| All I Need | |
| Cover: | All I Need Radiohead.png |
| Border: | yes |
| Type: | promo |
| Artist: | Radiohead |
| Album: | In Rainbows |
| Recorded: | 2005–2007 |
| Producer: | Nigel Godrich |
"All I Need" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, produced by Nigel Godrich. It was released as a promotional single on 5 January 2009, from their seventh studio album, In Rainbows (2007). "All I Need" is a downbeat track with lyrics about obsession and unrequited love.
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 1 May 2008. The video, which contrasts the lives of two boys from different economic backgrounds, received acclaim and won numerous awards.
Radiohead debuted "All I Need" at their 20 June 2006 performance at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.[1] The singer, Thom Yorke, told the audience that they had just "sketched [the song] out earlier and might get it wrong".
Radiohead recorded "All I Need" for their seventh studio album, In Rainbows (2007). They used a fan recording of the debut performance, uploaded to YouTube, as a reference when working in the studio; Yorke said: "It's all crunchy, it's all from mobile phone but... that's sort of an element of it I really find incredibly exciting."[2]
The guitarist Jonny Greenwood wanted to capture the sensation of white noise generated by "a band playing loudly in a room, when all this chaos kicks up".[3] Unable to produce the sound in a recording studio, Greenwood instead had a string section, the Millennia Ensemble, play every note of the scale, blanketing the audio frequencies. He also overdubbed his own viola playing.
The guitarist Ed O'Brien used a guitar strung with four bottom E strings, creating a thicker sound, combined with a sustain unit (allowing notes to be sustained indefinitely) and delay pedal.[4] Yorke said that the final version of "All I Need" was a combination of four different recordings.[5]
"All I Need" is a sombre song with lyrics detailing obsession and love.[5] [6] It incorporates strings,[7] synthesisers,[8] glockenspiel and piano.[9] Brian Howe of Paste wrote that it "contrasts baggy bass bleats with tiny, concise glockenspiel".[10] Robert Sandall of The Telegraph described it as Yorke's most "direct love song",[11] and Rolling Stone cited it as among "the most intense love songs [he] has ever sung".[12]
Yorke's lyrics incorporate metaphors describing unrequited love, describing himself as "an animal trapped in your hot car". In the final crescendo,[13] the album's "most cathartic release", Yorke sings "it's all right, it's all wrong" as Philip Selway's crash cymbals enter.[14] [15]
"All I Need" concludes the first half of In Rainbows.[9] On 5 January 2009, TBD Records and ATO Records released "All I Need" to United States adult album alternative radio, marking the fifth and final single from In Rainbows.[16] 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.[17] A performance of "All I Need" was included on the 2008 live video In Rainbows – From the Basement.[18] Yorke remixed "All I Need" as a new song, "Honey Pot", which he played during a guest appearance on the radio station KCRW in June 2013.[19]
Radiohead produced the music video for "All I Need" with MTV in support of the MTV EXIT campaign, which promotes awareness and increase prevention of human trafficking and modern slavery.[20] Yorke said of the project:
The video, directed by Steve Rogers and filmed in Australia by cinematographer John Seale, premiered on May 1, 2008.[21] In split screen, it depicts a day in the lives of two children from opposite sides of the world: a boy in the west from an affluent area, and a boy in the east forced to work in a sweatshop which produces shoes worn by the western boy. The video garnered 16 awards, including the UNICEF–CASBAA Asia-Pacific Child Rights Award,[22] 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.[23]
Thomas Leatham of Far Out named "All I Need" the third-best Radiohead song.[24]
Credits adapted from the In Rainbows liner notes.[25]