This was a sort of "90's checklist" they wrote up for a song, then Thom Yorke happened to try out the speech function on the old iMac and thought it sounded right for this. The piano is indeed Thom Yorke playing drunk, and the rest of the track was built around these two things. It seems to me that the track isn't necessarily about "fitting in" or being the "perfect citizen," since this list of things doesn't really seem to fit either of those two molds. It's more like a series of catchphrases, thoughts, and ideals from the 90's. It's haunting (some say depressing), but not purely negative: it's more like nostalgia that's missing the positive filter: it's a society of people confusedly trying to figure out who to be, and what to do, to be happy, and being just about as successful as every other generation.
This is always a good listen.
This was a sort of "90's checklist" they wrote up for a song, then Thom Yorke happened to try out the speech function on the old iMac and thought it sounded right for this. The piano is indeed Thom Yorke playing drunk, and the rest of the track was built around these two things. It seems to me that the track isn't necessarily about "fitting in" or being the "perfect citizen," since this list of things doesn't really seem to fit either of those two molds. It's more like a series of catchphrases, thoughts, and ideals from the 90's. It's haunting (some say depressing), but not purely negative: it's more like nostalgia that's missing the positive filter: it's a society of people confusedly trying to figure out who to be, and what to do, to be happy, and being just about as successful as every other generation.