On the latter half of a life lived in a tie and buttoned collar, either the tie asphyxiates the wearer or the wearer loses the tie.
One could go the way of Ernest Hemingway — drunken author and father of mainstream depression — offing themselves after a life of work and cynicism, or give up the gun and retire to a simpler life.
With a new world tour and an album to propel it, British rockers Radiohead have struggled to find a happy medium.
Unsurprisingly, the product is beautiful.
Radiohead’s fourth stop in the U.S. had them playing before a crowd of more than 19,000 in Houston’s Toyota Center on Saturday, with Oklahoma’s Other Lives touring as the palette-cleanser.
Looking back on the show as a live recording of Radiohead’s “Idioteque” plays in the car taking me home, frontman Thom Yorke’s charismatically carefree stage presence the night before only makes sense in the wake of a life of buttoned collars.
The band’s deepening angle peaked out intermittently throughout 1999’s “OK Computer” and became realized in the pairing of “Kid A” and “Amnesiac,” maturing with each subsequent album.
And while 2007’s “In Rainbows” felt like advice from the wise and experienced, the live presentation of latest album “The King of Limbs” feels like the loosened tie and cocktail after an arduous workday.
Yorke’s idiosyncratic dancing was once a novelty and a treat — now it’s the star of the show.
And with that much flailing and jiving, perhaps Yorke inspired the newest album title (I guess it’s all you can do to get that many pretentious hipsters to dance).
The drawling jams of “Limbs” proved to be the perfect complement to the old shouts of “This is really happening” and “Off with his head, man,” especially when you consider the band’s separation-turned-hiatus which followed “In Rainbows.”
“Limbs” marks the natural progression noted above. When “In Rainbows” had the band reconsidering their ability to dive deeper yet, now we see a band who has returned to the simple joy of playing together.
And Yorke’s jitters, nods and leaps boast the prestigious status which allows him to do so, much like Paul McCartney’s diddy “Dance Tonight,” Robert Plant’s work with Alison Krauss or LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy’s opulent resignation in a sold-out Madison Square Garden.
Radiohead remembered what they loved about the business, and when you see them on stage, you can tell.
Yorke’s new ponytail must have happened by necessity upon donning his new moves — reserved bassist Colin Greenwood even danced in the corner of stage right. And guitarist Johnny Greenwood’s persistent eyes on Yorke made each new track feel evermore like a group of old friends having fun together.
They bore the manner of parents who’ve seen their children go off to college. The show oozed pride and practice, and the band couldn’t have appeared more grateful to the sold-out stadium before them.
Even more exciting, the groovy electronic beat of their newest track “Identikit” betrays more fun to be had. And if their show was anything to judge by, Radiohead is excited for the future.
The most beautiful thing about the experience was the looming fact that this band has no necessity to persist: Radiohead solidified its place in music history long ago.
The logical conclusion is that they’re only here because they want to be, and from a band like Radiohead, it means a lot.
They proved it by closing with classic jam, “Paranoid Android.”
Clayton Crockett is a 20-year-old international studies sophomore from Lafayette. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_ccrockett.
 
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Contact Clayton Crockett at [email protected]