No Surprises (песня Radiohead)

1998 single by Radiohead

"No Surprises" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released as the fourth and final single from their third studio album, OK Computer (1997), in 1998. It was also released as a mini album in Japan, titled No Surprises / Running from Demons. The singer Thom Yorke wrote the song while on tour with R. E. M. in 1995. It features glockenspiel and a "childlike" sound inspired by the 1966 Beach Boys album Pet Sounds. The song reached number four on the UK Singles Chart. In 2011, NME named "No Surprises" the 107th best track of the previous 15 years. The music video, directed by Grant Gee, features Yorke wearing a helmet as it fills with water. Gee was inspired by the 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey, underwater escape acts and the television series UFO. He fixated on the lyric "a job that slowly kills you", and conceived a real time video that would convey the feeling of "murderous seconds".

Thom Yorke wrote "No Surprises" while Radiohead were touring with R. E. M. in 1995. Yorke presented the song to both bands in a dressing room in Oslo on August 3, 1995 as a sketch called "No Surprises Please". Later, the lyrics were rewritten and a glockenspiel melody was added. In the early stages, the lyrics were different from the final result. The title character originally referred to a girl who doesn't "take off her dress when she bleeds in the bathtub", which journalist Tim Footman felt echoed the recurring blood/menstruation motifs of American lo fi author Bill Callahan under the stage name Smog. He also said Radiohead wanted to recreate the atmosphere of a song by Marvin Gaye or the Louis Armstrong song "What a Wonderful World". "No Surprises" is in the key of F major. The version on the album is the first take recorded; the band recorded many further versions, but felt they could not improve on the first. Hoping to achieve a slower tempo than could be played well on their instruments, the producer, Nigel Godrich, had the band record the song at a faster tempo, then slowed the playback for Yorke to overdub his vocals onto, creating an "ethereal" effect. The bassist, Colin Greenwood, said that "No Surprises" was Radiohead's "'stadium friendly'" song. He said the concept was to frighten OK Computer listeners with "Climbing Up the Walls", then comfort them "with a pop song with a chorus that sounds like a lullaby".

According to Yorke's definition, the lyrical hero is trying his best to keep everything as it was, but his attempts are unsuccessful. Yorke described the lyrics as a "mutilated nursery rhyme" rooted in his own "morbid obsession with where plastic bottles and boxes go All this rubbish the wreckage of our lives is buried somewhere. It doesn’t rot, it just remains in the ground < > this is what I do with many things I hide them out of sight”. The gloomy mood of the original version deepened as the group worked on it; emotional claustrophobia and relationship dissatisfaction grew into extreme despair. In the final album version of the composition, the gentle melody contrasts with the harsh lyrics. Critics found in the text of “No Surprises” a reflection of the theme of suicide and dissatisfaction with modern social and political orders. Such topics have led to speculation that Thom Yorke himself suffers from depression. Yorke rejected these hints many times, admitting that he was "moody, thin skinned, pessimistic and prone to worry" In the United States, it was serviced to modern rock radio on 27 April 1998. In 2008, it was included in Radiohead: The Best Of. An early version with different lyrics was included in the 2017 OK Computer reissue OKNOTOK 1997 2017. In October 2011, NME named "No Surprises" the 107th best track of the previous 15 years.

Versions have also been recorded by K's Choice, Luka Bloom, Malia, Blake Morgan, Yaron Herman Trio, Christopher O'Riley, Paige, Peter Jöback, Motorama, Louis Durra, Stanisław Sojka, Scott Matthew, Northern State, and Postmodern Jukebox. American singer songwriter Amanda Palmer recorded a version of this song for her album of Radiohead covers performed on ukulele, Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele. It was also covered by Blake Morgan on his 2006 album Silencer. A piano interpretation of the song was used in the second episode of the HBO show Westworld in 2016. Roman GianArthur, of Janelle Monáe's Wondaland Arts Society, released OK Lady, an EP of Radiohead R&B mash up covers including "No Surprises" (featuring Monáe) in the fall of 2015.

Regina Spektor, alternative pianist and anti folk musician, released a one track charity single of the song on April 27, 2010. All proceeds go to the Doctors Without Borders Emergency Relief Fund.

In Japan, "No Surprises" was issued as a mini album, credited as No Surprises / Running from Demons, on 10 December 1997. It was aimed at the Japanese market to promote Radiohead's tour of Japan in January 1998. "Meeting in the Aisle" is Radiohead's first completely instrumental track. This "remixed" version of "Pearly*" (as opposed to the "original version" available on the "Paranoid Android" single and Airbag / How Am I Driving? EP) features clearer production values, louder guitar at the beginning of the song, and a different guitar line at the end. The song "Bishop's Robes" refers to Yorke's experience of cruelty at school. "Bishop's Robes" is also included on the "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" 'CD1' single.