Anima is the third studio album by English musician Thom Yorke, released on 27 June 2019 through XL Recordings. It was produced by Yorke’s longtime collaborator Nigel Godrich, and developed through live performances and studio work. It was accompanied by a short film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson released on Netflix and in select IMAX theatres. Yorke embarked on an international tour to support the album; later dates were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Anima became Yorke’s first number-one album on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart. It was followed by the Not the News Rmx EP, featuring an extended version of “Not the News” plus remixes. At the 2020 Grammy Awards, it was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package; the Anima film was nominated for the Grammy for Best Music Film.
Anima was accompanied by a 15-minute film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The Anima film was played in some IMAX theatres and released on Netflix on the day of the album release. It features Yorke’s then-girlfriend, actress Dajana Roncione, plus choreography by Damien Jalet, cinematography by Darius Khondji, and projections by Tarik Barri. In the film, Yorke rides a train of uniformed passengers (“Not the News”). He meets the eye of a woman (Roncione), and pursues her when she forgets her bag (“Traffic”). They meet in the street, dance together, and board a tram (“Dawn Chorus”).
The film began with a concept from Yorke about workers whose “bodies don’t work any more” and are being “pushed by an invisible force”. The team wanted the first sequence to be “oppressive and hyper-precise so it feels like a machine”, influenced by dystopian stories such as Nineteen Eighty-Four and Metropolis and the physical comedy of Charlie Chaplin. For the “Traffic” sequence, the team created a platform inclined at a 34-degree angle and placed the camera at the same angle, erasing the slope.