Radiohead’s OKNOTOK, a 20th-anniversary reissue of OK Computer embellished with eight B-sides and three previously unheard songs from the album sessions, won’t be out until June 23. But the band has released “I Promise,” one of those never-before-heard tracks, to whet your whistle.
The song, based around a sinuous acoustic guitar line, feels more like an extension of The Bends than what OK Computer became, so it’s not surprising that Thom York and Co. decided to leave it off the album, but it’s a lovely thing on its own and even moreso when paired with the new video by Michal Marczak. Marczak also directed the video for Radiohead’s “Identikit,” as well as this year’s egregiously slept-on feature All These Sleepless Nights, so if the melancholy images of isolated strangers riding a bus at night are your kind of thing, check out the trailer for Marczak’s feature below. (Update: All These Sleepeless Nights is screening at New York’s Museum of the Moving Image Friday night and will be preceded by a big-screen viewing of “I Promise,” from a high-res copy provided by Marczak himself.) Oh, and keep an eye on this “Radiohead” bunch, it seems like they might amount to something someday.
