Radiohead - Daydreaming

Who else could make all the bird-chiping, hype-gaining, blizzard of rumours worth it? The past seven days could be put down as a serious waste of time, if it wasn’t for Radiohead releasing two startling, ambitious songs to rival their finest moments.

It feels like they’ve been saving their most devastatingly beautiful moment until now. Sod the eight albums that existed before. Every speck of ‘Daydreaming’ is emotionally-driven, from barely-there atmospherics to the simplest, roundabout piano line Thom Yorke’s delivered in years. It’s stupidly pretty. Bleak as hell, too, when you peer below the surface.

“This goes beyond me, beyond you,” sings Yorke, in signature abstraction. In that line, he sums up Radiohead when they’re at their best. These songs take you out of the everyday. There’s a transcendence that goes way beyond fun nonsense like teaser videos and will-they-won’t-they gossip. Radiohead are masters of mystery, but they know when to strike when it matters.