Song · In Rainbows era (2007–09)
House of Cards
A summery song about a key party, filmed without a single camera.
In Rainbowsalbum- 2007released
- 5:28length
2005–07
albatross, not iggy pop
Yorke played an acoustic version at the Trade Justice rally in London in 2005. An early band version had, by Colin Greenwood's account, a bassline in the style of R.E.M.; Jonny Greenwood wanted it to sound like an Iggy Pop song and later admitted that “would probably have killed something beautiful and tender”. Yorke and Philip Selway rebuilt it around the rhythm that ended up on the record.
Yorke's own description was “mellow and summery”, and the comparison he reached for was Fleetwood Mac's “Albatross”.
The words are unusually direct about infidelity, with the 1970s key party sitting right there in the first line, which is why Rolling Stone called it “surprisingly sexy”. In a television performance in 2008 Yorke dedicated the “denial, denial” refrain to George W. Bush, for the Kyoto Protocol.
2008
no cameras
James Frost directed the video using motion capture from Geometric Informatics and lidar from Velodyne, so nothing in it was filmed: Yorke's face is a moving cloud of measured points, and the party scenes are scanned rooms. The Guardian called it “spectral, dazzling and eerie”.
It was a strange experience, sitting in front of a laser in the dark, then emailing back and forth with James the director as he sat in front of computers for a whole month with the amazing technicians who processed the data… But it says something about the song and came out better than I had dared hope.
thom yorke
He liked the idea of using technology for something it was not built for, of turning people into “mathematical points… and how strangely emotional it ended up being”. Frost put it the other way round: “Everything is data. Everything around us is data-driven in some shape or form. We are so reliant on it that it seems like our lives are digital.”
Then they gave it away. The raw scan data was published under a Creative Commons licence on Google Code, as CSV and Processing code, so anyone could rebuild the video themselves.
The song went to American modern rock radio as a promo on 6 April 2008 and was nominated for three Grammys.
the video
The promo, directed by James Frost.· Radioheadwatch on youtube →
takes(2)
Live history
| Times played | 83 shows |
|---|---|
| Live debut | Saturday 6 May 2006 · Copenhagen |
| Last played | Wednesday 1 August 2018 · Philadelphia |
| Longest absence | 4 years · back on Saturday 1 April 2017 · Atlanta |
Nights played include broadcasts; opened and closed count gigs only. A cancelled night has no setlist. All setlist stats →
sources8
- “Radiohead”, Pitchfork, 28 March 2008.
- “Ghost in the Machine”, Mojo, 1 August 2006.
- Mark Binelli, “The future according to Radiohead”, Rolling Stone, 7 February 2008.
- Sean Michaels, “Radiohead's camera trick”, The Guardian, 14 July 2008.
- Eric Steuer, “Radiohead's ‘House of Cards’ video data published under Creative Commons licence”, Creative Commons, 14 July 2008.
- “Radiohead embrace open source”, TechRadar, 17 July 2008.
- Dorian Lynskey, “The Mojo interview”, June 2026.
- Mac Randall, Exit Music: The Radiohead Story, updated edition.