“Harry, of all the tracks you heard this year, which was the one you used the most for testing hi-fi?”.
OK, I’ve not technically been asked that particular question at all throughout 2025, but I imagine that at least one person has thought about asking it during the past twelve months. I’ve certainly pondered it, although I am admittedly someone who spends all of their time obsessing over the fact that Tidal doesn’t do official track play counts.
That said, I did have the pleasure of Tidal’s ‘Rewind 2025’ retrospective which, while not as in-depth as Spotify’s almost fanatically analytical rundown, did reveal that my top tracks of the year featured the likes of Slipknot, Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Avenged Sevenfold, Nine Inch Nails, Chris Cornell, Massive Attack and, of course, Lady Gaga.
That list was also decently represented by our old hi-fi favourites Radiohead, with Codex (hidden gem), Everything In Its Right Place (classic) and Decks Dark (underrated) all making the final shakeup. Then, right near the top of the pile, was the tune I used for hi-fi testing more than any other.
Burn the Witch has been my most used test track of 2025. While it was released way back in 2016, it’s taken me a while to get on board with Radiohead’s most recent album, A Moon Shaped Pool, so the delights of its lead track lay as unused and underappreciated as a dusty tome lurking in the corner of a creaky attic.
What a test track I was missing out on. When I gave the tune its own entry on our March edition of Now Playing, I described Burn The Witch as “a prescient, adrenaline-inducing polemic whose ever-amplifying drama and deft-handed orchestration make for a fine challenge of a speaker's organisational and rhythmic abilities”.
Breaking down a breakdown
Let’s break this all down with a handy play-by-play to see why that’s the case.
The whole arrangement is built around strings, which in itself is unusual for a reasonably mainstream record, opening with brisk, metronomic violin stabs underpinned by deeper cellos resonating below.
While those violins do most of the work in giving the track a scratchy, frenzied feel, the overall production has, if you listen closely, a sort of fuzzy softness which only lends to its slightly surreal, unsettling appeal.
Thin, slightly synthetic drums pop in at around the 12-second mark, before Thom Yorke’s unique vocals arrive at around 30 seconds.
Stop listening after a few more seconds and, even at that early stage, you’ll have a decent idea of whether your system has the organisational abilities to keep those varied elements fully in order, while ensuring the song’s relentless forward momentum is being conveyed with appropriate precision.
Things continue to build until the 1:30 mark, at which point a woozy, dreamy interlude should give you a decent idea of how your hi-fi system or headphones handle a change in pace and mood.
The next marker you should be looking out for comes at 2:29, and if you’re seeking a shortcut for your testing convenience, this is it.
Here the final push kicks into gear, with a multitude of strings combining with fullness and intent as the pace seems to quicken and the anxiety dial moves from ‘slight unease’ to ‘I haven't got any fingernails left’.
By the time you’re at 3:20, you should be all but assaulted by a musical barrage overlaid by violent screeches of Psycho-esque strings.
The whole of Burn the Witch is a test of dynamics, both in terms of low-level distinctions between notes and those broader, bolder shifts as things build to a climax, but this is the moment when you’ll really see how much drama your system can produce.
Only the finest components are able to replicate fully the ever-growing assault mounted by that terrifying final third.
The Musical Fidelity B1xi amplifier, for instance, demonstrated an adept handling of those crisp strings and the timbre of Yorke's nervous crooning, but couldn't match the explosive drama of the track's final third as capably as the Award-winning Arcam A5+ thanks to the latter amp's more astute dynamic handling.
(Don't) panic!
This song really is all about feeling. We usually talk about test tracks tapping into those classic emotions – sadness, melancholy, happiness, the desire to tap your toes – but bringing out genuine anxiety is a far rarer thing.
It’s a tricky thing for music to elicit (unless you live on your nerves like I do), but it’s the fundamental marker of how well your system conveys the ever-building dread conjured by a song characterised by a relentlessly panicked, almost accusatory nature.
Burn the Witch has been my go-to test track for 2025, and will likely feature heavily in 2026. As a workout for all of the key fundamentals of what any hi-fi or headphones should be capable of communicating – rhythms, dynamics, textural details, organisation, emotional resonance – it’s hard to beat.
As this is the season of giving and goodwill, consider it my gift to you – I hope it serves you as well as it has served me over the past 12 or so months. Here’s to finding something even better in 2026!
MORE:
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