9. Thom Yorke - Harrowdown Hill (from "The Eraser")This eerie track tells us about David Kelly, whom you may remember as the British chemical expert who related key details of the so-called September Dossier (about the false allegations of Iraqi WMDs) to the BBC in 2003. After said breach, a few weeks later Kelly was found in a wooded area of Harrowdown Hill, his wrists slit. See Wikipedia and At Ease as a starting point for more information.Despite it being topical, the ambiguity of this track impresses me, as it does not imply that Kelly's death was suicidal or not. More interestingly it concentrates on the pervasiveness and persuasiveness of bureaucratic power. Once you become inconvenient to the machine's agenda, the amount to which you can be worked over by the endless machinations of the ministry is truly frightening. If Mr. Kelly was not murdered by the ministry, his suicide was prompted by the insurmountable stress that it imposed upon him for being disobedient, regardless of the fact that he was in the right for letting the public know about these dealings.Scary stuff indeed, and Mr. Yorke succeeds at creating an unnerving environment. Of particular note is the mid-volume synth that occupies most of the song, which wavers unsteadily and is phased in a strange strangulated way. This is helped by a wonderfully nervous-sounding crunchy guitar supported by a drum machine that's never sure of what beat it's trying to make.Not only a wonderful song but also commendable for tackling a topical subject with such tact and poetry.