Some of Radiohead’s fan favorites are songs that haven’t even been released, including the folk-inspired “Follow Me Around.” Although the track was written over 20 years ago, it has only been performed at soundchecks — that is, until now. Today, Radiohead released the rarely performed fan favorite in conjunction with a psychologically thrilling music video.
The song dates back to the band’s 1997 O.K. Computer era and has only been officially recorded once in the past during a soundcheck that was featured in the 1998 documentary Meeting People Is Easy. The music video for “Follow Me Around” pays homage to their late ’90s work with retro film techniques.
The video opens with white noise and grainy footage, as if it was filmed with a CCTV camera. Having a perspective akin to security footage is fitting for, well, following someone around — the man behind the camera wouldn’t want their subject to know they’re being filmed. As the camera moves towards the ground, however, a slight fish-eye distortion appears, enhancing the feeling of both nostalgia and paranoia in the song. The videographer enters Guy Pearce’s messy apartment and captures his banal morning before he slowly spirals into a psychotic break and runs away from his own home.
“Follow Me Around” is taken from Radiohead’s upcoming Kid A Mnesia, a compilation album that combines their fourth and fifth albums, Kid A and Amnesiac. The album is set for release on Nov. 5. Earlier this year, the band released a video for “If You Say The Word,” which comes from the same project.
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