Ed O'Brien and Phil Selway tell Rolling Stone how one album became two

At the end of 1999 Radiohead had nearly 50 pieces of music from a year in the studio with Nigel Godrich, and spent two days split over whether to put most of it on a double album, Rolling Stone reports. Thom Yorke wanted the double, to clear the decks. Selway thought it would be hard to take, and Ed O'Brien agreed. I think OK Computer was a song too long,¹ O'Brien says, and says 45 minutes is enough for their music.

They settled on two single records. Made together, Kid A and Amnesiac sound to O'Brien as if they came from different years, and Selway thinks Amnesiac is the stronger on band arrangements. The fifth album is out on Capitol in America on 5 June, and unlike Kid A it will have singles and videos. Yorke explained its title online in January.

A two-leg tour of American amphitheatres follows this summer. Bryce Edge, one of the band's managers, says bringing over the 10,000-capacity tent from Europe was too complicated, though it may come the summer after.

“Like Spinning Plates” is built over the backing track of an unreleased song, “I Will”, played backwards. “Pyramid Song” began as a live take in the studio, Selway on drums and Yorke at the piano, before Jonny Greenwood's strings were added at Dorchester Abbey, a 12th-century church about five miles from the band's studio. O'Brien calls it the best song we've recorded¹.