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Lush Arpeggios and Nervous Twists – “Bending Hectic”

When thinking about a song to do a deep dive in, there were a variety of really evocative ones that went through my head – the tragic, operatic, synth-filled “At the Door” by The Strokes, the epic odyssey of “Fire on High” by ELO. I almost decided to write about the wild, strange, and dangerous speed chase of “Sugar/Tzu” by Black Midi, but my mind just kept coming back to—

"Bending Hectic" music video, an animation by Sabrina Nichols and Stanley Donwood.

I talked a bunch about The Smile, the band trio of Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and Tom Skinner, in my blog post about their tour this summer (still wish I could’ve gone in person!), and I think I already talked a little bit about “Bending Hectic” there. The Smile is going to be releasing their second album in January, which I'm super pumped about. This song is funny because I knew even before my Spotify Wrapped dropped that this would be my top track, and indeed it was with 131 listens this year.

“Bending Hectic” is immensely cinematic, beginning with hushed lyrics from Thom Yorke in this incredibly evocative, emotionally moving experience, and it eventually turns into a soaring and jagged heavy metal climax. The specific emotions that this song as a whole evokes in how it sounds are very particular. There are very specific songs I associate with that vibe like “Bending Hectic” such as "Aruarian Dance" by Nujabes (and the song that samples, "The Lamp Is Low" by Laurindo Almeida), “Night Lights (1965 Version)” by The Gerry Mulligan Sextet, “Mojo Pin” by Jeff Buckley, and “Darkest Dreaming” by David Sylvian.

Love this song, so comforting.

It's cool to hear the original sample to get the original context and how Nujabes utilized it. This song is such a vibe too.

Bending Hectic was my top song this year. This was my top song last year.

Really serene yet pained, it also transitions between soothing chorus to more a more direct chorus.

This one makes you feel like you're floating in the night sky and lying in bed at the same time.

The ultimate comfort song, like an emotional lullaby.

Big nighttime vibes, or a rainy day, or any calm, maybe nature-oriented, atmosphere. The actual lyrics of "Bending Hectic" mention driving along the Italian mountainside. It's very intimate. Warm in that sense, also but very calm and tranquil, a cool, deep purplish blue.

I first heard this live performance of the song a few months before the studio version released, and seeing the stage lighting may have affected my perception of the "color" of the song.

There’s a lot of really interesting things about "Bending Hectic," like that genre shift, percussion, and use of strings, but its most curious feature is the lush, calming main guitar chord cycle which always ends with an off-kilter high twisting and turning, as if Jonny Greenwood is tuning the guitar. In this eight-minute track, more than four minutes have this tune playing, the first of two stretches of it being nearly three minutes, and it really informs the whole feeling of the song because of that even despite the big mood transition towards the end.

The song begins with the guitar chords, accompanied by a deep, sentimental bass tune, low jangling and gentle, rising crash cymbal sounds. (A quick aside about the bass, it really is a big contributor to that tranquil, emotional feeling, very comforting, and it periodically rises up in a kind of searching, yearning way). When you hear that twisting higher and higher at the end of the chord cycle for the first time, it really throws you off-kilter considering how soothing the tune is. This is the backbone of the song thematically, and we’ll see how it complements the lyrics and how other parts of the song echo it.

From what immensely little I know about music theory outside of Carnatic music (even there I have much to learn), I suspected that the chord cycle is an arpeggio, and my sister (who plays piano) confirmed this. When she heard the off-kilter guitar tuning part, she said that it was not really part of the arpeggio, but rather the same note being tuned higher and higher. With this we can distinguish the arpeggio and the guitar bending.

On r/thesmile I came across someone pointing out the incredible similarity of the arpeggio of "Bending Hectic" and this song, which is super cool. If you were to remove the guitar bending of Bending Hectic's main chord cycle it would give a similar feeling to this.

Possible inspiration for Bending Hectic verse chords byu/smithsonian44 inTheSmile

The distinction made by my sister is formal music-theory-wise, but emotionally it’s felt too. With the particular feeling of the arpeggio, my sister mentioned a song that had a similar-sounding arpeggio as well. I bring this up because despite that similarity note-wise, it feels different, and that may come down to the type of guitar. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find what specific guitar is used for this track, but the song my sister talked about had a sharper, acoustic sound compared to lusher sound of "Bending Hectic." The looseness of these chords makes it feel more raw. Key may play a component too, with "Bending Hectic" being in a lower key. It evokes much more soothing feelings, as if things are okay, like you’re taking a moment to relax, just taking it all in. (Like I said before, purplish-blue, RIGHT? ....No, just me?)

See! Purplish-blue.

Also mentioned earlier was how the song talks about driving along the Italian mountains, time being frozen as “you’re gazing at the view,” and it’s a genuinely beautiful feeling. ...Except when Thom Yorke says “Italian mountainside,” it’s “a sheer drop down the Italian mountainside.” It’s a car crash in slow motion. "I swear I'm seeing double, ohohh...." (I really love how Thom sings this line in particular - it brings this aching, accepting quality that matches the chilling string notes). It's weird because despite the danger of the lyrics, the arpeggio is telling you: "it's okay, you can rest now." You just want to float.... The arpeggio’s serene comfort is so essential to the feeling of the song, which makes the guitar bending that much more noticeable. The guitar bending out of tune goes higher and higher at some times, and at other times it goes lower and lower. Both give this growing nervous feeling, gnawing at you despite the calm. The threat of the car skidding “‘round the hairpin.” Every time the arpeggio plays out its vulnerability lulls you into a sense of security and, but then every time guitar bending concludes the arpeggio that security gets thrown off. Then when the arpeggio comes again it lulls you again and you say despite the nervousness “no one’s gonna bring me down,” but then you realize that determination is not to keep on going but instead to “let go of the wheel,” and he's fed up and wants to crash…etcetera etcetera. It’s a wobbling feeling of constantly having these two conflicting forces, and it’s unsteady despite feeling smooth overall. This three-minute beginning part of the song before the first chorus swings back and forth in tempo, starting slow, rapidly speeding up, and then slowing down. When the arpeggio speeds up with its lushness it feels like a wave of relief; when the guitar bending speeds up higher that nervousness tightens more and more.

A pic of Jonny Greenwood, Tom Skinner, and Thom Yorke released along with the announcement of The Smile's 2nd album Wall of Eyes, which "Bending Hectic" will be on as well. The newest single released, which is the title track for the album, and it definitely has that dichotomy of calm and panic too lol.

The portion of the song (at the timestamp 4:14) following the first chorus returns to that arpeggio again, but this time at a steady tempo in line with the stable drum beat. The guitar tuning end of the arpeggio cycle plays on the down beat with the drums. Here, it’s stable, even with that off-kilter bending, which plays on the off-beat consistently. As I thought about this, I got the idea that the foreboding bending could now be something we’ve become comfortable with, but as I thought more about it while discussing with my sister, it’s more so continuing to creep up and threaten the stability that’s been constructed. The warm, optimistic strings cut out, and we’re back to just the guitar, drums and bass again. The bass stays low and steady in a foreboding manner. Lyrically it’s becoming more tense too – Thom says “the ground is coming for me now. I’ve gone over the edge. If you’ve got something to say…say it now.” With the guitar bending the song is slowly ratcheting up tension, as within the stable, narrow tempo and low wavering bass line there’s something simmering, that twisting nervousness remains even still – yes we may be used to it now but it’s also threatening to go careening off-course.

That’s exactly what does happen after Thom concludes the verse by saying again “I’m letting go of the wheel,” and all instruments cut out as strings are re-introduced. They're at first expressing concern, and then they turn shrill, horrifying, straight out of a horror movie. (The Shining comes to mind).

Michael Giacchino cooked so hard with The Batman score...the rising strings here!

This is when the song goes full metal mode. Though the arpeggio doesn’t return again, as this is the final climactic stretch, the same bending tuning comes back in the form of Thom’s vocals and the exploding guitar. He goes “Tuuuuuuurrnnnn” as his voice twists higher and higher, and the guitar matches him. I’m reminded of Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s theme for The Joker in the score for The Dark Knight – the track has a similar nervous twisting off-kilter rising electric guitar.

I think it’s really cool how the central arpeggio and guitar tuning sound of this song forms the backbone of its “bending” motif, which all comes together in its final chorus thematically. It all converges here – in the thick of the car crash, despite the “slings” and “arrows” and obstacles, the crisis that we’ve been thinking would happen, we force ourselves to push through, and that turning wheel to avoid death is expressed with the same high-pitched bending guitar we’ve been hearing throughout the song. The line “I’ve got these slings, I’ve got these arrows” in the first chorus made it seem like “I force myself to turn” was an act of wanting the crash, but now it’s “despite these slings, despite these arrows,” and trying to turn has now become an act of perseverance, an effort to survive. It’s interesting because even though the “turn” is said with hope, in the same sentiment of “no one’s gonna bring me down, no” the foreboding guitar bending we've heard all this time and now hear again suggests that the crash and burn is inevitable. Maybe you can’t escape the crash you wanted so desperately before. The song ends with that feeling in a distorted gnarl of defeat. But the merging of incoming, inevitable pain with perseverance as done using the central guitar bending and concluding lyrics give an ambiguity, not entirely shutting that hope out entirely. It’s a specific line that two of The Smile’s members have walked with their bandmates in Radiohead in songs like “Let Down,” “How to Disappear Completely,” and “Weird Fishes/ Arpeggi.” The Smile's newest single for Wall of Eyes also has that, though its sentimentality is more superficial compared to its jaded outlook.

That dichotomy of hope and despair seems to always come back. One side never quite wins entirely.

The Smile – Bending Hectic (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival)

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(vía (126) The Smile – Bending Hectic (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival) - YouTube)

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