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"Follow Me Around" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 1 November 2021 as the second single from their compilation album Kid A Mnesia. It features the singer, Thom Yorke, on acoustic guitar, with lyrics expressing paranoia and dread.
| "Follow Me Around" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Radiohead | ||||
| from the album Kid A Mnesia | ||||
| Released | 1 November 2021 | |||
| Recorded | January 1999 – April 2000 | |||
| Genre | Acoustic rock | |||
| Length | 5:19 | |||
| Label | XL | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Radiohead | |||
| Producer(s) |
| |||
| Radiohead singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "Follow Me Around" on YouTube | ||||
Radiohead recorded "Follow Me Around" during the joint sessions for Radiohead's fourth and fifth studio albums, Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001), but went unreleased until 2021. It was accompanied by a music video starring Guy Pearce.
"Follow Me Around" features a solo performance by Thom Yorke on acoustic guitar, with a "soaring" chorus.[1] The lyrics express paranoia and dread, and reference Margaret Thatcher.[1][2] Earlier versions instead referenced Tony Blair.[1] The A.V. Club described "Follow Me Around" as perhaps the simplest pop song Radiohead had ever released, likening it to Eddie Vedder.[3] Rolling Stone said it was one of Yorke's darkest songs.[4]
"Follow Me Around" first appeared in the 1998 documentary Meeting People Is Easy, which includes a performance recorded during a soundcheck.[5] After Radiohead performed it at a Toronto show in 2000, fans created a website demanding its release.[5] Bootleg recordings circulated online and the song became a fan favourite.[6][7]
Radiohead recorded "Follow Me Around" during the sessions for their albums Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001).[6] In an online diary written during the sessions, the guitarist Ed O'Brien wrote that the band wanted to approach it in a new way rather than "fall into old habits".[4] Critics surmised that it went unreleased as it was too conventional and did not fit the albums' experimental style.[1][3][6] In the following years, Yorke performed it occasionally with Radiohead, in solo performances, and with his side project Atoms for Peace.[7] He and the Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood performed a rearranged version in 2017.[8]
Radiohead released "Follow Me Around" on the 2021 compilation album Kid A Mnesia. It was released as the second single on 1 November.[6] The day before the release, Radiohead uploaded a full-quality clip of the performance from Meeting People is Easy to their YouTube channel.[7]
The "Follow Me Around" music video features the actor Guy Pearce being chased by a drone camera.[9][10] It was directed by Us, a directing duo consisting of Chris Barrett and Luke Taylor.[11] Pearce said the video was recorded a few weeks before the release.[9]
Several publications celebrated the release of a long-awaited fan favourite, including Rolling Stone,[9] The Fader,[2] Spin,[12] Uproxx[5] and NME.[7] The Times wrote that it was the best of the bonus content on Kid A Mnesia and described it as "a brilliant song made at the wrong time, by a band who had moved on and who, eventually, moved a lot of fans with them too. Because Kid A was not just pop music; it was about educating fans in what pop music could be."[1]
Radiohead
Additional personnel
- Nigel Godrich – production, engineering, mixing
- Gerard Navarro – production assistance, additional engineering
- Graeme Stewart – additional engineering
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