It has now been over eight years since Radiohead released a new record, the longest dormant period in the Oxford quintet’s career by some distance. But the band’s members have been anything but idle during that time. There have been solo excursions, side-projects, soundtracks and more. Frontman Thom Yorke, for example, has been particularly prolific form of late.
This year alone he released an excellent second album with The Smile, the trio he’s in alongside Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, and also found the time to record the soundtrack to the Italian film Confidenza. Yorke resisted any solo work until deep into the band’s career, eventually veering off on his own to make 2006’s The Eraser whilst Radiohead debated how to tackle the record that would become In Rainbows.
He hasn’t looked back since, his solo and extra-curricular work often a place where he can try things that might not fit into Radiohead’s world, be it electronic experiments, looped techno beats, unsettling soundscapes or getting Flea to play bass. Here are ten of the best Yorke cuts away from the band where he made his name...
Harrowdown Hill (2006)
The astounding highlight of Yorke’s 2006 solo debut The Eraser, Harrowdown Hill is one of the Radiohead frontman’s most political songs (it’s about the death of David Kelly, the Welsh scientist who said the UK government had wrongly claimed to have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq). It’s also one of his best, building up over intricate layers of skittish beats, a future-funk bassline and ominous synths until it breaks into a frenetic burst of guitar right at the end.
Hearing Damage (2009)
A curio from an artist whose solo work has its own curio sub-section (I mean, have you heard his warped 2021 reworking of Creep?), Hearing Damage is odd mainly because of how straightforward and melodic it is. Earlier in 2009, Yorke had released standalone single FeelingPulledByApartByHorses, all jittery beats, buried melodies and menacing basslines, but here he steps into the light. Included on the soundtrack to the 2009 movie Twilight: New Moon, Hearing Damage is minimalist electro brilliance, a staccato beat and atmospheric synths laying the groundwork for Yorke’s yearning vocal to lift the whole thing skyward.
Default (2013)
In 2009, Yorke put together a band to perform songs from The Eraser for a US tour. Alongside Yorke, the group featured Radiohead’s long-standing producer Nigel Godrich on keyboards and guitars, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, Beck and R.E.M. drummer Joey Waronker and percussionist Marco Refosco. The alchemy between the five-piece was so potent that Yorke got them in a room for a few days to get down some ideas, taking those jams and turning it into the 2013 album Amok. This was one of its highlights, groovier and slinkier than his solo debut but still sticking with the formula of a clean, clear vocal over the scurrying electronic mechanics of the music.
The Mother Lode (2014)
After Amok was released under the Atoms For Peace handle, Yorke returned to his solo moniker for 2014’s Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes. This was the pick from the BitTorrent-released set, a pulsing, post-dubstep gem undoubtedly influenced by his work with Burial and Four Tet. Understated and gently mesmeric, it’s both a dance banger and affecting hymnal at the same time.
Unmade (2018)
In a recent interview with Louder, Travis’ Fran Healy bemoaned his old pal Yorke’s modern reluctance to tango with anything resembling a decent hook. But Fran hasn’t been paying attention: a lot of Yorke’s recent output is flush with melody. He should listen to this from Yorke’s soundtrack to the 2018 horror remake Suspiria. It’s a stripped-back piano ballad that, in true horror form, has got hooks coming out of every orifice, a hooky lush piano part and a hooky, beautiful vocal, hooks galore! Take that Fran!
Dawn Chorus (2019)
One of the most restrained and quietly stirring tracks of Yorke’s solo career, this cut from 2019’s Anima sums up the exploration of the human condition at the heart of his third solo album. He’d never laid it quite so bare, though, his voice resigned in sing-speak against a backdrop of warm keyboard chords and understated drones.
The Smoke (2022)
Whilst it would be easy to opt for the Radiohead offcuts that found a home in The Smile – Open The Floodgates and Skrting On The Surface had been bouncing round for a few years – it was the brand new material that impressed the most. This was a highlight from A Light For Attracting Attention, their 2022 debut, a dubby, Can-style groove that tip-toes around a muted Jonny Greenwood riff and Yorke's airy vocal.
5:17 (2022)
The plaintive Daily Battles, written for the Ed Norton film Motherless Brooklyn, would’ve made this list had it not for 5:17 occupying similarly wistful ground but doing it even better. Also created for the screen – this time for Peaky Blinders – 5:17 harks back to Radiohead’s Daydreaming in the sense that nothing much seems to happen apart from a mournful vocal and soulful piano chords but over repeated listens, something magical emerges (sorry Fran, it’s not a big chorus).
I Quit (2024)
The Smile’s second album Wall Of Eyes, released earlier this year, contained some songs that were up there with Radiohead’s modern best. This was one of them, a subtly poignant song that sounded like folk music being beamed in from another galaxy. The way Yorke’s voice nonchalantly weaves its way around the swirling strings of the outro is one of the album’s most astounding moments, the trick being how they don’t overegg it, bringing the song to a slow stop just when you think another few minutes could be squeezed out of it.
Knife Edge (2024)
Of a very similar nature to 5:17, this woozy, nightmarish lullaby comes from the Confidenza soundtrack. The mellow piano patterns are offset by a slightly uneasy drone noise that sounds like it’s trying to entice you into the upside down in Stranger Things, Yorke’s voice a calming, contemplative presence at the centre of it all.
