Oh happy day!
With his previous work in mind, surely no one needs it spell out. Of course this single is going to be a tender and wrecked sad little skeleton. But in fact, for the first couple of bars of tinny bass he almost has you fooled, for on its own the stuttering and essentially disco line is quite a gay and jolly little bop!
Oh... But wait... here comes the crying synths, the limping drum samples and the quivering and wet vocals that have become so instantly recognisable. Nothing's worth anything anymore.
Despite the constant barrage of blues, greys and scratches that this man swabs all over you, he is a master of creating memorable components that barely anyone else could fit together into one short song. It would be easy to forget the grace in which this is delivered, as Thom essentially has no happy face and therefore halves his emotional range straight down the middle. But like a lot of successful artists with a comfortable safe haven for creating music, he doesn't need the sun and slivers away quite, err, happily.
Equally, he is now an artist that can't do wrong. He could release a long gust of wind out of his rear end and people would see it as a melancholy genius's ode to the lost souls of forgotten civil wars and yesterday's fry-up. But for the majority, the spotlight remains on Radiohead. And with a release like this it is easy to see why as it is unnecessary to place a marking between the two – Thom is Thom, after all.