Radiohead performed first "Jigsaw Falling into Place" on their 2006 tour with the working title "Open Pick". Mike Diver of Drowned in Sound described it as a "bass-propelled pop-rock head-bobber". According to singer Thom Yorke, the lyrics are about drinking to forget: "When you're part of a group of people who are all trying to forget en masse, it is partly this elation. But there's a much darker side." Adam Buxton, who directed the music video, said the song was about "being out on the town on a lairy Saturday night".
Release
"Jigsaw Falling into Place" was released on 14 January 2008 as the lead single from their seventh studio album In Rainbows. It was released in the UK by independent labelXL Records. It reached #30 in the UK Singles Chart in its first week of release, Radiohead's lowest chart entry since "Lucky" in 1995. It spent several weeks as one of the 100 most played songs on US modern rock radio, peaking at #69.
Reception
Time named "Jigsaw Falling into Place" the fifth best song of 2007. Time writer Josh Tyrangiel praised the song's "tightness" and rising intensity, which he likened to a three-act play. He described the song as "a journey through flirtation, consummation and regret gets about as close as you can to summing up a doomed relationship in four minutes". Drowned in Sound described it as a "easy enough on the ear for indirect consumption... but compositionally complex beneath a deceptively simple outer gloss for long-standing admirers to get sufficient kicks from". Clash wrote: "It's good but like the much-hyped In Rainbows album, musically it's unadventurous." In 2016, Rolling Stone readers voted it one of the bestRadiohead songs released since the 1990s. Along with the 2000 Radiohead song "Everything in Its Right Place", "Jigsaw Falling into Place" inspired contemporary classical composer Steve Reich's instrumental work Radio Rewrite. Reich described "Jigsaw Falling into Place" as "a beautiful song" with "elaborate harmonic movement".
Music video
The music video features the members of Radiohead performing in their studio with footage shot from cameras attached to bicycle helmets. The video was directed by Adam Buxton, who said: "We put on each member of the band, did two takes, and it worked brilliantly. It was one of my proudest moments."
