Philip Selway announces Strange Dance, his third solo album

Philip Selway has announced Strange Dance, his third solo album, out on Bella Union on 24 February 2023. Its first song, “Check For Signs Of Life”, is out now with a video.

Radiohead's drummer does not drum on it. Within a couple of hours of starting to record he took himself off the kit, and Valentina Magaletti plays the drums and percussion instead. He had told the musicians he pictured a Carole King record made with the electronic pioneer Daphne Oram, with himself invited along to drum on it.

He wrote the ten songs at home on piano and guitar, and wanted a broad, tall sound around an intimate voice from the start. I wanted it to have that space so if you're listening to it you can lose yourself in it. Almost like a refuge.¹

Marta Salogni produced the record at Evolution Studios. Laura Moody, the cellist who has played with Selway for years, wrote arrangements, and Hannah Peel and Adrian Utley of Portishead play on it with the London Contemporary Orchestra, conducted by Robert Ames, and the Assemble Choir. The abstract painter Stewart Geddes sat in at the studio and painted to the music, and one of those paintings is the cover.

One of the things I've liked about this record is it's me as a 55-year-old not trying to hide that fact.

Philip Selway¹

Strange Dance, tracklist