Thom Yorke releases “5.17”, written for Peaky Blinders

Thom Yorke released a new solo song, “5.17”, on Sunday 13 March, without a word of warning, on the day BBC One showed the third episode of the sixth and final series of Peaky Blinders. Pitchfork reports that it was written for the series.

Earlier series of the drama had used Radiohead's “You and Whose Army?” and “Pyramid Song”. On 24 February, three days before the last one began, its director, Anthony Byrne, told NME that Yorke and Jonny Greenwood had written original music for it, for a series he called much heavier than the ones before. I’m over the moon about all of that. The music has always been really important historically, and I was really keen to bring a dramatic score into it.¹¹

A second song, “That's How Horses Are”, is listed on Apple Music for early April, and its title was already printed on the “5.17” sleeve before anyone had announced it.

“5.17” is a piano ballad, and the voice comes in only after about a minute. Yorke posted nothing about it; his feeds that week were about The Smile's limited seven-inch and the war in Ukraine. Rolling Stone Italia points out that nobody has officially tied the song to the series.