Spectre (song)

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"Spectre"
File:Spectre cover.jpg
Single by Radiohead
Released 25 December 2015
Format Download
Recorded 2014
Genre
Length 3:19
Label Self-released, XL
Radiohead singles chronology
"The Daily Mail" / "Staircase"
(2011)
"Spectre"
(2015)
"Burn the Witch"
(2016)

"Spectre" is a 2015 song by English rock band Radiohead, released as a free download on the music streaming site SoundCloud on 25 December 2015.[1] On 13 May 2016, it was released as a B-side on the 7" vinyl single "Burn the Witch".[2] It was written for the James Bond film of the same name, but went unused; the film instead features the song "Writing's on the Wall" by Sam Smith.[3] Radiohead did not reveal why the song was not used,[4] but stated: "It didn't work out, but became something of our own, which we love very much."[5]

According to Pitchfork, "Spectre" features Thom Yorke's "delicate, forlorn" falsetto with "jerky" piano chords, "decaying orchestral sweeps" and "jazzy" drums reminiscent of Radiohead's 2001 single "Pyramid Song".[6] It was described by Consequence of Sound as "a gorgeous, orchestral ballad"[7] and by Rolling Stone as "darkly orchestral".[8] Variety wrote that it "retains Radiohead’s signature moody sound, with a somber sweeping grandeur that might have fit well into the Bond song canon."[9] Pitchfork named it the week's "Best New Music" and wrote that it has "all the melodrama of a good Bond song but only a hint of the kitsch... [it is] one of the finest Radiohead songs in some years, much more than a one-off curiosity."[6]

Release history

Region Date Label Format Catalogue no.
Worldwide 25 December 2015 XL Download -
 United States 16 May 2016 7" (B-side) 407917[10]


References

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