Burn the Witch (Radiohead song)
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"Burn the Witch" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, the
lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release s ...
from their ninth studio album, ''
A Moon Shaped Pool ''A Moon Shaped Pool'' is the ninth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was released digitally on 8 May 2016, and physically on 17 June 2016 through XL Recordings. It was produced by Radiohead's longtime producer Nigel Godrich. ...
'' (2016). It features a string section playing with guitar plectrums, producing a
percussive A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
sound. Radiohead first worked on the song during the sessions for their fourth album, ''
Kid A ''Kid A'' is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 2 October 2000 by Parlophone. It was recorded with their producer, Nigel Godrich, in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucestershire and their hometown of Oxford. After th ...
'' (2000), and developed it for over a decade. "Burn the Witch" was released as a
download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar system. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote ...
on 3 May 2016 on Radiohead's website, followed by
7-inch In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separat ...
single released exclusively in independent record stores. It was accompanied by a stop-motion animated music video that pays homage to the ''
Trumptonshire Trumptonshire is a fictional county created by Gordon Murray, in which the ''Trumptonshire Trilogy'' of ''Camberwick Green (1966), Trumpton'' (1967), and ''Chigley'' (1969) are located. Trumptonshire is populated by characters portrayed by 8-inch ...
'' series of 1960s British children's television programmes and the 1973 horror film ''
The Wicker Man ''The Wicker Man'' is a 1973 British folk horror film directed by Robin Hardy and starring Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt, and Christopher Lee. The screenplay by Anthony Shaffer, inspired by David Pinner's 1967 ...
''. Critics interpreted the lyrics and video as a warning against
groupthink Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Cohesiveness, or the desire for cohesiveness ...
and
authoritarianism Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic voti ...
. "Burn the Witch" was named one of the best songs of the year by ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
,'' '' Billboard'' and the ''
Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...
'', and was nominated for
Best Rock Song The Grammy Award for Best Rock Song is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality songs in the rock music genre. Honors in several ...
at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards. It was one of the bestselling UK vinyl singles of 2016.


Background

Radiohead worked on "Burn the Witch" during the sessions for their albums ''
Kid A ''Kid A'' is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 2 October 2000 by Parlophone. It was recorded with their producer, Nigel Godrich, in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucestershire and their hometown of Oxford. After th ...
'' (2000), '' Hail to the Thief'' (2003) and ''
In Rainbows ''In Rainbows'' is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was self-released on 10 October 2007 as a pay-what-you-want download, followed by a physical release internationally through XL Recordings and in North America ...
'' (2007). The title appears in the ''Hail to the Thief'' album artwork. The singer,
Thom Yorke Thomas Edward Yorke (born 7 October 1968) is an English musician and the main vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Radiohead. A multi-instrumentalist, he mainly plays guitar and keyboards and is noted for his falsetto. He has been descri ...
, mentioned the song in a 2005 post on Radiohead's blog and posted lyrics in 2007. He briefly played chords from the song in performances in 2006 and 2008, but told the audience that Radiohead would perform it "when we get the orchestra". Asked in 2013 about "Burn the Witch" and Radiohead's other unreleased songs, Radiohead's producer
Nigel Godrich Nigel Timothy Godrich (born 28 February 1971) is an English record producer, recording engineer and musician. He is known for his work with the English rock band Radiohead, having produced all their studio albums since '' OK Computer'' (1997). ...
responded: "Everything will surface one day... it all exists... and so it will eventually get there, I'm sure." He cited the song " Nude", released in 2007 but written 12 years prior, as an example of a song that took several years to complete.


Recording

According to the guitarist Jonny Greenwood, who arranges Radiohead's string sections, "Burn the Witch" was written with strings in mind. He said: "We left it unfinished on purpose and left lots of room for the strings and we never do that usually. Usually the strings are the icing on top." The strings were recorded at RAK Studios in London. They were performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra and conducted by
Hugh Brunt Hugh Brunt is a British conductor. He shares with Robert Ames the positions of artistic director and principal conductor of the London Contemporary Orchestra. Career Brunt was a chorister at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle and a music ...
; Greenwood had worked with both before on his score for the 2012 film '' The Master.'' Rather than
bowing Bowing (also called stooping) is the act of lowering the torso and head as a social gesture in direction to another person or symbol. It is most prominent in Asian cultures but it is also typical of nobility and aristocracy in many European c ...
the strings, the orchestra players used guitar plectrums, creating a percussive effect. Godrich's father died on the day of the recording. According to Godrich, "I literally left him on a fucking table in my house and went and recorded. And it was a very, very emotional day for me. He was a string player as well so it was one of those things where it felt like he would want me to go and just do this."


Music and lyrics

"Burn the Witch" was described by ''
The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'' as an
orchestral pop Orchestral pop (sometimes called ork-pop for short) is pop music that has been arranged and performed by a symphonic orchestra. It may also be conflated with the terms symphonic pop or chamber pop. History During the 1960s, pop music on radio a ...
song and by ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' as an art rock song. According to ''
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'', the string section "alternates between sumptuous flourishes and the darkest corners of '' The Shining'''s score". The ''Atlantic'' critic Spencer Kornhaber likened the strings to heavy metal, "chugga-chugga-chugga-ing the entire time". In the second half, the strings "gradually disintegrate"; while the cellos and basses adhere to a conventional
chord progression In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from the common practice ...
, the higher strings become "deathly" and "horrid". The song also features electronic percussion. The lyrics direct the listener to "abandon all reason / avoid all eye contact / do not react / shoot the messengers / burn the witch". Yorke said the lyrics were inspired by the '' News of the World'' newspaper publishing the names and addresses of sex offenders in 2000.


Video

The "Burn the Witch"
music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...
was directed by
Chris Hopewell Chris Hopewell is an English music video and film director and print maker. He has directed videos for Radiohead, Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, Scissor Sisters, Run the Jewels, Louis XIV, The Knife, The Offspring, Avenged Sevenfold, and several o ...
, who previously directed the animated video for Radiohead's 2003 single "
There There "There There" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead. It was released as the lead single from their sixth album, '' Hail to the Thief'' (2003), on 26 May 2003. It reached number four on the UK Singles Chart, number one in Canada and Port ...
". It uses stop-motion animation in the style of the ''Trumptonshire'' trilogy, a series of 1960s English children's television programmes. According to the son-in-law of ''Trumptonshire'' creator
Gordon Murray Ian Gordon Murray (born 18 June 1946 in Durban, Union of South Africa), is a South African-born British designer of Formula One racing cars and the McLaren F1 road car. He is the founder and CEO of Gordon Murray Automotive. Early life Born t ...
, the family was not asked permission to use the style and saw it as a "tarnishing of the brand". The video was conceived and finished in 14 days and released on
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
one week later on 3 May 2016. The story homages the 1973 horror film ''
The Wicker Man ''The Wicker Man'' is a 1973 British folk horror film directed by Robin Hardy and starring Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt, and Christopher Lee. The screenplay by Anthony Shaffer, inspired by David Pinner's 1967 ...
'' and depicts mob rule in a rural community. An inspector is greeted by a town mayor and shown a series of unsettling sights, culminating in the unveiling of a
wicker man A wicker man was purportedly a large wicker statue in which the druids (priests of Celtic paganism) sacrificed humans and animals by burning. The main evidence for this practice is a sentence by Roman general Julius Caesar in his '' Commentary ...
. The mayor urges the inspector to climb into it, whereupon he is locked inside as a
human sacrifice Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein ...
and the wicker man is set on fire. As the flames gather, the townspeople turn their backs and wave goodbye to the camera. The inspector escapes among the trees.


Interpretation

''Pitchfork'' interpreted "Burn the Witch" as a criticism of authority and a warning against
groupthink Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Cohesiveness, or the desire for cohesiveness ...
, expressing "dread and skepticism". The ''Guardian'' felt it addressed mass surveillance or the threat to open discussion posed by the self-policing users of
social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
. The ''Pitchfork'' writer Marc Hogan suggested that the idyllic rural Britain depicted in the video addressed the rhetoric of family values used by right-wing politicians such as
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
, Marine Le Pen and members of the
UK Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest par ...
. After Trump was elected US president on 8 November 2016, Yorke tweeted lyrics from the song and linked to its music video, interpreted as a criticism of Trump's policies. The animator Virpi Kettu, who worked on the music video, interpreted the song as a comment on the
European migrant crisis The 2015 European migrant crisis, also known internationally as the Syrian refugee crisis, was a period of significantly increased movement of refugees and migrants into Europe in 2015, when 1.3 million people came to the continent to reques ...
and
scapegoating Scapegoating is the practice of singling out a person or group for unmerited blame and consequent negative treatment. Scapegoating may be conducted by individuals against individuals (e.g. "he did it, not me!"), individuals against groups (e.g., ...
of Muslims. The visual style was deliberately lighter in tone than the song, as Kettu said Radiohead "wanted the video to contrast with what they're playing and to wake people up a bit".


Promotion and release

In April 2016, one week before the release of Radiohead's ninth album, ''A Moon Shaped Pool,'' fans who had previously made orders from Radiohead received embossed cards with lyrics from the song: "Sing a song of sixpence that goes / burn the witch / we know where you live." "Burn the Witch" was released as the album's
lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release s ...
as a
download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar system. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote ...
on 3 May 2016 on Radiohead's website and on streaming and digital media services. A
7-inch In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separat ...
single, with the 2015 song "
Spectre Spectre, specter or the spectre may refer to: Religion and spirituality * Vision (spirituality) * Apparitional experience * Ghost Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Spectre'' (1977 film), a made-for-television film produced and writ ...
" as the B-side, was released that month exclusively in independent record stores. It was the year's 26th-bestselling vinyl single in the UK.


Reception

''Pitchfork'' named "Burn the Witch" the week's "Best New Track", with the senior editor Jillian Mapes writing: "It's not since ''Kid A'' standout 'How to Disappear Completely' that Radiohead have created a song this simultaneously unsettling and gorgeous." Michael Hann of ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' called it "thrilling ... certainly the kind of return – bold and expansive, as well as dark and claustrophobic – that the world might have hoped for." Larry Bartleet of ''
NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' wrote: "A Radiohead melody has rarely sounded this joyful or indulgent, which puts the disturbing lyrics into especially sharp relief." Daniel Ross, analysing the song for Classic FM, wrote that "while Radiohead are often held up as denizens of doing it differently ... 'Burn The Witch' is them working smart rather than working hard. They've set up simple confines, but within them they've experimented heavily and made something exceptionally strange, tonally speaking, and inventive to boot." Alex Hudson of ''
Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urb ...
'', however, criticised the lyrics and rhythm, writing: "It is not the Radiohead of old: taking underground musical movements and turning them into a mass market record ... Here, they sound like they are influenced by the mass market rather than them influencing it." The '' New Republic'' writer Ryan Kearney criticised the lyrics for their abundance of common phrases such as " shoot the messengers", writing that Yorke was "the most overrated lyricist in music today". ''Rolling Stone'' named "Burn the Witch" one of the 30 best songs of the first half of 2016. ''Billboard'' placed it at number 19 on their "100 Best Pop Songs of 2016" list, and the annual ''
Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...
''
Pazz & Jop Pazz & Jop was an annual poll of top musical releases, compiled by American newspaper ''The Village Voice'' and created by music critic Robert Christgau. It published lists of the year's top releases for 1971 and, after Christgau's two-year abs ...
critics poll ranked "Burn the Witch" number 12. It was nominated for
Best Rock Song The Grammy Award for Best Rock Song is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality songs in the rock music genre. Honors in several ...
at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards. Mangaka
Tite Kubo , known professionally as , is a Japanese manga artist and character designer. He is best known for his manga series '' Bleach'' (2001–2016), which had over 130 million copies in circulation as of 2022. Biography Kubo was born on June 26, 197 ...
, best known for writing the manga '' Bleach'', used the song's title for a spinoff manga series.


Track listing


7"

* XL – 407917


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Certifications


Release history


References


External links

* * {{authority control 2016 songs Radiohead songs Song recordings produced by Nigel Godrich Music videos directed by Chris Hopewell Stop-motion animated music videos Songs about the media Songs written by Thom Yorke Songs written by Jonny Greenwood Songs written by Colin Greenwood Songs written by Ed O'Brien Songs written by Philip Selway Songs about witches Animated music videos XL Recordings singles