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Veteran British alternative rock group Radiohead have just made a brand new studio track available for download.
The new song, “Harry Patch (In Memory Of)” is the first new music from Radiohead since the group’s critically acclaimed 2007 album In Rainbows. The song debuted on the BBC radio’s Today program earlier today.
A 320 Kbps download of the track can be purchased from the band’s Waste website at a cost of about $1.70 USD. You can also sample it before purchase by streaming it at a number of locations including here. All profits from the single will go toward the Royal British Legion — a charity for British veterans.
Although billed as a Radiohead single, the song appears to be mainly a collaboration between Thom Yorke and the band’s primary instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood. The song is awash in lush strings, as Thom Yorke’s famously haunting voice intones lyrics like “give your leaders each a gun and then let them fight it out themselves.”
According to Thom Yorke, the song is inspired by British World War 1 survivor Harry Patch, who recently died at the ripe old age of 111. The lyrics consist of quotes from Patch, many of which are from a BBC radio interview the war veteran gave just weeks before his death last month.
Radiohead are said to be working in the studio on their first album since they made history with In Rainbows. With that 2007 release, Radiohead turned the music industry on it’s ear by initially marketing the album in a download only format, and by giving fans the option to pay whatever they wanted for it. A number of other bands, such as Nine Inch Nails, quickly followed suit by offering fans a similar option for their albums. In Rainbows was eventually released as a critically acclaimed CD which brought Radiohead a Grammy win for best alternative album last year.
