Album: Kid A
Year: 2000
. . .
Of course, Kid A wasn’t all bleeps, bloops and blorps; bedeeddles and woobles. Mostly, yeah. But just as “Electioneering” served as the big-ass riff-rocker on OK Computer — complete with cowbell — so does “Optimistic” serve as Kid A’s token “normal” rock song.
And so “Optimistic” roars out of the gate with the guitars of Ed O’Brien and Jonny Greenwood clangoring and clamoring against each other over a rolling and tumbling tom-filled Phil Selway beat while Thom Yorke “ooooooooooohs” over the whole thing before sliding into an opening verse that kind of belies the title.
Flies are buzzing ’round my head
Vultures circling the dead
Picking up every last crumb
The big fish eat the little ones
The big fish eat the little ones
Not my problem, give me some
In a weird way, “Optimistic” fills the same space on Kid A that songs like “Police on My Back” did on Sandinista! — a reminder that they could do the old thing at any time, but that’s where they’re at anymore.
Meanwhile on the chorus, O’Brien continues to clang clattering chords while Greenwood does a subtle-yet-defining series of notes on his guitar as Yorke goes full falsetto.
You can try the best you can
You can try the best you can
The best you can is good enough
You can try the best you can
You can try the best you can
The best you can is good enough
With a bridge that features more wordless moans, Selway knocking the fuck out of his snare and Yorke moaning “I’d really like to help you man,” “Optimistic” is an absolute bruiser on all fronts, until it eventually kinda peters out, setting up the swirling disorientation of “In Limbo.”
Radiohead didn’t release any singles from Kid A, and given that it somewhat of a cultural phenomenon, radio programmers who felt like they had to play something from it naturally went with “Optimistic,” given that it was the most normal — though not catchiest! — song on the record.
“Optimistic”
“Optimistic” live in London, 2000
“Optimistic” live from the Basement, 2008
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