Thom Yorke has revealed the sound and themes of his upcoming solo album in a cover story for Crack magazine. The album is reportedly being released by XL Recordings. It will be the Radiohead frontmans third proper solo LP, and his first since 2014s Tomorrows Modern Boxes.
In a wide-ranging Q&A, Yorke described the new record as an anxiety-fueled electronic nightmare of a dystopian world in other words, a Thom Yorke album. Author J.G. Ballard, avant-garde musician Scott Walker, and the improvisatory live shows of Flying Lotus all came up as influences, as did Yorkes literal bad dreams.
Have you ever flown to Tokyo? he said. That jet lag is the definition of an existential crisis, every time. There was one night where Id go to sleep, two hours later Im absolutely wide awake and I just had these images humans and rats changed places. A dream. And as I came out, I woke up with this really strong set of images of girls in tottering heels, but theyre actually rats and the human beings are in the drains. I had another one, these weird images of the city of London and all the skyscrapers are just shuffling along.
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Yorke told the magazine that the new album, which he made with longtime collaborator Nigel Godrich, follows a period of dreadful writers block. Things slowed down for a while and Im happy I can work again and come back into focus, he said. I seemed to spend a lot of time in my basement, in the studio for two years, and suddenly everything that was kicking around in there is starting to come out.
He also confirmed that Radiohead have been examining their archives as the 20th anniversary of 2000s groundbreaking Kid A approaches. Earlier this spring, when Radiohead were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, drummer Phil Selway told Rolling Stone that the band would likely do a similar thing to the 20th anniversary OK Computer package they released in 2017: Weve not listened back to the outtakes and the other things we were working. I know theres a wealth of stuff there.
Speaking to Crack, Yorke, who skipped the Rock Hall ceremony, said that those plans are now underway: Recently, Ive been going through the Kid AandAmnesiacstuff with the others. We were all a bit mad by the end of that period. I was so focused and at the same time angry, confused, paranoid. Im looking at all these people involved, going Who the fuck are these people?! Were going to do something really cool with all that material.
Yorke concluded a U.S. tour mostly devoted to songs from Tomorrows Modern Boxes in December. He has a string of new solo tour dates in Europe coming up this July, and in October, hell return to the U.S. for the Austin City Limits festival, where he is officially billed as Thom Yorke Tomorrows Modern Boxes.