| "Karma Police" | ||||
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| Single byRadiohead | ||||
| from the albumOK Computer | ||||
| B-side |
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| Released | 25 August 1997 (1997-08-25) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 4:24 | |||
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| Radiohead singles chronology | ||||
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| "Karma Police" onYouTube | ||||
"Karma Police" is a song by the Englishrock bandRadiohead, released on 25 August 1997 as the second single from their third studio album,OK Computer (1997). It features acoustic guitar and piano, and lyrical themes of insanity and dissatisfaction withcapitalism.
The music video, directed byJonathan Glazer, has the singer,Thom Yorke, in the back of a car pursuing a man. It won theMTV Video Music Award for Best Direction at the1997 MTV Video Music Awards.
"Karma Police" reached number one in Iceland and number eight on theUK singles chart. In the US, it reached number 14 on the USBillboardModern Rock Tracks chart. It was included onRadiohead: The Best Of (2008).Rolling Stone placed "Karma Police" at number 279 in its rankings of the500 greatest songs of all time in both 2021 and 2024.[3][4]
"Karma Police" is incommon time and played instandard tuning. Thekey is ambiguous and changes throughout. The verse section can be interpreted as either moving betweenA natural minor and Adorian, or betweenE natural minor and Ephrygian. The chorus section is inG major and thecoda section can be interpreted in eitherB minor orD major.[5][6] Acoustic guitar and piano are the most prominent instruments.[7] The piano riff resembles part of "Sexy Sadie" bythe 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".Thom Yorke's voice is put through areverb effect and a sliding melodic figure serves as acounterpoint to his vocals.[9] In the final minute,Ed O'Brien distorts his guitar by driving adelay 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 withloops andsamples, 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]
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 themiddle management!"[14]
Yorke andJonny 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" refer to distracting, metaphorical background noise that Yorke called "fridge buzz", one of the themes of their 1997 albumOK Computer.[15] "Karma Police" also shares themes of insanity and dissatisfaction withcapitalism.[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 theFinancial 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]
In the United Kingdom, "Karma Police" was issued as the second single fromOK Computer on 25 August 1997.[18] It was released on twoCD singles and a12-inch vinyl single and reached number eight on theUK Singles Chart.[18][19] In the United States, the single was serviced tomodern rock radio on 13 October 1997.[20] Five months later, in March 1998, it peaked at number 14 on theBillboardModern Rock Tracks chart.[21] In March 2010, almost 13 years later, "Karma Police" reached number 15 on theDanish Singles Chart.[22] Early versions of "Karma Police" were released on the 2019 compilationMiniDiscs [Hacked].[23] In 2023, Americanpost-hardcore bandPierce the Veil covered "Karma Police" onTriple J while touring Australia.[24]
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Steve Huey fromAllMusic described "Karma Police" as "haunting, mystifying, and exquisite", labelling it "one of the cornerstones of one of the greatest albums of the '90s".[9] TheDaily Record declared it a "superb song".[25] A reviewer fromMusic Week rated it four out of five, picking it as one of the "standout tracks" fromOK Computer.[26]Rolling Stone placed "Karma Police" at position 279 on its ranking of the500 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]
The "Karma Police"music video was directed byJonathan 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 musicianMarilyn Manson for his 1997 single "Long Hard Road Out of Hell". Manson wanted a video similar toDavid Lynch's 1997 filmLost 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 collaboratorRandy 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 actorLajos 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 theMTV Video Music Award for Best Direction at the1997 MTV Video Music Awards for his work on "Karma Police" andJamiroquai'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 1998Unkle single "Rabbit in Your Headlights", featuring Yorke on vocals, as a more successful "partner" to the "Karma Police" video.[31]
All songs written byThom Yorke,Jonny Greenwood,Ed O'Brien,Colin Greenwood andPhilip Selway.
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Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
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| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Music Canada)[53] | Platinum | 80,000‡ |
| Italy (FIMI)[54] | Platinum | 50,000‡ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[55] | 2× Platinum | 60,000‡ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[56] | Platinum | 600,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
Its first two minutes are classic '90s Radiohead: tuneful and sardonic pop-rock...
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