While it’s been a few years since 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool, now is actually a great time for Radiohead fans. Side project The Smile recently released a new album and have more new music on the way. Now, Thom Yorke has dropped off a solo offering, a new version of “Bloom” recorded for a Greenpeace video called “The Lonely Shark.”
The rendition, led by Yorke vocals and piano, scores an animated video of two sharks happily enjoying a life together in the ocean until one of them meets a tragic and bloody demise after getting caught in a fishing hook.
The video description reads, “These two aren’t the only sharks with an unhappy ending… In the last 50 years the global shark population has plummeted by 70%. Sharks are being wiped out by overfishing for profit. But our oceans can recover if we protect them. Sign the petition for a strong Global Ocean Treaty: www.greenpeace.org/protecttheoceans.”
When it comes to the original song, Yorke previously told BBC 6 Music it was inspired by documentary series The Blue Planet, saying, “It was me lying on the sofa trying to go to sleep after being up too late with my young son and it was just coming in and out of my subconscious.” Fittingly, in 2017, Yorke and Hans Zimmer re-worked the song into “(Ocean) Bloom” for Blue Planet II.
Watch the “The Lonely Shark” video above.
