A Radiohead Oracle - In Rainbows, OK Computer, and the Tarot

When Radiohead released In Rainbows almost exactly 3 years ago, Puddlegum posted an article picking apart the album's hidden meanings. A series of binary number clues seemed to hint that it was inexplicably linked to their third album, OK Computer, and Puddlegum asserted that if you shuffled the two albums together, the result was a 22-song playlist that was nearly seamless, both musically and thematically.

Naturally whenever I notice anything with 22 parts, I instantly begin looking for associations with the Tarot's 22 trump cards. (Occultists have been playing this game since before the days of even Aleister Crowley and Eliphas Levi.) So, playlist assembled, I simply laid the cards numerically alongside the songs, hoping a few of them might comment interestingly on each other.

What I saw in there really sort of blew my mind.

In many cases, the title alone comments interestingly on the card's meanings. In nearly all cases, the lyrics are uncannily apt. For example, the 22nd card, The Fool (which is usually numbered zero, and so in this case was saved for the very end), features a man stepping toward a precipice with a tiny dog nipping at his heels. The corresponding song, "The Tourist" (ha!) opens with the following lyrics:

It barks at no-one else but me,
Like it's seen a ghost.
I guess it's seen the sparks a-flowin,
No-one else would know.
Hey man, slow down, slow down,
Idiot, slow down, slow down.

And so forth! There are a few which are harder to connect than the others, but as I looked at each song I grew more and more excited, seeing an incredible opportunity to use the Tarot as a symbolic key to unlock hidden doors into these wonderful albums (and vice versa, as the lyrics offer a unique, distinctly dystopian commentary to the the deck's already rather apocalyptic narrative). What you will find linked below is the playlist, exactly as presented by Puddlegum in 2007, with a sample lyric and links to individual posts for each song. The posts contain the full songs, plus any additional insight I might have. Construct your own playlist, listen along, and let me know what you hear.

1. Airbag (OK Computer) - The Magician

"In an interstellar burst
I am back to save the universe..."


2. 15 Step (In Rainbows) - The High Priestess

"Did the cat get your tongue?
Did your string come undone?
One by one
One by one
It comes to us all
It's as soft as your pillow..."


3. Paranoid Android (OK Computer) - The Empress

"Please could you stop the noise, I'm trying to get some rest
From all the unborn chicken voices in my head..."


4. Bodysnatchers (In Rainbows) - The Emperor

"I have no idea what you are talking about
Your mouth moves only with someone's hand up your ass..."


5. Subterranean Homesick Alien (OK Computer) - The Hierophant

"I'd show them the stars
And the meaning of life
They'd shut me away
But I'd be all right
All right
I'm just uptight..."


6. Nude (In Rainbows) - The Lovers

"You'll go to hell for what your dirty mind is thinking...

She stands stark naked and she beckons you to bed
Don't go, you'll only want to come back again..."


7. Exit Music [For A Film] (OK Computer) - The Chariot

"Wake from your sleep
The drying of your tears
Today we escape
We escape..."


8. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi (In Rainbows) - Strength

"I'd be crazy not to follow
Follow where you lead..."


9. Let Down (OK Computer) - The Hermit

"Transport, motorways and tramlines
Starting and then stopping
Taking off and landing
The emptiest of feelings
Disappointed people, clinging on to bottles
And when it comes it's so, so, disappointing..."


10. All I Need (In Rainbows) - The Wheel of Fortune

"I am the next act waiting in the wings
I am an animal trapped in your hot car
I am all the days that you choose to ignore..."


11. Karma Police (OK Computer) - Justice

"This is what you get
This is what you get
This is what you get when you mess with us..."


12. Fitter Happier (OK Computer) - The Hanged Man

"Like a cat
tied to a stick,
that's driven into
frozen winter shit..."


13. Faust Arp (In Rainbows) - Death

"Wakey wakey rise and shine
It's on again off again on again
Watch me fall like dominoes
In pretty patterns..."


14. Electioneering (OK Computer) - Temperance

"When I go forwards you go backwards
and somewhere we will meet."


15. Reckoner (In Rainbows) - The Devil

"You are not to blame for
Bittersweet distractor
Dare not speak it's name
Dedicated to all human beings..."


16. Climbing Up The Walls (OK Computer) - The Tower

"And either way you turn
I'll be there
Open up your skull
I'll be there
Climbing up the walls..."


17. House Of Cards (In Rainbows) - The Star

"No matter how it ends
No matter how it starts

Forget about your house of cards
And I'll do mine..."


18. No Surprises (OK Computer) - The Moon

"No alarms and no surprises,
Silence, silence..."


19. Jigsaw Falling Into Place (In Rainbows) - The Sun

"Wish away the nightmare
You got the light you can feel it on your back
You got the light you can feel it on your back
Your jigsaw falling into place..."


20. Lucky (OK Computer) - The Last Judgment

"Pull me out of the aircrash,
pull me out of the wake,
'cause I'm your superhero.
We are standing on the edge."


21. Videotape (In Rainbows) - The World

"This is my way of saying goodbye
Because I can't do it face to face
I'm talking to you after it's too late
From my videotape..."


22. The Tourist (OK Computer) - The Fool

"It barks at no-one else but me,
Like it's seen a ghost.
I guess it's seen the sparks a-flowin,
No-one else would know.
Hey man, slow down, slow down,
Idiot, slow down, slow down."