“True Love Waits” was first played in 1995.

Since then, it has appeared in

Radiohead setlists, and on their live album I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings in
2001. Fans consider it one of Thom Yorke’s best moments as a songwriter.

The song is the only I Might Be Wrong track that did not feature on either 2000’s
Kid A or 2001’s Amnesiac. A recording was attempted during these sessions, but was
ultimately scrapped. In a 2012 interview, producer Nigel Godrich said of the track:

To Thom’s credit, he needs to feel a song has validation, that it has a reason to
exist as a recording. We could do ‘True Love Waits’ and make it sound like John
Mayer. Nobody wants to do that.

The title is an ironic reference to a Christian advocacy group that lobbies against
premarital sex. The song suggests an intimacy considerably further down the line in
a relationship; an intimacy that is now at stake, according to the pleading chorus.
The protagonist is persuading their lover to wait in the hope time will soothe.

The song as it appears on A Moon Shaped Pool carries an even deeper melancholy tone
considering Thom Yorke’s separation from his partner of 23 years in 2015. Rachel
Owen passed away on December 18, 2016 from Cancer.

Diehard fans noted that this is Radiohead’s 100th LP song.

An analysis of Radiohead’s songs, using the Genius API, determined that True Love
Waits is their most depressing song.