Radiohead have unveiled the news we have been waiting five long years to hear.
The five-piece will be releasing their ninth album this Sunday, May 8. The title is yet to be announced, but the band’s website now says that it will be out on Sunday May 8 at 7pm BST, which unfortunately is the equivalent of Monday morning at 4 am Sydney time. What a way to start the week, eh?
Earlier this week, they release new single and animated video for Burn The Witch. They have also now released a second single titled Daydreaming, both of which had been preceded by short snippets posted across social media.
Daydreaming is remarkable in how different it is to Burn The Witch. Visually, they are polar opposites; while the first video featured a twisted animation of a quaint town with a sinister secret (which some say is a critique of the European refugee crisis and Islamophobia), the new video is incredibly stark and stunningly shot, featuring a long-haired Thom Yorke venturing through a series of scenarios including a hospital, a family home and the carpark seen in the video teased just hours ago, to breathtaking beaches and snow-capped mountain ranges.
Musically, too, Burn The Witch was lush and rich, while Daydreaming could not sound more different. It is also one of the most devastating songs I think I’ve ever heard. It feels sparse, but it is intricate, complex and emotionally shattering, using silence as an important player in a delicate, glasslike soundscape. Sewn together by a repeated piano line, instrumental layers weave in and out of that core rhythm, eventually building in volume and intensity. Towards the end of the song, which runs for nearly six and a half minutes, dramatic strings sweep in, creating a magnificent environment that wouldn’t feel out of place on Amnesiac or Kid A.
Radiohead’s last album was similarly announced just days before its release, and they released it a day early anyway – so although the official countdown is currently sitting just shy of fifty-one hours, it may well come out earlier.
Below, watch the new video, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Anderson is best known for his films including Boogie Nights, Punch Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood and Magnolia.
Image: Youtube / Radiohead