hypersongs

Rabbit in Your Headlights

Released October 12, 1998 on Mo' Wax, with Thom Yorke on vocals and a Jonathan Glazer video.
UNKLE, from Psyence Fiction (1998)

Yorke and Josh Davis (DJ Shadow) wrote it and Unkle produced. Wikipedia says it was recorded in July 1997, with Yorke's vocals taped in California while Radiohead were on tour, though other accounts conflict. It samples dialogue from the 1990 film Jacob's Ladder. Lavelle said UNKLE first planned to work with Radiohead but Yorke wanted to do something different. The single runs 6:18 and the album listing 6:20.

The video, directed by Jonathan Glazer and starring Denis Lavant, shows a man walking and muttering through a tunnel who is hit by cars, takes off his coat and is struck by a speeding car; Glazer saw it as a companion to the Radiohead video for "Karma Police". Stereogum called it a haunting deconstructed piano ballad, and Pitchfork in 2016 called it a turning point for Yorke's vocals in electronic music, foreshadowing Kid A. Yorke performed it with Atoms for Peace on their 2013 tour, with Flea reciting the Jacob's Ladder dialogue, and on his 2024 solo tour. We found no chart history for the single.

Sources

  1. Rabbit in Your Headlights, Wikipedia
  2. Psyence Fiction, Wikipedia
  3. UNKLE, MusicBrainz