Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has unveiled a new song, with “Dialing In” serving as the theme to Apple TV+’s forthcoming series Smoke.
Released on Wednesday (May 28), and recorded with Sam Petts-Davies, the haunting track presents a dark and brooding atmosphere as Yorke’s trademark vocals warmly accompany a tender and eclectic musical bed.
The song also soundtracks the recently-released trailer for Smoke, which – according to a descriptor – follows Taron Egerton and Jurnee Smollett as they “attempt to get as close to the truth as possible—without getting burned.”
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For diehard fans, “Dialing In” won’t be an entirely new experience, with its origins being found in Yorke’s unreleased track “Gawpers,” which had been performed during a run of European dates in 2019, but has since evolved before its 2025 release date.
Yorke announced the release of “Dialing In” by noting on social media that the track is “now available to stream on your least crap streaming service.” According to the song’s credits on Tidal, Yorke’s daughter Agnes is also featured as a backing vocalist.
“Working with Thom Yorke was as much an honour for me as working with Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese or Richard Price,” said Dennis Lehane, Smoke creator and executive producer. “I’ve somehow been blessed with collaborating with living legends who were also formative influences on my own creative life. Thom is definitely that.
“In addition, he took a basic concept I gave him and delivered a song that perfectly embodies the show and absolutely crushes.”
“Dialing In” is the latest release from Yorke this month, who also released the album Tall Tales, created alongside Mark Pritchard, on May 9.
“Mark sent me a large file of MP3s of ideas during lockdown,” Yorke explained of their long-distance collaboration. “There were so many great ones, I knew straight away that I had to drop what I was doing. It felt very much that I had not been anywhere like this before — both as soon as I put my headphones on and started trying to find the vocals, words and sounds, but also, as it progressed, watching Jonathan [Zawada] respond so freely and spontaneously with all his video and artwork ideas.
“It was mental, and I feel lucky to have been involved,” he added. “Tall Tales is very important to me. I hope people get it, and get to hear it!”
Listen to “Dialing In” below:
