Rating:4/5

And so Radiohead come out of their sulk and emerge to greet the world again with an old-fashioned single, their first since "No Surprises" in 1998 and the first taste of Amnesiac, aka Kid B. It's still not one to hear on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show but this is a mighty song indeed, and one that reminds you how startlingly good Radiohead can be when they're not trying to impress the Aphex Twin.

It builds from a solemn piano line to woozy Arabic strings with Thom sketching out a dream-like vision in which "black-eyed angels swam with me", and trembles with the kind of raw, majestic emotion you feared they'd forgotten how to do. "There was nothing to fear, nothing to doubt," he assures us, which coming from such a relentless pessimist is a bit like hearing Samuel Beckett say, "Cheer up love it might never happen", but more poetic, obviously.

The bonus tracks kick off on CD1 with "The Amazing Sounds Of Orgy", all swaying, echoey menace, and the peculiar "Trans-Atlantic Drawl", a punk pastiche that fades into a wobbly organ instrumental. The rumness continues on CD2 with "Fast-Track", a spooky cinematic crawl peppered with cut-up voices, but no amount of clattering and haunting effects can submerge the beauty of Thom's disconsolate vocal on "Kinetic". A fascinating collection of songs.

-Dorian Lynskey

Q
05.01