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“Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” was released as part of Radiohead’s 2007 Album In Rainbows, an album that garnered much critical acclaim even when compared to the rest of the group’s well-received discography. In 2020, Lianne La Havas released her third studio LP, Lianne La Havas, which included “Weird Fishes,” a cover of Radiohead’s song. The parallels between these two tracks perfectly represent the ways in which vocal delivery, instrumentals, and tempo can entirely change the themes and understanding of lyrics. While both La Havas’s and Radiohead’s versions concern love and longing, they act as emotional foils to one another. While the lyrics remain the same, Radiohead’s original song reflects the longing before a great love can be fully achieved, while La Havas’s is more a reflection on love lost and the introspection stemming from it. As a result, the songs read entirely differently, but still skip the idyllic parts of a relationship, instead aiming for the deeply pained and vulnerable periods before and after. Radiohead’s “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” opens with fast-paced synth drums and keyboard notes, setting a nearly urgent tone to the song’s introduction. These synths crescendo up through the first half of the song, reflecting the questioning-yet-hopeful lyrics in the first portion of the track. Thom Yorke’s unique voice cuts through the instrumental curtain shortly after the track begins, sounding pained and falling off at the end of each line. His voice picks up again in every subsequent line with increased intensity, which matches the ascending arpeggios on guitar. The themes of longing and confusion present themselves over the course of the first verse, matched by the increasingly frenzied instrumental that masterfully avoids getting in the way of vocals. By the end of the verse, Yorke’s vocal quality is strained and almost shrill, reflecting the pining nature of his suffering. The tempo of the instrumental follows his lead at remarkable speed, where all its components cascade into a wave of sound behind him. However, as soon as Yorke proclaims, “I get eaten by the worms,” all the background sound is reduced to soft, chime-like synth notes. The instrumentals return at full force after this bridge, with the chimes cutting out in favor of a high-tempo drum line and a similar set of instrumental techniques as before. However, Yorke’s voice changes significantly, becoming lower, richer, and more mournful than at any other point of the track. The theme of longing also returns, but with the caveat of understanding that there

isn’t any great love in sight. The instruments and vocals fall away as one to end the song, leaving only a few seconds of reverb as an outro. La Havas’s cover, named “Weird Fishes,” begins relaxed, with the introduction of a soulful drum line mixed with calm synth notes. La Havas’s voice immediately takes center stage and demands full attention, her subtle vibrato and articulate delivery mixing into the rest of the instrumental to form a mood of deep loss and reflection. She delivers lyrics at a slower pace than that of Thom Yorke, the urgency of the original song entirely melting away. La Havas’s soul background translates the lyrics into her own unique musical language, allowing her to wash the cover in a kind of heartbreak not present in Radiohead’s rendition. Where Yorke’s lyrical delivery hummed with intense longing, La Havas’s song is a look back at something that didn’t work out, and so the vocal qualities match the theme. The drawn-out lines and instrumentals during the first half of the song drip with this theme, but instrumentals fall away entirely for La Havas to deliver the repeating line “I get eaten by the worms / And weird fishes.” Her voice cuts through in all its pain, and then a much stronger instrumental picks up with renewed urgency, adding new drums and a guitar to the mix. The final verse is belted out with great intensity, and the song ends on a soft outro. The sudden change in pace acts as a cathartic moment in the song, where pent-up loss is released as a brilliant display of musical and vocal skill.

Every difference from the original track seems to work in La Havas’s favor, resulting in one of the better tracks on Lianne La Havas. While both tracks deal with love, the clear differences in themes allow them to relate to audiences in different ways. Both artists use their voices to push forward their individual themes, where vocal qualities describe opposite sides of the spectrum of dissatisfaction relating to love. The tracks are further separated by the individual instrumentals, where the classic Radiohead experimental rock style is juxtaposed by Lianne La Havas’s use of soul and rock influences. The emotional response to either track transcends the lyrics and speaks volumes to the immense talent and skill of both artists. “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” and “Weird Fishes” are masterpieces in their own rights, and they absolutely deserve a listen.

• Terrance Dumoulin (Civil Engineering and Architectural Studies)