Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images
Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke released his third solo album titled ANIMA today. The fourth track, “Dawn Chorus,” has a long history in the English rock band’s lore.
Yorke first mentioned “Dawn Chorus” during a March 2009 interview, describing it as his favorite song that he had written for Radiohead. At the time, Yorke said that he was still trying to finish the track.
Based on speculation, fans linked the song title with an unreleased track played by Radiohead during an August 2008 soundcheck at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. In January 2016, Redditors revived anticipation for the track when they discovered Radiohead had established a company titled Dawn Chorus LLP ahead of the band’s ninth studio album, A Moon Shaped Pool.
Produced by Radiohead’s longtime collaborator Nigel Godrich, the synth-laden song finds Yorke expressing regret over his past actions:
If you could do it all again
Yeah, without a second thought
I don’t like leaving
The door shut
I think I missed something
But I’m not sure what
Notably, “Dawn Chorus” scores the final scenes of a Paul Thomas Anderson-directed short musical film released in tandem with the album, also titled ANIMA.
Listen to the song above, and read all the lyrics to Thom Yorke’s “Dawn Chorus” on Genius now.
