The eighth track on In Rainbows is a warm and dreamy grove that draws you in with its melodious sounds but leaves you feeling the chill of naked vulnerability. This song is written about you, whether you like it or not. For Radiohead, it isn't an issue of if this is part of your story; it is simply a question of what part of your life is this song about. You can say that these words have no connection to your life, but they have a word for that:
Denial, denial / Your ears should be burning
Denial, denial / Your ears should be burning / Denial, denial
What is the thread that holds your life together? Is it one that could be pulled away and cause everything to unravel? Is there someone or something that, if lost, would cause a systematic break down in your life?
Maybe you are already there. Maybe the house has already been knocked down. What will you rebuild with? Will it be the same things you built it with before or this time will you seek Something Stronger, Something Eternal?
The haunting lyric "the infastucture will collapse" points to the inevitability of a breakdown. Every house of cards will fall. It is not if, it is when.
This may well be the issue in our life Jesus was offering to tend to when he said, "Therefore everyone who hears [my words] and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. But everyone who hears [my words] and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand."
House Of Cards (lyrics)
by Radiohead
I don't want to be your friend
I just want to be your lover
No matter how it ends
No matter how it starts
Forget about your house of cards
And I'll do mine
Forget about your house of cards
And I'll do mine
Fall off the table,
Get swept under
Denial, denial
The infrastructure will collapse
Voltage spikes
Throw your keys in the bowl
Kiss your husband goodnight
Forget about your house of cards
And I'll do mine
Forget about your house of cards
And I'll do mine
Fall off the table,
And get swept under
Denial, denial
Denial, denial
Your ears should be burning
Denial, denial
Your ears should be burning
Denial, denial
