Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke says the critical and commercial success of their ninth studio album has taken the band by surprise.
Seven weeks after its release, A Moon Shaped Pool has returned to the top of the UK charts. It's sitting at #2 on the New Zealand album chart, between the Red Hot Chilli Peppers' new record and a Prince hits collection.
"We expected the opposite," Yorke told Q magazine. "I cherish the band, but I don't expect anyone else to."
Cover of the latest Q magazine
The album currently has a rating of 88/100 on review aggregator Metacritic, signifying "universal acclaim".
Despite the band's two-decade trek away from guitars, they recently began playing grunge-era hit 'Creep' again. Yorke says they were inspired by a fan in Amsterdam who spent an entire show shouting for it.
"I kind of wound him up by starting to play it, which was a bad idea as it was like lighting a fire… We just said, 'Let's see what the reaction is, just to see how it feels."
The same goes for 1997's OK Computer single 'No Surprises'.
"We played 'No Surprises' just to see if it feels alright. Songs go into phases where they don't feel right and then they come back. 'No Surprises' was out for ages," Yorke explains.
"We didn't play it once on the whole of The King Of Limbs tour. If you play it right, it is f**king dark. But it's like acting. It's on the edge of totally hamming it up but you're not. It's just the words are so dark. When we play it, we have to play it so slow. It only sounds good if it's really fragile."
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