Knives Art
by Sean Carolan

Somewhere along the line, thank heaven, Radiohead missed a few memos. Specifically, they missed those hallowed directives routed from the CEOs of the recording industry, commanding that whatever you do, you shouldn't risk challenging your audience.

It's bad enough, I suppose, that they've already broken several of the industry's cardinal rules by releasing two albums within six months of each other, and that they're looking back on electronic music that was pioneered in the fifties as a touchstone for said albums. Now, they've managed to make "Knives Out" from their "Amnesiac" album into a music video so challenging that you don't know whether to take it as a cartoonish satire of a bipolar relationship interrupted by catastrophe, or whether its cartoonishness is meant to blunt that impact. Or throw it into sharp relief. Or that it's okay to dance around with a huge anatomically-correct heart on your head. As a skeleton.

I should note at this point that it gave my wife the willies. Which, I think, is my point...

We're all familiar with music, and music videos, that rely on shock to draw an audience. That's cynical, though, and unfortunately I fear a few artists I respect have fallen into that trap. Radiohead, however, have managed to make records, and videos, that shake you into an unsettled state of being. Like 'em or hate 'em, ya gotta admire their cojones, and you can't help but spend a bit of time after the viewing trying to digest what you've just seen. They're viral, that way.

I won't attempt to explain the video here, or regurgitate anything the band has said about it. Seek it out. Watch it. Then form your own opinion, and thank the heavens that there's at least one major artist out there willing to offer you a challenge. They're a dying breed.

©2001 Sean Carolan