A New Radiohead Song Hits The Internet

"These Are My Twisted Words" Causes Mass Speculation, Pandemonum

Aug 18, 2009 Eric Gibbs

This is not a drill, there's a new Radiohead song just a click of the mouse away. The question is: what does this mean for the future of the beloved paranoid androids?

Attention Radiohead fans: everyone’s favorite alternative/ neo-prog/ electronica/ kraut rock influenced/ whatever you feel like labeling them band has just released a new song via the information superhighway.

This time they’re saving you the agony of deciding how much music is worth and just making it free (like In Rainbows was for a lot of people anyway). The single is called “These Are My Twisted Words” and you can find it now at the band's online store.

"Wait, This All Sounds Familiar..."

As has been previously alluded to here, this isn’t the first time Radiohead has utilized the Internet to release new material before physically doing so. 2007’s In Rainbows sent shockwaves through the music industry because Thom Yorke and crew decided to release it their own website and allow downloaders to pay what they chose for the album. The prevailing opinion at the time was that this was a revolutionary, if slightly baffling, move.

Why would Radiohead, arguably the biggest band in the world, allow massive amounts of people to get something for free that they clearly would have shelled out thirteen bucks or more to get anyway? The answer involves seeing through the group’s outwardly philanthropic gesture. According to this report from NME the album was more financially successful than Hail to the Thief, their previous effort, and that was even before it was physically released several months later.

Whether or not the band made a calculated fiscal decision in releasing In Rainbows online, they must have had some inkling that it would pay off. In addition to the name-your-own price download the Radiohead included a package of the album on vinyl, bonus tracks on a second CD, and additional artwork. This item sold for forty pounds (about eighty dollars), and because of its status as a collector’s item it sold about 100,000 units according to the previously cited NME article.

Add that to the money exclusively from the download gambit and the album’s eventual conventional release (it went straight to number one in the US and England) and, well, you’ve got a lot of money coming in.

Now back to the present, where Radiohead is feeling all subversive again. “These Are My Twisted Words” is reportedly a new song, at least according to the band's official website, and not a tossed off track from the In Rainbows sessions. The song combines a metronomic, krautrock-inflected beat with chiming guitar and sparse, haunting vocals. It’s about the spaceiest, most jam-oriented thing the band has released thus far, and all in all it’s a pretty good track. Not their most striking work, but not marginal by any means.

What "These Are My Twisted Words" May Mean In Terms Of The Band's Future Releases

So, as Radiohead fans collectively salivate like Pavolov’s dogs, the next step is to figure out just what this release means A May 18th Stereokill.com article posted by Andrew had the band in the studio to commence work on their eighth LP, but this more recent report has the Thom Yorke flatly denying any forthcoming full album, at least in a traditional sense. A compromise between the two contradicting statements was rumored to be an EP, but instead just the one song was released. Stay glued to deadairspace, people, this promises to be interesting.

It’s probably too soon to make anything out of all this yet, but there’s always room for speculation. Keep in mind that the world only had ten days to prepare for the online release of In Rainbows, so a sudden LP release is not out of the question. The most recent statement from Thom Yorke stated that the band is not interested in conventional releases, so expect any future releases to come online.

More than anything else, however, fans should expect the unexpected. Radiohead thrives on going against the grain. Their next action could contradict every previous statement they’ve made so far. The song could be a teaser for the band’s next out-of-left-field cash cow or a stand-alone item. Maybe we’ll end up with a Walmart-only release of the Wall of Ice EP with ten different collectable covers, only time will tell. Until then Radiohead fans can listen to The Bends and reminisce about the bygone days when the Internet was for porn and not keeping daily tabs on the enigmatic Brits.

The copyright of the article A New Radiohead Song Hits The Internet in Alternative Music is owned by Eric Gibbs. Permission to republish A New Radiohead Song Hits The Internet in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Thom Yorke is not amused.

What do you think about this article?

---

NOTE: Because you are not a Suite101 member, your comment will be moderated before it is viewable.

post your comment

What is 2+10?

Comments

Aug 19, 2009 12:04 AM

Steven Cookson :

I was in the process of writing an article about this but you've said pretty much what I was thinking so there's no need for repetition. Good ending too, by the way.

I really like what Radiohead are doing with all this online stuff as it is exciting and takes the power away from the record companies and the media who can only speculate as to what will happen next. The song is brilliant but it sounds like an OK Computer era B-side, which makes me think that there will be a collection of songs (EP or otherwise) in the near future.

1 Comment: