English rock band Radiohead are finally back – but how likely is a new album?

The second-biggest UK music reunion is now well underway as Radiohead continue the comeback tour that surprised fans with an unexpected announcement back in September.

It has been nine years since the English group released new material in the shape of 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool, a moody album that found critical acclaim.

The group was relatively quiet up until recently, with Radiohead frontman and guitarist Thom Yorke focusing on a new project with his band The Smile.

So what now? The band are active again, side projects are on pause, and fans are naturally eager at the prospect of something new, but how likely is it really?

Here, Music News Blitz writer Charlie Gardner looks at some of the theories that have been doing the rounds for the past few months and the reasons why they may or may not mean new music is on the way.

RHEUK25 LLP

In March, an LLP called RHEUK25 was set up listing all five band members.

These kinds of businesses allow for a group like Radiohead to be able to deal with any activities involving branding or management of intellectual property – ideal for the marketing push on a new album.

Radiohead have been known to do this ahead of releases in the past, notably in the lead-up to the KID A MNESIA mix.

Unfortunately, they have also done the same before tours and other public events.

Given the current tour had such a sudden announcement, it’s most likely that the new company was only set up just for the tour.

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New artwork

When Radiohead’s debut album Pablo Honey was released, Thom Yorke found himself frustrated and disappointed with the quality of artwork used on the album cover.

He reached out to his mate from university, Stanley Donwood, to do future Radiohead artwork.

Responsible for album covers as iconic as The Bends and OK Computer, Donwood’s work with the band has continued to date, even collaborating with Yorke on an exhibition of the pair’s work together as recently as August.

Donwood frequently posts his work on Instagram too, often adding captions, titling, or comments to his pieces.

This year, fans were quick to notice that Donwood had been posting more frequently than usual on his page but without any captions. 

This has been interpreted by some as a potential teaser, with Thom Yorke saying in an interview that his and Stanley’s collaboration was “not done yet”.

It’s hard to prove that this isn’t for a new album, but given Donwood also works on promotional artwork, it’s probably more likely that, for now at least, the work in question is just for something related to the tour.

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Fresh activity

Radiohead always keep their cards close to their chest in terms of news.

The tour didn’t really come from anywhere and the band certainly know how to toy with fans when it comes to playing on the hype.

But why put together a tour so suddenly?

People had moved onto new commitments, but it seems everything has now been put on hold for the tour.

Yes, it’s lucrative, but could it be a test on whether or not the band can still work together cohesively on creative endeavors?

There’s also an argument to be made that a sudden pivot away from other works might just be a facade to drum up popularity.

When Oasis got back together, it was out of nowhere, and the mad scramble for tickets is something the band subsequently used to build hype.

Radiohead could thus just be doing this to manufacture a discussion around their group.

The sudden wave of relevance could easily be ridden into future musical projects, and the whole thing could easily be part of bigger plans for a revival.

In fact, it would be silly for Radiohead not to use this attention to put out some new material.

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Closing remarks

There’s no arguing with it: love them or hate them, Radiohead are massive.

As with any set of fans who have waited so long for something new, people are looking everywhere for a sign their hopes are coming true.

The return to touring is sudden, though, and it just feels like they’re testing the waters for a potential revival.

It might be a reach to assume there’s new music ready and sitting on a USB stick somewhere, although the scale of this tour is likely to kick-start something new. 

The group have admittedly always enjoyed toying with eager fans, but it’s difficult to imagine a world where their creative juices don’t flow once more when they get back together.

Regardless, Radiohead are back – and it might not be long before they get the bug again.

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