#365songs (131 / 365)

This is a weird Radiohead song to shout out: one of their most divisive, for sure, and some people can't stand it. Though I've since cooled on it a bit, I was obsessed with it for a while when Hail to the Thief came out. It's an absolute dirge and nearly unique in Radiohead's catalog: a bit like Amnesiac's closer "Life in a Glasshouse" but like 50% slower (barring the tantalizingly brief freakout in the bridge) and lacking the horns that give "Glasshouse" its je ne sais quoi.

I don't think anyone is wrong for hating the kind of thing that "We Suck Young Blood" is. But for what it is, I think it's perfectly done, and the little details are all on point: the nauseous wobbly woozy bassline, the uncomfortably sibilant cymbal on the second beat and the sarcastically anemic claps on the fourth, Thom Yorke sounding like he's on the verge of death. All those chromatic lines in the shambling piano that anchors the whole thing. I like to talk about music that sounds bad on purpose. Some of that is because it's noise, which is cool, but "We Suck Young Blood" sounds bad on purpose while still being reasonably musical. It's just yucky, but intentionally, and I do kind of love it for that.