Dancing For Pennies

The Smile “Pana-Vision”

A lot of people talk about how they want to feel “seen,” particularly by those who love them. And not just to simply be perceived, but fully understood in that gaze. “Pana-Vision” is a song that makes that concept seem awful and terrifying, with Thom Yorke giving voice to a character who is rattled by his apparent partner’s mysterious, cosmic, and inescapable surveillance. The music is led by Yorke’s piano, which moves between a circular melodic motif and his oddly distinctive way of playing rhythmic chords. Tom Skinner plays jazzy around the piano while Jonny Greenwood goes overtly cinematic in orchestration, making the music fall somewhere in an odd space between eerie horror and regal grandeur. That tone is just right for Yorke’s lyrical conceit – you can’t quite tell whether he’s more frightened or awed through most of it, and by the end he seems to be willfully succumbing to her power.

Buy it from Bandcamp.