No Surprises

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Lore & Background

The song emerged from a moment on tour when Yorke presented the initial sketch to both bands in a dressing room in 1995, though the specific date and location are not reliably documented in established sources. The band later rewrote the lyrics and added the glockenspiel melody. Colin Greenwood described the track as Radiohead's "stadium-friendly" song, designed to comfort listeners after the frightening experience of "Climbing Up the Walls." Yorke emphasized that despite the lullaby-like chorus, the words are so dark that playing it requires a fragile, slow tempo to avoid sounding like an act. He noted that if played correctly, the song is "fucking dark," walking the edge of hamming it up without crossing over.

In Their Own Story

In the studio, Radiohead recorded many versions but felt unable to improve on the first take. Producer Nigel Godrich employed a specific technique to achieve a tempo slower than the band could naturally play: they recorded the song at a faster speed and then slowed the playback for Yorke to overdub his vocals, creating an "ethereal" effect. The lyrics were shaped by Yorke's "unhealthy obsession" with plastic waste; he explained that lines like "a heart that's full up like a landfill" stem from how debris of our lives just stays buried rather than rotting. During the 2003 US tour, audiences reacted passionately to the line "bring down the government / they don't speak for us." The song was eventually captured as an early version with different lyrics on the 2017 OK Computer reissue, OKNOTOK 1997 2017, and further early versions appeared on the 2019 compilation MiniDiscs [Hacked], which NME described as beginning as an upbeat ballad before progressing to a "grandiloquent lullaby."

Reader's Guide

The music video, directed by Grant Gee and shot on November 28, 1997, consists of a single close-up shot of Yorke inside a perspex helmet into which water is slowly pumped. The concept was inspired by the astronaut David Bowman in "2001: A Space Odyssey," childhood memories of underwater escape acts, and the lyric "a job that slowly kills you." Gee aimed to convey the feeling of "murderous seconds" in real-time. To manage the safety risk, the crew sped up the song and doubled the camera speed from 25 to 50 frames per second during the water-filling sequence, then decelerated both after the water drained. Although Yorke could hold his breath for over a minute in stress-free conditions, he found it difficult to last more than ten seconds on set, leading Gee to describe the day as "repeated torture." After many attempts, Yorke completed a take where he remains motionless for over a minute once the helmet is full. The video was included alongside concepts for "Fitter Happier" that were initially rejected before Gee pitched this concept six months later while filming the documentary Meeting People Is Easy.

Did You Know?

• The song was originally presented as a sketch titled "No Surprises Please" during the 1995 tour with R.E.M., though the specific date and location are not reliably documented.
• To achieve the final slow tempo, producer Nigel Godrich had the band record faster and then slowed the playback for Thom Yorke to overdub his vocals.
• The music video was filmed at 30 frames per second (25 fps in PAL) and then slowed down to create the slow-motion effect of water filling the helmet.
• "No Surprises" is one of Radiohead's most streamed songs on Spotify, with over 500 million streams, though it has not yet reached 1 billion.