meeting in the aisle

By Andrew Wyld

This is a difficult song to interpret, there being a complete lack of lyrics. However, I think it's about meeting someone strange on a train (or whatever) and the way it's possible to pass by in the street people who could affect our lives if we ever met them properly.

It starts in a kind of ethereal way, as though describing someone in a kind of dream. The background sound eventually starts to take on the attributes of a train - the repetitive noises, the clicking, the humming (as if from a motor) and this is why I think the drama (such as it is) takes place on a train. There's a feeling of sterility about the sound. I can't put my fingr on it.

Perhaps I should come back to it when I am sober. Or perhaps I should tell you my story about the cat. I choose option 1.
By Chris Anderson

I think Meeting in the Aisle (coincidentally my all-time favorite radiohead song) is exactly about that, two people meeting in the aisle. whenever i hear the song, all i can think of is two people with shopping carts meeting in the aisle of a supermarket or grocery store. the fade in and fade out of the song are sort of like when people are approaching one another and leaving, and the repetitive structure with a total lack of lyrics sort of reminds me of how we talk to one another about the same old thing over and over again ("how are you doing, lovely weather we're having") and yet somehow never end up saying ANYTHING that's even remotely relevant.
By Jarrod

sorry but im at work and im bored so im gonna interpetate the lyrics of an insturmental. first, this is song, and many others, turned me into a fan. because i used to work in a drugstore and they always played that horrible muszak. and this was like the kind of muszak id really like to listen to. And thats is what i think this song is. one day one of the band members was in a grocery store and there was an unbelievablely long line and the market was playing the horrible muszak. and it got stuck in the head of one of them. and the band decided to do its own kind of muszak. i think of big supermarkets with shiney linoliem floors and cans....pretty much the greenplastic video. toodles.
By Toastmaster

I see two people meeting in the aisle you walk down right before marriage, and then they walk down it and get married and start a little couple. A very Radiohead-ish image. Also fitting with the guy slow kissing the girl against a brick wall in MPIE.