"Lotus Flower" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on their eighth studio album, The King of Limbs (2011). It features Thom Yorke's falsetto over syncopated beats and a synthesiser bassline. Its music video, featuring Yorke's erratic dancing, attracted millions of views and inspired an internet meme.
The Radiohead singer, Thom Yorke, debuted a solo version of "Lotus Flower" at the Echoplex in Los Angeles on 2 October 2009, while on tour with his band Atoms for Peace.[1] Like the rest of The King of Limbs, "Lotus Flower" was possibly recorded in the house of the actress Drew Barrymore.[2] On 24 January 2010, Radiohead suspended recording to perform at the Music Box Theater, Hollywood, to raise funds for Oxfam responding to the 2010 Haiti earthquake; at the show, Yorke performed "Lotus Flower" alone on acoustic guitar.[3] The show was released free online in December 2010 as Radiohead for Haiti.[3]
According to NME, "Lotus Flower" combines the electronic instrumentation of Radiohead's album Kid A (2000) with the "sonic warmth" of their album In Rainbows(2007).[4] It features Yorke's "Prince-like"[5]falsetto over syncopated beats and a "propulsive" synthesised bassline.[6][7][8] Though the main beat is in common time, the handclaps are in quintuple meter, creating a metric dissonance.[9]
"Lotus Flower" has a more traditional song structure than other songs on The King of Limbs.[10] Luke Lewis of the NME said it was "probably the only song on The King of Limbs with an actual chorus". Lewis speculated that the lyrics are about transcendence, self-effacement and "the magic of losing yourself in music and the senses".[4][6]
Billboard[14] and The New York Times praised "Lotus Flower" as the best track on The King of Limbs.[15]The A.V. Club described it as "a sensually slinky come-on that's one remix away from being a dance-floor favourite".[16]The Independent said it was "not exactly a singalong anthem" but "just blank and cryptic enough to sustain various interpretations".[17]NME called it "subtle but powerful",[6] and the Austin Chronicle called it "a commanding piece of modern electro-pop".[18] It was nominated for Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards.[19]
Radiohead released a music video for "Lotus Flower" on their YouTube channel on February 18, 2011.[11] It was directed by Garth Jennings and choreographed by Wayne McGregor, and features black-and-white footage of Yorke dancing erratically.[20] Yorke said of the video:[21]
I'm never confident about how I look, but I'm always into being shocking and visually interesting ... I was deeply uncomfortable with the "Lotus Flower" video. I did the whole thing, it was such a crack, and then they showed me the rushes the next day and I was like, "This ain't going out." It was like paparazzi footage of me naked or something. It was fucked up. But if it's a risk that's probably a good thing.
By 2013, the video had been viewed over 20 million times.[21] It sparked the "Dancing Thom Yorke" internet meme, whereby people replaced the video's audio or edited the visuals,[22] and led to the hashtag "#thomdance" trending on Twitter.[23] Yorke said about the response: "It's a massive kick. That's what everybody wants. If it's something you've worked at and it goes over the edge like that then that's great."[21]
IndieWire wrote that Jennings had turned Yorke's "spastic" dancing into art that it was "bizarrely compelling ... with Yorke's flailing, curiously spellbinding limbs as the main attraction".[24]Metro praised Yorke's performance, writing that "somehow, even though he seems to be a mass of tangled limbs in the grip of an attack of some sort, it works", but criticised the video set as "sparse to say the least".[25] The video was nominated for Best Music Video at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards.[19]