Sophia Michaels
Radiohead drummer Philip Selway has shared the propulsive new song “Picking Up Pieces,” the latest single off his upcoming album Strange Dance, his first solo LP in eight years.
Ahead of Strange Dance’s Feb. 24 release, Selway also revealed the video for the track, which features guitar work courtesy of Portishead’s Adrian Utley.
“‘Picking Up Pieces’ is a song about the masking that we do when we’re young adults,” Selway said of the track in a statement. “It’s a time of life when your sense of identity can feel shaky, you can feel anxious about making the grade, and life can feel that it’s spinning out of control, but you try to hide this from everyone.”
Strange Dance — which also features the single “Check for Signs of Life” — finds Selway collaborating with cellist Laura Moody, composer Hannah Peel, multi-instrumentalist Quinta, and producer Marta Salogni.
“The scale of it was very deliberate for me, from the outset,” Selway previously said in a statement when the album was announced. “I wanted the soundscape to be broad and tall but somehow get it to wrap around this intimate vocal at the heart of it.”
Also setting Strange Dance apart from his previous solo LPs — 2010’s Familial and 2014’s Weatherhouse — is the fact that Selway doesn’t drum on the album, as the Rock Hall-inducted drummer “sacked” himself early in the recording and handed over his kit to percussionist Valentina Magaletti.
“One of the things I’ve liked about this record is it’s me as a 55-year-old, not trying to hide that fact. It feels kind of unguarded rather than seeing that aging process as something that needs to be hidden.” Selway added in a statement.
