Song · A Moon Shaped Pool era (2015–21)
Desert Island Disk
Named after a radio programme it never mentions, and first heard in a Paris theatre during the climate talks.
A Moon Shaped Poolalbum- 2016released
- 3:44length
4 dec 2015
le trianon
Thom Yorke played it at Le Trianon in Paris on 4 December 2015, at the first Pathway to Paris benefit, a concert timed to the UN climate conference going on across the city. Patti Smith was on the bill and Flea joined him for a couple of songs. He had two new ones that night, “Silent Spring” and this, and a setlist taped to the stage gave their titles. They were the first new songs he had played since Tomorrow's Modern Boxes in 2014.
Sharan Shetty wrote the next day in Slate that Yorke left it unclear whether this one was his or the band's. Five months later it was track four on A Moon Shaped Pool.
2016
the acoustic one
On a record full of strings and choir, it is the one led by fingerpicked acoustic guitar. Nina Corcoran in Consequence noted that it could have stayed a solo piece and did not, because of the electronic whirr and light drumming around the guitar, and she compared the result to Nick Drake's “Hazey Jane I”.
The title bends Desert Island Discs, the BBC programme Roy Plomley started in 1942, where a guest picks eight recordings, a book and a luxury to be marooned with. Radiohead's version has a k and is singular, and the programme's name is nowhere in the words.
the words
across the street
A man goes on his way: out through an open doorway, across a street into another life, catching his own reflection in a lit window and not recognising it. He describes waking from a shutdown that has lasted a thousand years. The closing refrain insists that love comes in more than one kind.
Yorke and Rachel Owen had announced their separation in August 2015, four months before he first sang it in Paris, after 23 years together.
2016–18
second, after “daydreaming”
The first full-band performance was the tour opener at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam on 20 May 2016, fourth in a run of the album's first five tracks played in order. In 2017 it moved up to second, straight after “Daydreaming”, and mostly stayed there.
The archive counts 55 nights: 21 in 2016, 19 in 2017, 15 in 2018. Its longest break ran 286 days, from La Citadelle in Arras on 2 July 2017 to Tecnópolis in Villa Martelli on 14 April 2018. The last was the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on 1 August 2018. It has never opened or closed a show, and the 2025 tour left it out.
on stage
Live at Zénith, 2016.· Benjamin TOURDESwatch on youtube →
takes(3)
Live history
| Times played | 55 shows |
|---|---|
| Live debut | Friday 20 May 2016 · Amsterdam |
| Last played | Wednesday 1 August 2018 · Philadelphia |
Nights played include broadcasts; opened and closed count gigs only. A cancelled night has no setlist. All setlist stats →
sources7
- Sharan Shetty, “Thom Yorke plays new Radiohead song Silent Spring at UN Climate Change conference”, Slate, 5 December 2015, for the date, venue and Yorke's ambiguity.
- Daniel Kreps, “Thom Yorke Debuts Two New Songs at Pathway to Paris Concert”, Rolling Stone, 5 December 2015, for the setlist, Flea and Tomorrow's Modern Boxes.
- Consequence staff, “Radiohead kick off A Moon Shaped Pool world tour in Amsterdam”, Consequence, 20 May 2016, for the first full-band performance.
- Daniel Kreps, “Watch Radiohead Debut ‘Moon Shaped Pool’ Songs in Amsterdam”, Rolling Stone, 20 May 2016, for the opening five.
- Nina Corcoran, review of A Moon Shaped Pool, Consequence, 11 May 2016, for the Nick Drake comparison.
- Wikipedia, “Desert Island Discs”, for the programme's format and first broadcast.
- Wikipedia, “Rachel Owen”, for the separation.