Radiohead: Are they Back?

Ethan McConnell  

Music Journalist 

Radiohead has been in the game long enough to leave a massive presence among the public and artists alike. The progressive rock band has been known for their ability to create a discography with self-loathing anthems to shimmering ballads. Whether you know them for the iconic “Creep” or their deep cut orchestral sound from “Lucky”, you’ve heard a song or two from the English rock band. But alas, for the past decade, the group has since departed focusing on their own side projects.  

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke would go on to do several projects under many names such as Atoms For Peace, a solo album under Anima and The Smile which also features Radiohead guitarist, Johnny Greenwood. After some time apart, all members have come together to form a limited liability partnership.  

What Does This Mean? 

Now I know you might be sitting here wondering, “What the heck is that”, that’s where you have your busiest music nerd come in, allow me to help and catch you up to speed. A limited liability partnership is a type of business entity that allows an artist to exist outside a normal record label model, allowing said artist to have more financial and legal protection and separate their personal assets from business liabilities. With this any business lawsuits or debts are shielded from their personal assets like a home or savings. Aside from formal definitions on the matter you might also be wondering, “Uhh
Ethan what does this mean for Radiohead?”, I’m getting there! In recent years, Radiohead has formed multiple LLP’s leading up to the release of new content. You see this pattern form with numerous projects.  

In 2016, Dawn Chorus LLP was formed and later A Moon Shaped Pool was released a few months later. After that you had A Spin with A Grin, formed six months before the reissue of KID A, Kid A MNESIA. With some digging, elite fans have uncovered a new one formed under the members titled, RHEUK25 LLP. Following that coincidentally, the band released a video marking the 30th anniversary of The Bends. Whether this could mean the announcement of a reissue, a 10th studio album, or a brand-new tour since 2018, something is coming in the next few months. (this is the part where you start getting excited) 

Why Should You Care? 

Now I already know what your next question is going to be, “But Ethan, why should we care about Radiohead making a comeback?” I’m not one to usually sit here and plead to someone to take the time to listen to an artist, but with THIS specific one, I feel like it’s my obligation as the Paul Revere of music journalists to alert the people that the British are coming. From the start of the band’s emergence, they’ve done nothing but pave a way of their own in the music industry, consistently evolving their sonic identity, never settling for the same thing for every project. Through the years, the band has made their work a blueprint for the many bands to come in the respective scenes. They don’t rush their creative process and take their time to provide nothing but the greatest quality in their soundscape such as the song, “Nude” which took almost ten years to record from its initial conception during the OK Computer sessions in 1996 to the final release on In Rainbows in 2008. 

In recent years of the band’s absence, they’ve been quite coy with their plans for the future. In interviews, some say they haven’t been practicing together while others allude to meeting up, leaving things up in the air whether the group will return to the studio or the stage. This band provides a wall of sound that is impossible to turn away from with diverse characteristics like buzz saw guitar riffs, rich textures of analog experimentation, and overall use of synth wave in many of their pieces. Every track feels like a layered experience, one that demands not just passive listening but full immersion. So, if and when they return, it will be anything but insignificant, so I’m here to tell you to tune in the moment it happens.