Radiohead's habit of surprising fans continues. After pulling off a disappearing act from the internet in the beginning of May and subsequently releasing their first single in five years -- "Burn The Witch" -- the band recently released another single, "Daydreaming," and announced their ninth studio album. The record will be released digitally on May 8, 2016, at 7 pm (BST) and its physical copies will be available starting June 17, 2016.
While "Burn The Witch" has a sinister and tense vibe portrayed primarily through string arrangements and mid-tempo beats, "Daydreaming" sounds truly like a beautiful dream.
Lush piano layers, dreamy ambient atmospheres, cinematic sound effects and euphoric orchestration; this track has it all. Another attractive aspect of this song is frontman Thom Yorke's hypnotic vocals. In fact, Yorke's vocals might remind you of classic Radiohead songs such as "Pyramid Song," "All I Need" and "How To Disappear Completely."
Both "Burn The Witch" and "Daydreaming" have a music video accompanying them. And the way they sound, the music videos are also starkly different from each other. "Burn The Witch" is depicted through an animated stop-motion video and "Daydreaming" features Yorke walking around mountains, hospitals, forests, beaches and even a parking lot.
Earlier in April, Radiohead's manager Brian Message had said that the upcoming album will see the band producing a never-before-seen sound. Going by the way the two newly released tracks sound, a lot of surprises can be expected from the record. The album might just be a culmination of everything that Radiohead has experimented with in the past 25 years, that is, art rock, alternative rock, post-punk, dream pop, ambient techno and electronica. Radiohead has not revealed the name of the album yet.