Radiohead break internet silence with song from new album

British band erased all content from social media and website over the weekend

Radiohead has released a song from its new album through its social media networks.

The song, Burn the Witch, is just under four minutes long is directed by Chris Hopewell.

The release comes after the band posted two mysterious video clips through its Instagram and Facebook accounts amid fresh speculation it is set to release its new album in the coming days.

The two clips showed segments of the new song.

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The first 5-second long clip posted at 5am on Tuesday morning showed a stop-motion bird tweeting, while the second clip, posted a few hours later, showed a group of animated characters dancing around a woman tied to a tree. The second clip was accompanied by a fast-paced musical beat and also appeared on the band’s website.

The release follows the disappearance over the weekend of Radiohead's online presence - all posts on the band's Twitter and Facebook pages were deleted on Sunday, while the band's website linked to a blank page. Tweets were also deleted from vocalist Thom Yorke's Twitter page.

The disappearance of the band’s digital footprint coincided with fans in the UK receiving leaflets in the post on April 30th from the band which read: “sing the song of sixpence that goes / Burn the Witch / We know where you live”.

The band will kick off their summer tour on May 20th in Amsterdam during which fans expect to hear music from the long-awaited follow-up album to 2011's The King of Limbs.

Sorcha Pollak

Sorcha Pollak

Sorcha Pollak is an Irish Times reporter and cohost of the In the News podcast