Music Through a Different Lens

Blog Art by Reagan Frystak

In my second year at the University, I rediscovered Radiohead. If this band is unfamiliar to you, they write incredibly somber music that is often written to be commentary on society. My rediscovery of the band fueled my inspiration behind a typography-based project for one of my classes in Fall 2024. For the project, I was tasked with redesigning an album cover of my choice, in which I decided to redesign their 2007 album In Rainbows. At that time, my favorite song was the 5th track on the album All I Need, a heartbreaking yet toxic song about desperately reaching out to one’s partner only to be met with rejection. It wasn’t until the beginning of Spring 2025 that I truly branched away from In Rainbows and began listening to other songs in their discography. This rediscovery allowed me to listen to their third album OK Computer, and led me to finding Let Down again.

ORIGINAL INTERPRETATION

Let Down is devastating. It focuses on feeling crushed by the standards placed upon you by society, by friends and family, and most importantly, yourself. When I listened to this song again, that’s exactly how I interpreted the lyrics. Especially since I constantly feel a weight upon my shoulders in regard to many aspects of my life due to overthinking and anxiety, the lyrics made me feel an  intense melancholy. The only problem is that I kept listening to this song over and over again. I often get very attached to songs (e.g. in October 2024, that song was Judas by Lady Gaga) and eventually it became the only song I could listen to. I would listen to it while walking to my bus stop, while working on homework assignments, and even while cleaning my dorm room. Except at this point I had begun to reinterpret and reshape what the lyrics meant to myself. I began listening to the song in a more positive light.

REINTERPRETATION

There are a few lines in the song that really resonate with my reinterpretation:

“Crushed like a bug in the ground”

Personally, this is the most devastating line in the song after I started listening to the song with a new viewpoint. It talks about a person literally being crushed by expectations, with a focus on being walked over and discarded.

“Shell smashed, juices flowing. Wings twitch, legs are going”

This line focuses on that crushing weight of expectations and feeling like your’re failing to meet them or falling behind. It is also a representation of determination and continuing forward even when you are flattened. “Wings twitching” is a reference to a later line in the song while also referencing how tired birds desperately twitch their wings when they want to move but they can’t, while “legs are going” literally means they are trudging forward and pushing through.

“You know, you know where you are with. [...] Floor collapses, floating. Bouncing back”

I interpret this line in two ways: it is an acknowledgement that you are failing as well as a recognition that you are coming back. Additionally it represents that healing and recovering from a toxic mindset, where expectations are high, is not linear. It can take years to get rid of the mindset you once endured, often feeling like it is impossible to do so. Even if you do recover, you can fall back into the same mindset if you start to endure too much stress again. No matter what your recovery path looks like, this line is a reminder that you can be strong. Although your footing may fall out from beneath you, you can still recover.

“And one day, I am gonna grow wings. A chemical reaction. Hysterical and useless”

Wings are very prevalent in this song. This line specifically is interpreted in many different ways. What I believe this line represents is finding what helps you most past crushing expectations and discovering your full potential as an individual. It’s a hysterical process simply due to the joy in finding what relieves you of the weight on your shoulders.

CONCLUSION

Ultimately, songs can be interpreted and reinterpreted in any way the listener wants. Although, allowing myself to reinterpret Let Down has helped me to reevaluate how I decipher songs. It showed me that songs can have multiple meanings and the meanings can change depending on my own improvement in life. Overall, Let Down is a very significant song in my life that helped me develop a more determined point of view.