No Surprises

"A job that slowly kills you," realized through a slow-motion video of water filling a helmet, inspired by science fiction and underwater escape acts.

"No Surprises" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released in 1998 as the third single from their third studio album, OK Computer (1997). Thom Yorke wrote the track while the band toured with R.E.M. in 1995, presenting it initially as a sketch titled "No Surprises Please." The song features a glockenspiel and a "childlike" sound inspired by the Beach Boys' 1966 album Pet Sounds. Yorke described the piece as a "fucked-up nursery rhyme," noting that its gentle mood contrasts sharply with harsh lyrics conveying deep dissatisfaction with social or political order.

Quick Facts

Artist: Radiohead
Album: OK Computer
B-side: "Palo Alto"; "How I Made My Millions"
Written: 1995
Released: 12 January 1998
Recorded: July 1996
Studio: Canned Applause (Didcot, England)
Genre: Dream pop

Lore & Background

The song emerged from a moment on tour when Yorke presented the initial sketch to both bands in a dressing room in 1995, though the specific date and location are not reliably documented in established sources. The band later rewrote the lyrics and added the glockenspiel melody. Colin Greenwood described the track as Radiohead's "stadium-friendly" song, designed to comfort listeners after the frightening experience of "Climbing Up the Walls." Yorke emphasized that despite the lullaby-like chorus, the words are so dark that playing it requires a fragile, slow tempo to avoid sounding like an act. He noted that if played correctly, the song is "fucking dark," walking the edge of hamming it up without crossing over.

Reader's Guide

The music video, directed by Grant Gee and shot on November 28, 1997, consists of a single close-up shot of Yorke inside a perspex helmet into which water is slowly pumped. The concept was inspired by the astronaut David Bowman in "2001: A Space Odyssey," childhood memories of underwater escape acts, and the lyric "a job that slowly kills you." Gee aimed to convey the feeling of "murderous seconds" in real-time. To manage the safety risk, the crew sped up the song and doubled the camera speed from 25 to 50 frames per second during the water-filling sequence, then decelerated both after the water drained. Although Yorke could hold his breath for over a minute in stress-free conditions, he found it difficult to last more than ten seconds on set, leading Gee to describe the day as "repeated torture." After many attempts, Yorke completed a take where he remains motionless for over a minute once the helmet is full. The video was included alongside concepts for "Fitter Happier" that were initially rejected before Gee pitched this concept six months later while filming the documentary Meeting People Is Easy.

Track listing

CD 1

No.	Title	Length
1	No Surprises	3:51
2	Palo Alto	3:44
3	How I Made My Millions	3:07
Total length		10:42

CD 2

No.	Title	Length
1	No Surprises	3:50
2	Airbag (Live in Berlin)	4:49
3	Lucky (Live in Florence)	4:34
Total length		13:13

Did You Know?

To achieve the final slow tempo, producer Nigel Godrich had the band record faster and then slowed the playback for Thom Yorke to overdub his vocals.
The music video was filmed at 30 frames per second (25 fps in PAL) and then slowed down to create the slow-motion effect of water filling the helmet.
"No Surprises" is one of Radiohead's most streamed songs on Spotify, with over 500 million streams, though it has not yet reached 1 billion.