5. Skirting On The Surface
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBwTQntjhqQ
Early lyrical links to Skirting on the Surface posted on the band's website date back as far as 1997's OK Computer. The song itself sounds much more like the kind of music the band released on their last couple of albums, though. Skirting on the Surface was first played as a piano-led track in 2009 by Yorke and his star-studded side project band Atoms for Peace. It sounded incredibly promising, but the full band version sounds like an altogether different creation. The accompaniment of synths and guitar give the song an eerie quality it never had as a Yorke solo track. As with Desert Island Disk, Yorke seems to be veering into more and more existential lyrics, with lines such as "When we realise we're only to die then we're out of here" and "Will we die upon the surface?" That's dark, Thom. Really dark. This is another one that feels likely to be included on the new album, given how recently they've performed it and the fact its sound fits with their more recent material.