Listen to Thom Yorke and Mark Pritchard’s eerie new collab ‘Back In The Game’ on WARP Records
Thom Yorke and Mark Pritchard have teamed up and shared an eerie new song, ‘Back In The Game’. Check it out below.
‘Back In The Game’ was released on WARP records and opens with an anxiety-inducing synth beat while Yorke sings: “I’m never getting out it’s not gonna change / I hate myself i want it to end / ‘Good to have you back sir where you been?’”
He also adds to that eerie vibe with his digitally distorted vocals, done by Pritchard through the use of the H910 Harmonizer, one of the world’s earliest devices for audio digital effects.
Directed by Jonathan Zawada – a visual artist known for his multi-faceted approach that incorporates both analogue and digital techniques – the song’s accompanying music video sees a group of eccentric, monstrous-looking characters walking together before arriving in front of a building named “A, Museum”.
Speaking about the visuals in a press release, Zawada said: “On first hearing the original demo of ‘Back In The Game’ I was immediately struck by the deranged bassline that made me think of the final scene of Staying Alive where John Travolta is cockily strutting through the New York streets, but I saw it with a more sinister overlay.
“Slowly a version of that visual arose around a character wearing a kind of giant parade head with a fixed expression of mania stuck on their face, such that you couldn’t tell if their endless march was one of aggression or celebration,” Zawada continued.
“The more I paid attention to the lyrics the more details began to fill themselves out and the overall concept began to form of parade of many characters marching past a building from within which everything was being thrown out of a window and into a giant bonfire.
“Ultimately the film for ‘Back In The Game’ ended up depicting a sort of blind celebration taking place as civilisation slowly deteriorates around it, a kind of progression through regression. Overlaid onto this is an exploration of how and where we choose to place value in our collective cultural expression and how we collectively confront major cultural shifts in the 21st century.”
The Radiohead frontman debuted the track song during the first night of his recent solo tour at a show in Christchurch, New Zealand in October. From there, it became a mainstay in his setlist across dates in Australia, Japan and Singapore.
‘Back In The Game’ marks the second time Yorke and Pritchard have collaborated on a track. They Previously joined forces on the song ‘Beautiful People’, which appeared on Pritchard’s 2016 solo LP ‘Under The Sun’ for WARP Records.
The release of the track comes after Yorke posted an enigmatic, abstract clip on his Instagram on Friday (February 7) which includes a brief loop of pulsing, horror-themed music, while Pritchard posted the same clip, as well as the message: “’BACK IN THE GAME’. 13.02.25. SIGN UP FOR NEWS.” He also tagged Yorke into the post, as well as Warp Records and Zawada.
‘Back In The Game’ is thought to be part of a full-length collaborative record that Yorke has been working on with Pritchard. At the time of writing, no details of the potential collab album have been shared.
If the collaborative album were to come to fruition, it would be Yorke’s first major release since ‘Cutouts’, the latest album by The Smile, the band he formed with Jonny Greenwood and Sons Of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner. NME gave the LP a four-star review, and described it as the band “seem[ing] to be having more fun than ever”.
“The Smile’s M.O., then, seems to be experimentation without the baggage of Yorke and Greenwood’s bulging back catalogue – and ‘Cutouts’ certainly delivers here,” it read. “Featuring the London Contemporary Orchestra, the album was recorded in Oxford and Abbey Road Studios alongside ‘Wall of Eyes’, but this is a freer, more playful set than its predecessor.
Last year, Yorke made headlines by saying he “really doesn’t give a fuck” if fans want Radiohead to return. When asked by Australian outlet Double J about his thoughts on speculation over the band’s future, he replied: “I am not aware of it and don’t really give a flying fuck.”
“No offence to anyone and err, thanks for caring,” he continued. “But I think we’ve earned the right to do what makes sense to us without having to explain ourselves or be answerable to anyone else’s historical idea of what we should be doing.”
That came after bassist Colin Greenwood caught up with NME around the release of his new photo book How To Disappear, and opened up about the band’s reunion rehearsals over the summer.
Before then, his brother Jonny shared with NME that he found the rehearsals “fun and natural”, but went on to add that there are “no plans” for anything Radiohead-related in 2025, as the members are focused on “individual projects”.
The post Listen to Thom Yorke and Mark Pritchard’s eerie new collab ‘Back In The Game’ on WARP Records appeared first on NME.
Anagricel Duran
NME
