Radiohead are one of my favourite bands of all time, and the cryptic lead-up to their new album is quickly becoming my favourite scavenger hunt ever.
Following a year that’s already chock full of surprise releases, extensive delays and albums that are finished but then not really finished, Radiohead are weird and wonderful. I love that they’ve gone the complete opposite way to the majority of artists, in their attempts to not only avoid social media, but remove themselves from it entirely.
Earlier this week, after posting cryptic fliers to fans in the UK, Thom Yorke and company deleted everything off their social media accounts and their official website, going so far as to change the URL from radiohead.com to radiohead.com/deadairspace*.
A few hours ago they returned to the internet by posting a video of an animated bird chirping, most likely referring to both the Dawn Chorus, the name of the company they recently purchased (which they did before their previous two albums The King of Limbs and In Rainbows, thus starting the speculation about anew album) and the phrase “Sing a song of sixpence,” as written in the aforementioned fliers.
Now they’ve posted a second video their social media accounts and website:
The claymation snippet, backed by a chirpy brass-laden instrumental, is obviously an animation of the “BURN THE WITCH” part of the flier. Could this music be the first snippet of a new song from the album? If so, we’re certainly in for something different to what most would have expected.
WHAT. DOES. IT MEAN. ?!?!?!?!?!
*What is Dead Air Space, you may be wondering?
Prior to the band deleting their website, Dead Air Space was reportedly a blog-type area of Radiohead’s website, a space used by the band as a way to communicate directly with fans. This section would include lists of songs they were listening to, general news, releases, live appearances and so on. It was apparently at its most active in the years between In Rainbows and The King of Limbs (so that’s 2007-2011), and would occasionally even include political commentary on current issues, penned by either York or guitarist Ed O’Brien. Most recently, Radiohead announced Spectre, the James Bond theme song that never was, on Dead Air Space when it was released last Christmas.
Image: Radiohead / Instagram