Weird Fishes / Arpeggi

Radiohead built “Weird Fishes / Arpeggi” around two interlocking guitar arpeggios and Phil Selway’s ride-cymbal-heavy drumming, and the song works like a tide pool filling in — one element at a time, each reflected in the others, until by the four-minute mark every surface of the mix has water on it.

Thom Yorke sings near the top of his register. The instrumental outro is a small-scale masterclass in arrangement: the guitars lift, the drums intensify without getting louder, and the song reaches a strange aquatic climax before dissolving back down. It sounds like weather because it sounds like ocean. Five and a half minutes of tide coming in.