Thom Yorke uses Radiohead’s “Burn the Witch” to comment on the ill-fated 2016 election

Those in America and beyond immediately reacted when faced with the chilling reality that Donald Trump would become the next 45th President of the United States. Markets plummeted, parents cried for their children, and Trump-targeted Hispanic and Muslim communities cringed at the thought of living under a leader who preached xenophobia and divisiveness.

Very early Wednesday morning, just a few hours after Trump officially captured 270 electoral votes, Thom Yorke took to Twitter to reflect on what had transpired. Rather than offer up his own words, the Radiohead frontman so aptly deferred to the lyrics of A Moon Shaped Pool track “Burn the Witch”: “avoidall eye contactdo not reactshoot the messengersthis is a low flying panic attacksingthesong of sixpencethatgoes.”

If you’ll recall, according to its animator Virpi Kettu, theWicker Man-inspired video for “Burn the Witch” commented on the European refugee crisis and the “blaming of different people… the blaming of Muslims and the negativity.” As Billboard noted previously, Kettu “alluded to the mysterious postcard some Radiohead fans received recently that read ‘we know where you live,’ a suggestion, she thought, of the current insecurity and blame game spawned by anti-immigration politicians.”

Originally published at consequenceofsound.net on November 9, 2016.