Format CD Length 3:48 | Genre Art rock Label TBD, ATO | |
Released 5 January 2009 (2009-01-05) Writer(s) Colin Greenwood, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Phil Selway, Thom Yorke | ||
"All I Need" is a song by English alternative rock band Radiohead. The song was written and recorded by the band for their seventh studio album In Rainbows (2007), and was produced by Nigel Godrich. One of the band's most direct love songs, "All I Need" is a downbeat track which sees frontman Thom Yorke singing of obsession and unrequited love. The recording also incorporates a full string section, a synthesizer, and various other instruments into its instrumentation. Lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood utilized a string section in order to produce the desired effect of white noise produced by a band playing loudly in a room. Prior to its official release on In Rainbows, the song was debuted live by Radiohead at a Chicago, Illinois concert in June 2006.
Contents
In support of the MTV EXIT anti-human trafficking campaign, Radiohead released a music video for "All I Need", directed by Steve Rogers, which premiered on May 1, 2008. The clip, which contrasts the lives of two young boys—an average, well-off child from a developed environment, and a sweatshop worker—received critical acclaim and won numerous awards. On 5 January 2009, "All I Need" impacted United States adult album alternative radio as the fifth and final single from In Rainbows.
Recording
"All I Need" was recorded by Radiohead for their seventh studio album In Rainbows (2007). Guitarist Jonny Greenwood wanted to recapture the sensation of white noise generated by "a band playing loudly in a room, when 'all this chaos kicks up.'" Unable to produce the sound in a formal recording studio, Greenwood instead had a string section, the Millennia Ensemble, play every note of the scale, blanketing the audio frequencies. He also incorporated his own overdubbed violas. In an interview with NME, frontman Thom Yorke said that the final version of the song "was the outcome of four different versions of it", with "all the best bits put together."
In June 2006, producer Nigel Godrich uploaded a clip featuring various mixed songs from the In Rainbows sessions to Radiohead's Dead Air Space blog, one of which was "All I Need". The song was debuted live by Radiohead at their 20 June 2006 performance at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to the performance, Yorke told the audience that they had just "sketched [the song] out earlier and might get it wrong."
Composition
Running at 3 minutes and 48 seconds, "All I Need" is a sombre song with lyrics detailing obsession and love. The song, which concludes the first half of In Rainbows, has been described by Robert Sandall of The Telegraph as Yorke's most "direct love song", while Rolling Stone cites it as among "the most intense love songs [he] has ever sung." The song incorporates strings, droning synthesisers, glockenspiel and piano. Brian Howe of Paste wrote that the song "contrasts baggy bass bleats with tiny, concise glockenspiel."
Yorke's lyrics incorporate metaphors describing unrequited love, with the song's protagonist describing himself as "an animal trapped in your hot car." In its chorus, he sings: "You are all I need / You are all I need / I'm in the middle of a picture / Lying in the reeds." The song ends on a climactic high point of new material, unrelated to either the verse or chorus, known as a terminal climax. In this terminal climax, "All I Need" breaks into a final crescendo, the album's "most cathartic release", with Yorke repeatedly singing "it's all right, it's all wrong" as drummer Phil Selway's crash cymbals enter the mix.
Release
On 5 January 2009, TBD Records and ATO Records released "All I Need" to United States adult album alternative (triple A) radio, marking the fifth and final single release from In Rainbows. One-track CD copies of the single were distributed by TBD Records for promotional purposes to coincide with the radio release, which included labels detailing Radiohead's nominations at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards.
Music video
Radiohead produced the music video for "All I Need" in collaboration with MTV in support of the latter's EXIT campaign, which aims to promote awareness and increase prevention of human trafficking and modern slavery. Yorke said of the project:
It's cool that MTV is taking this up, because normally, this is something I only get to talk to people about who are considered 'extreme left-wing' or whatever, but it's good it's hitting the mainstream, because I don’t consider it a left-wing issue; I consider it a political-stability issue ... If [the campaign] does one good thing, it's to make this concept of slavery — which is what it is — less taboo. If they can make it something that is OK for us to talk about, and for politicians in the west to actually accept that this is an issue, well, then we're doing a good thing.
The video, directed by Steve Rogers and filmed in Australia by cinematographer John Seale, premiered on May 1, 2008. It is filmed in split screen and depicts one day in the contrasting lives of two children from opposite sides of the world: a young boy in the West from an affluent, developed area, and another young boy in the East forced to work in a sweatshop which produces shoes. Towards the end of the video, it is revealed that the first boy's shoes are a product of the sweatshop in which the second boy works. It was released to much acclaim and garnered 16 awards, including the UNICEF–CASBAA Asia-Pacific Child Rights Award, the Bronze ANDY for Film at the International Andy Awards, the In Book for Music Video at the 2009 D&AD Awards, and the Bronze Lion for Film at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Personnel
Credits adapted from In Rainbows album liner notes.