Sweetly melancholy, Radiohead’s 1998 track “No Surprises” pairs a lullaby-like melody with bleakly poetic lyrics about modern life’s quiet desperation. Its glockenspiel-accented tune and Thom Yorke’s gentle delivery mask a weary resignation. The result is a quietly powerful song — an ironically pretty protest against numb complacency. Its music video, featuring Yorke’s face submerged in water as he sings, became an enduring image of the album OK Computer. Decades later, “No Surprises” remains a fan-favorite Radiohead lullaby for the disenchanted, wrapping uneasy truths in a disarmingly beautiful package.
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