If their peak early years generally left the dubious impression that Radiohead was cold, remote, or as focused on sloganeering and generating sinister moodscapes as making music, their post-In Rainbows career has often seemed like a concerted effort to feel, to the outside world, more overtly “human.” This ambition finds maybe its most elegant shape in the new video for “Present Tense” (once again helmed by “Daydreaming” director and frequent Jonny Greenwood collaborator Paul Thomas Anderson). Minimized to just three camera set-ups and a light, no-funny-business performance by Greenwood and Thom Yorke (wearing a tank top, no less!), PTA trades the haunted dreaminess of his previous excursion with the band for something more rigorously direct. As much as they excel at fostering an atmosphere of dystopian gloom, “Present Tense” is an inviting reminder that Radiohead is also probably at heart a band that likes to jam together and eat chips.
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