Ed O’Brien has spoken to NME about Radiohead‘s plans for a future album.
- READ MORE: Ed O’Brien talks conquering his “dark night of the soul” and Radiohead’s future
The band haven’t released an album together since 2016’s ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’, but since their 2025 comeback tour and all five members forming a new private limited company back in February, speculation that a new one may be on the way has been rife.
Now, O’Brien has addressed the rumours in a new interview with NME, where he also reflected on the “amazing” tour, saying the band were “so blessed that people want to see what we do”.
“But, he added, “at the heart of it, it’s five people. The songs can kind of play themselves in a way, but if there’s the love and that feeling between the five of us, and there was, and it was glorious,” he continued.
We then asked him if this could lead to the songwriting of the band’s long-awaited next album, to which he responded, laughing: “Where did you get this idea that there’s another Radiohead record?”
“I know it’s so funny and it comes from a good place,” he went on to say. “People want to hear another Radiohead record. I can’t even imagine it because we’ve not even talked about another record. I think that’s because the last record was so fucking awful to make! The tale of that record is so fucking dark. It casts a long shadow. Maybe ask me in six years time!”
Other members of the band have also been speaking about a potential new album, with Jonny Greenwood saying back in February that he had “no idea” whether Radiohead might release new material. “I mean, I’m surprised that the tour actually happened and that we all enjoyed it so much,” he said at the time. “But venues get booked so far in advance. To do another we would have to decide now, and even then it wouldn’t happen for 18 months.”
Meanwhile, Thom Yorke has remained tight-lipped about the prospect of a new album, but also reflected on the tour in a recent interview with NME. “I’m really, really glad we did it, but if you’d have asked me beforehand then I wouldn’t have known,” he told us. “[I was thinking] ‘I’ve got to get in shape, dude. This is killing me! It’s hard work!’
“There were a few moments that really stuck in mind. We felt as much part of it as the audience. Honestly, honestly, honestly, honestly. The first night in Madrid, walking through the crowd was just extraordinary. The first night in Berlin, Monday nights are a kamikaze for everybody, but 20,000 Berlin hipsters losing their shit was like, ‘I will never forget this moment’. It was so cool, man.”
The shows consisted of four-night residencies in each of Madrid, Bologna, London, Copenhagen and Berlin last November and December. The tour saw them play in the round, picking from a range of 65 songs every night.
O’Brien previously revealed that the band are already planning to play “20 shows each year” on a different continent from next year.
Since their last album, the individual members have continued to release music. Yorke and Greenwood have shared three albums with drummer Tom Skinner as The Smile – the last being 2024’s ‘Cutouts’. Yorke’s last solo album was 2019’s ‘ANIMA‘, and he also featured on Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist and his Atoms For Peace bandmate Flea’s recent solo debut, ‘Honora‘. O’Brien also recently released his solo album ‘Blue Morpho‘.
In a glowing, five-star review of one of Radiohead’s gigs in London last November, NME wrote: “What a show: a visceral energy, a tasteful spectacle, all delivered with a generosity of spirit, Yorke in full rockstar mode as the band trade places to tend to each corner of the venue.
“For a band once embarrassed by the notion of ‘arena rock’, nobody does it better. A new album and another night like this can’t come soon enough.”
The reunion shows saw Radiohead break the attendance record for London’s O2, surpassing Metallica, who had held the title since 2017. In the capital, the band’s dates raised money for the LIVE Trust, which represents the UK’s live music and entertainment sector, along with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) for their European shows.
