of integration into the financial industry and its values?
What’s on the paper the one fellow is reading?
To me, this is a bit like wondering about what was being whispered in “Just”—you can speculate if you like, but there is no answer. The work itself is ambiguous in a way that makes me hesitate to offer any definite interpretation, even if I have enjoyed doing that sort of thing elsewhere.
But to me, this is a recommendation. Here is a work of art, directed by Kasper Häggström, that more than anything plays in the space of ambiguity. To claim to resolve that ambiguity feels like it might risk violating the work. And this is what makes this video fit so well with Radiohead’s song. Because what is the word? And what will happen if you say it? Will it be something good?
Those are our recommendations this week! What are yours? Let us know in the comments!
