Songfacts®:

• "Check For Signs of Life" is the lead single from Radiohead drummer Philip Selway's third solo album, Strange Dance. He released the song on October 25, 2022.
• Selway's vocals are soft and understated, and the lyrics are simple but evocative. Over piano, strings, and rattling percussion, Selway explores the idea of how loss can change and shape us all.
  
  So let some daylight get in
  Check for signs of life
  There's dust on everything
  I say your name
  It sounds different, now you're gone
  
  Selway is searching for a glimmer of hope even in these darkest of times.
• Selway explained the album title to Uncut magazine. "In simple terms, I guess, Strange Dance refers to the ups and downs of life, trying to consolidate or reconcile all these different elements of your life, all these contradictions," he said. "The randomness of it. But at the heart of it, there's a real beauty in finding your way through it all."
• Selway chose not to drum on Strange Dance and enlisted the Italian drummer Valentina Magaletti instead. He envisaged it as a fantasy album by Carole King and pioneering electronic composer Daphne Oram, which they'd invited him to drum on. "But I was just one day into drumming and realized it wasn't working," he told Uncut. "So, I sacked myself and Valentina Magaletti came in and did the drums instead. She was amazing, she bought this whole other life into. Immediately, you see all the possibilities around that. I wanted this soundscape that was kind of broad and tall, something you could lose yourself in, but then finding a way for that to wrap around quite an intimate vocal."