TRACK REVIEW: Daydreaming by Radiohead

In 2015, Thom Yorke released a statement announcing that he is separating from his long-time partner, Rachel Owen:

This of course came as a surprise to many of his fans. First and foremost, Thom is known to be a private person, and for him to release such personal statement to the public is considered as an uncanny action for him to do so. 

And second, Thom had been together with Rachel Owen for more than two decades and inevitably she had been a large source of inspiration for most of Radiohead's works. The statement was released before Radiohead's ninth studio album was released so the fans were anticipating for the album, later named as A Moon Shaped Pool, that perchance will be largely influenced by the separation. And it turned out to be true.

Daydreaming is slow and melancholic, yet it is confining in a way it makes the listeners stay throughout the song to absorb the meaning behind it. It's hard to decipher the real meaning of the Daydreaming; is it about Rachel? Or perhaps it's about the fans? Maybe it's about Radiohead themselves. Either way, the lyrics are written so profoundly, that whatever the meaning behind it you know the writer is heartbroken and tired. 

In the video, Thom Yorke is seen walking through 23 doors, looking lost and only to find his way by climbing a mountain and go through inside a small cave. This is seen as a metaphor, for many of the fans, as his relationship with Rachel. It's difficult to grasp the fact that Thom Yorke is unhappy with his love life. And it's even more shocking to find out that Rachel died of cancer last year, which concludes every depressing meaning Radiohead fans had been trying to accumulate from the song. 

There's a line in this song which says: "We are just happy to serve / Just happy to serve you." This of course seen by many as a hidden message for his fans. As a fan of Radiohead myself, this line genuinely breaks my heart. I cannot simply articulate how tired and broken Thom Yorke has been because of his band, but for the sake of pleasing the fans he is still doing whatever thing he is doing right now; pleasing the fans. And he managed to do so, perfectly.

Watch the music video below: