Tall Tales is a studio album by the English musicians Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke, scheduled for release on 9 May 2025 through Warp Records. Yorke and Pritchard began work in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, with Pritchard and Yorke exchanging work online.
The album artwork was created by Jonathan Zawada using CGI and AI. Zawada produced a feature length-film accompanying the album which the music videos were taken from. The film will have limited cinema screenings.
The first single, “Back in the Game”, was released on 13 February 2025, followed by “This Conversation Is Missing Your Voice” on 11 March and “Gangsters” on 9 April.
In 2011, Pritchard created two remixes of “Bloom” for the remix album TKOL RMX 1234567 by Yorke’s band Radiohead.[1][2] In 2012, when Radiohead played in Sydney, Pritchard was introduced to the band by their touring drummer, Clive Deamer.[3] Pritchard invited Yorke to collaborate, and Yorke sang on Pritchard’s 2016 track “Beautiful People”.[4][5] In 2019, Pritchard remixed “Not the News” from Yorke’s album Anima.[6]
In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Yorke emailed Pritchard asking him to send him music to work on as he was “stuck at home”.[3][7] Pritchard sent around 20 demos, and Yorke began to write lyrics. Later, Yorke began sending demos with his vocals back to Pritchard.[3] They continued to send work back and forth, editing songs down and modifying them.[8] Yorke also played synthesisers, edited tracks and added effects.[3] Pritchard said he enjoyed working with Yorke, as he provided more than just vocals.[3] According to Pritchard, the oldest track on Tall Tales was nine years old.[3]
Yorke said Tall Tales was important to him, and described its creation as “mental”.[8] He debuted “Back in the Game” during his 2024 Everything tour.[9][10][11]
The artwork for Tall Tales was created by Jonathan Zawada, who was described as a “third member of the group” in a press release.[12] Zawada began working on the artwork after Pritchard sent him instrumentals.[13] The video for “A Fake in a Faker’s World” was among the first completed.[13] Zawada used artificial intelligence during the design process, but licensed content before using it.[13] Rather than using prompts, he programmed the desired results.[13] Pritchard noted the “nice contrast” between the CGI and “imperfect” AI artwork.[13]
The music videos for the singles were taken from a feature-length film accompanying the album.[14][15][16] It is scheduled for one-night cinema screenings on 8 May.[17][12] A limited amount of Tall Tales zines designed by Zawada will be given to attendees.[18]
Tall Tales is due for release on 9 May 2025, and will be Yorke’s first release through Warp Records.[19] The first single, “Back in the Game”, was released on 13 February 2025.[5] On 11 March, the album was announced alongside the release of the second single, “This Conversation Is Missing Your Voice”.[20] The third single, “Gangsters”, was released on 9 April.[21]
