Listening Skills - Phillip Collin

I  am listening to the music components of 'Reckoner' by 'Radiohead'

Rhythm:

This piece has a great rhythm section. This song is in a 4/4 time signature for the entire song. It starts with this break beat on the drums and the vocals follow shortly after. The samples that create the breakbeat lay down the foundations of the track then there is a full drum kit as well which really creates a great set of rhythms.
Because of the slightly shifted accents on the drums the drums actually come in on beat 4 of the bar when counted in comparison to the guitar.
The rhythm is kept quite solid with a constant beat throughout the track.


Harmony:

The harmony is being played on the guitars and later on the piano and string section. The chords that are being played by the guitar are very simple. C-Em-D-C-Em-C and in the bridge section they add a B in there as well. It changes to C-Em-B-C-Em-B-Bm-Em.

 As the harmony is very simple it leaves a lot of room for the falsetto vocals to take over and be the main interest in the song as well as the development of the harmony in the strings and piano.
This piece also has a very minimal amount of bass guitar in it. This is because the whole track is stylised around Thom Yorke's voice.
The bass is used to create moments of release in the music to make it stand above the rest of the track. By taking the bass away for the majority of the track it shows that this song is not about the bass and how 'fat' it can be made sound but about how the rhythm and harmony can be created in other ways throughout the strings, guitars and vocals and the the added percussion of a tambourine and shakers add to the rhythm.

I feel that Radiohead have always been about creating sounds and using sounds in different ways to other people. They have always stepped out of the mainstream way of contructing songs and the sound in which it uses which I think can be heard in this song, especially this album 'In Rainbows'.