"No Surprises" | ||||
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Single by Radiohead | ||||
from the album OK Computer | ||||
B-side |
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Released | 1998 | |||
Recorded | July 1996 | |||
Studio | Canned Applause (Didcot, England) | |||
Genre | Dream pop[1] | |||
Length | 3:49 | |||
Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) | Radiohead | |||
Producer(s) |
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Radiohead singles chronology | ||||
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Audio sample | ||||
Music video | ||||
"No Surprises" on YouTube |
"No Surprises" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released as the fourth and final single from their third studio album, OK Computer (1997), in 1998. It was also released as a mini-album in Japan, titled No Surprises / Running from Demons.
The singer, Thom Yorke, wrote "No Surprises" while Radiohead were on tour with R.E.M. in 1995. It features glockenspiel and a "childlike" sound inspired by the 1966 Beach Boys album Pet Sounds. Yorke described it as a "fucked-up nursery rhyme", with a gentle mood and harsh lyrics conveying dissatisfaction with social or political order.
The music video, directed by Grant Gee, features Yorke wearing a helmet as it fills with water, inspired by the 1960s science fiction and underwater escape acts. Inspired by the lyric "a job that slowly kills you", Gee conceived a video that would convey the feeling of "murderous seconds".
"No Surprises" reached number four on the UK singles chart. In 2011, NME named "No Surprises" the 107th-best track of the preceding 15 years.
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