“Daydreaming” by Radiohead

"Daydreaming" was the second single from A Moon Shaped Pool, Radiohead's ninth album, drifting out as a download on 6 May 2016 with a video directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It grew from a jam around Jonny Greenwood's piano that Thom Yorke sat out; he laid his vocal on in a later session. The band had it done early in their stay at La Fabrique in France, and Yorke called it the record's breakthrough.

It's a piano ballad that seems to melt at the edges: the band slowed the tape on the intro until the pitch warps, and Greenwood arranged strings for the London Contemporary Orchestra, recorded at RAK Studios in London under conductor Hugh Brunt. He had the cellists detune until they growled, and the orchestra adds choir vocals too. Nigel Godrich produced and mixed.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.