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Karma Police

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For the surveillance program, see Karma Police (surveillance programme). For the film, see Karmapolice.

"Karma Police"
Single by Radiohead
from the album OK Computer
B-side
  • "Meeting in the Aisle"
  • "Lull"
Released25 August 1997 (1997-08-25)
Genre
Length4:24
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
Radiohead singles chronology
"Paranoid Android"
(1997) 		"Karma Police"
(1997) 		"Lucky"
(1997)
Audio sample
Music video
"Karma Police" on YouTube

"Karma Police" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 25 August 1997 as the second single from their third studio album, OK Computer (1997). It reached number one in Iceland and number eight on the UK Singles Chart. In the US, it reached number 14 on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart. It was included on Radiohead: The Best Of (2008).

The music video, directed by Jonathan Glazer, sees the singer, Thom Yorke, in the back of a car pursuing a man. Rolling Stone placed "Karma Police" at number 279 in its rankings of the 500 greatest songs of all time in both 2021 and 2024.[3][4]

Composition

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"Karma Police" is in a 4
4 time signature and played in standard tuning. The song's key is ambiguous and changes throughout. The verse section can be interpreted as either moving between A natural minor and A dorian, or between E natural minor and E phrygian. The chorus section is in G major and the coda section can be interpreted in either B minor or D major[5][6] Acoustic guitar and piano are the most prominent instruments.[7] The main piano riff resembles part of Sexy Sadie by The Beatles.[8]

The song progresses from the intro into a mid-tempo section which alternates between a verse and a chorus. The verse begins with the line "Karma police", and the chorus begins with the line "This is what you'll get". After this section cycles through twice, the song switches into a second section which is based around the line "For a minute there, I lost myself". Yorke's voice is put through a reverb effect and a sliding melodic figure serves as a counterpoint to his vocals.[9] In the final minute, Ed O'Brien distorts his guitar by driving a delay effect to self-oscillation, then lowering the delay rate, creating a "melting" effect.[10]

After Yorke told the producer, Nigel Godrich, that he was not happy with the ending, the pair reconstructed it with loops and samples, a technique they developed on later Radiohead albums. Godrich said: "It was the first time we did anything like that. Just us in the studio, and a forerunner of a lot of things to come, good and bad."[11]

Lyrics

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The title lyric originates from an inside joke; the members of Radiohead would threaten to call the "karma police" if someone did something bad.[12] Yorke said the song was about stress and "having people looking at you in that certain [malicious] way".[13] He said: "It's for someone who has to work for a large company. This is a song against bosses. Fuck the middle management!"[14]

Yorke and Jonny Greenwood emphasised that "Karma Police" was humorous and "not entirely serious".[13] The lines "He buzzes like a fridge / He's like a detuned radio" refers to distracting, metaphorical background noise that Yorke called "fridge buzz", one of the themes of OK Computer.[15] "Karma Police" also shares themes of insanity and dissatisfaction with capitalism.[16]

Yorke cited the closing refrain, "Phew, for a minute there I lost myself", as an example of his practice of using everyday phrases in his lyrics; he said he probably heard it on television.[17] According to the Financial Times, "When sung in his trembling high voice, this unexceptional phrase becomes charged with power."[17] Yorke said: "It's so ironic that for years people would write about the way I wrote lyrics as if it's like some deep heartfelt thing. It's fucking not at all. It's like collage. It's just walking down the street and experiencing something and thinking, 'What would that be like if I stuck that in your face?'"[17]

Release

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In the United Kingdom, "Karma Police" was issued as the second single from OK Computer on 25 August 1997.[18] It was released on two CD singles and a 12-inch vinyl single and reached number eight on the UK Singles Chart.[18][19] In the United States, the single was serviced to modern rock radio on 13 October 1997.[20] Five months later, in March 1998, it peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.[21] In March 2010, almost 13 years later, "Karma Police" reached number 15 on the Danish Singles Chart.[22] Early versions of "Karma Police" were released on the 2019 compilation MiniDiscs [Hacked].[23] In 2023, the American hardcore band Pierce the Veil covered "Karma Police" on Triple J while touring Australia.[24]

Critical reception

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Steve Huey from AllMusic described "Karma Police" as "haunting, mystifying, and exquisite", labelling it "one of the cornerstones of one of the greatest albums of the '90s".[9] The Daily Record declared it a "superb song".[25] A reviewer from Music Week rated it four out of five, picking it as one of the "standout tracks" from OK Computer.[26] Rolling Stone placed "Karma Police" at position 279 on its ranking of the 500 greatest songs of all time in both 2021 and 2024.[3][4] The song possesses a near perfect rating of 95 on Album of the Year.[27]

Music video

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Yorke in the video

The "Karma Police" music video was directed by Jonathan Glazer, who previously directed the video for Radiohead's 1996 single "Street Spirit (Fade Out)".[28] The video is shot from the perspective of the driver of a car pursuing a man along a dark road, with Yorke in the back seat. The man falls to his knees and the car reverses, revealing that it is leaking fuel. The man produces matches from his pocket and ignites the trail of fuel. Yorke vanishes and the car is engulfed in flames.

Glazer initially pitched the concept to the American musician Marilyn Manson for his 1997 single "Long Hard Road Out of Hell". Manson wanted a video similar to David Lynch's 1997 film Lost Highway, which opens with a shot of a road rushing beneath the camera.[28] After Manson rejected the concept, the video commissioner Dilly Gent recommended it to Radiohead for "Karma Police".[28] According to Manson's collaborator Randy Sosin, after Manson saw the video, "Manson was like, 'Fuck that.' But, you know, a good idea is a good idea."[29]

Glazer said he wanted to "shoot something very simple ... Where the whole narrative could be contained within a single sentence."[28] The running man was played by the Hungarian actor Lajos Kovács. Kovács developed cramp during the running shots, and had to have injections in his leg to keep running. He also badly burnt his thumb during repeated takes lighting the book of matches behind his back.[28]

The video premiered in August 1997. Glazer won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction in 1997 for his work on "Karma Police" as well as Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity".[30] In 2001, Glazer said he regarded the video as a failure, "because I decided to do a very minimalist, subjective use of camera, and tried to do something hypnotic and dramatic from one perspective, and it was very hard to achieve and I feel that I didn't achieve it".[31] He described his video for the 1998 Unkle single "Rabbit in Your Headlights", featuring Yorke on vocals, as a more successful "partner" to the "Karma Police" video.[31]

Track listings

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All songs written by Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Colin Greenwood and Philip Selway.

Charts

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Certifications

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Region Certification Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[52] Platinum 80,000‡
Italy (FIMI)[53] Platinum 50,000‡
United Kingdom (BPI)[54] Platinum 600,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

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  1. ^ Richin, Leslie (12 January 2017). "20 Alternative Rock Hits Turning 20 in 2017". Billboard. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  2. ^ Pitchfork Staff (27 September 2022). "The 250 Best Songs of the 1990s". Pitchfork. Retrieved 21 October 2022. Its first two minutes are classic '90s Radiohead: tuneful and sardonic pop-rock...
  3. ^ a b "500 Best Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. 15 September 2021. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
  4. ^ a b "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. 16 February 2024. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
  5. ^ Capuzzo, Guy (2009). Sectional Tonality and Sectional Centricity in Rock Music (PDF). Music Theory Spectrum. pp. 162–168.
  6. ^ David Bennett Piano (28 February 2021). Is Karma Police in E minor or A minor?. Retrieved 16 July 2024 – via YouTube.
  7. ^ Footman, 2007. p. 79
  8. ^ Webb, Robert (15 September 2006). "Story of the Song: 'Karma Police' Radiohead (1997)". The Independent. Retrieved 15 October 2008.
  9. ^ a b Huey, Steve. "Karma Police". allmusic.com. Retrieved 30 October 2010.
  10. ^ Randall 2000, p. 224
  11. ^ Greene, Andy (31 May 2017). "Inside 'OK Computer': Radiohead Look Back on Their Paranoid Masterpiece". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  12. ^ Sutherland, Mark (31 May 1997). "Return of the Mac!". Melody Maker.
  13. ^ a b Randall 2000, p. 223
  14. ^ Webb, Robert (15 September 2006). "Story Of The Song: 'Karma Police' Radiohead (1997)". The Independent. Accessed on 15 October 2008.
  15. ^ Footman 2007, p. 140
  16. ^ Footman 2007, pp. 144–147
  17. ^ a b c Hunter-Tilney, Ludovic (30 August 2023). "A Thom Yorke painting: yours for a song". Financial Times. Retrieved 1 September 2023.
  18. ^ a b "New Releases: Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 23 August 1997. p. 33. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  19. ^ Randall 2000, p. 248
  20. ^ "Upcoming New Releases". Hits. Vol. 11, no. 563. 3 October 1997. p. 38.
  21. ^ a b "Radiohead Chart History (Alternative Airplay)". Billboard. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
  22. ^ a b "Radiohead – Karma Police". Tracklisten. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
  23. ^ "Radiohead's 'OK Computer' demos reveal the makings of a masterpiece". NME | Music, Film, TV, Gaming & Pop Culture News. 13 June 2019. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  24. ^ "Pierce the Veil cover Radiohead 'Karma Police' for Like A Version", Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 11 August 2023, retrieved 27 February 2024
  25. ^ "Chart Slot". Daily Record. 5 September 1997. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  26. ^ "Reviews: Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 16 August 1997. p. 31. Retrieved 21 August 2022.
  27. ^ "Album of the Year". Album of the Year.
  28. ^ a b c d e Dombal, Ryan (21 March 2017). "This is what you get: an oral history of Radiohead's "Karma Police" video". Pitchfork. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  29. ^ Moss, Corey (16 August 2004). "Without proper video planning, you wouldn't see Eminem naked". MTV News. Archived from the original on 6 November 2014. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  30. ^ Tobias, Scott (4 April 2014). "Director Jonathan Glazer on Under The Skin's complex honesty". The Dissolve. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  31. ^ a b Kaufman, Anthony (12 June 2001). "Interview: Shooting the 'Beast'; Jonathan Glazer Tames the Gangster Genre". IndieWire. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  32. ^ Karma Police (UK CD1 liner notes). Radiohead. Parlophone. 1997. CDODATAS 03, 7243 8 84555 2 7.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  33. ^ Karma Police (UK CD2 liner notes). Radiohead. Parlophone. 1997. CDNODATA 03, 7243 8 84556 2 6.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  34. ^ Karma Police (UK 12-inch vinyl sleeve). Radiohead. Parlophone. 1997. 12NODATA 03.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  35. ^ Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 228.
  36. ^ "Radiohead – Karma Police" (in Dutch). Ultratip. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
  37. ^ "Radiohead – Karma Police" (in French). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
  38. ^ "Radiohead Chart History (Canadian Digital Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  39. ^ "Eurochart Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 14, no. 37. 13 September 1997. p. 12. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  40. ^ "Radiohead: Karma Police" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
  41. ^ "Radiohead – Karma Police" (in French). Les classement single. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
  42. ^ "Íslenski Listinn NR. 236 Vikuna 28.8. '97 – 4.9. '97". Dagblaðið Vísir (in Icelandic). 29 August 1997. p. 22. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  43. ^ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Karma Police". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  44. ^ "Nederlandse Top 40 – Radiohead" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  45. ^ "Radiohead – Karma Police" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
  46. ^ "Radiohead – Karma Police". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
  47. ^ "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  48. ^ "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
  49. ^ "Radiohead Chart History (Radio Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  50. ^ "Árslistinn 1997 – Íslenski Listinn – 100 Vinsælustu Lögin". Dagblaðið Vísir (in Icelandic). 2 January 1998. p. 25. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  51. ^ "Most Played Modern Rock Songs of 1998" (PDF). Airplay Monitor. Vol. 6, no. 52. 25 December 1998. p. 36. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 January 2024. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  52. ^ "Canadian single certifications – Radiohead – Karma Police". Music Canada. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  53. ^ "Italian single certifications – Radiohead – Karma Police" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Retrieved 2 December 2019. Select "2019" in the "Anno" drop-down menu. Type "Karma Police" in the "Filtra" field. Select "Singoli" under "Sezione".
  54. ^ "British single certifications – Radiohead – Karma Police". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 10 November 2023.

Bibliography

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