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gretriever
Hipster Doofus
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Location: A moving target in a firing range.
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 Posted: 07/11/06 - 15:31 Post subject: CD Review: Thom Yorke, The Eraser.
OK, Thom Yorke, front man for Radiohead, hates it when he hears that this is a solo album. Yet he swears this isn't a Radiohead album.With The Eraser we find he can have it both ways. He put this together with long-time RH producer Nigel Godrich, the artwork is essentially a lithograph-cum-woodcut by RH collaborator Stanley Donwood. And the opening (title) track does have the band's Jonny Greenwood on piano.
On the other hand, Yorke plays almost all the instruments on this release (with the Greenwood exception, what few instruments Yorke doesn't play, Godrich does). And interestingly enough, his voice, still special as it often is, is actually understandable. On a lot of RH songs, you have to listen several times to get what's being sung (a clever way of getting their messages across).
Much of the talk about The Eraser was it would be a return to the elctronica that Radiohead had emphasized on their best-regarded work, OK Computer, and the two follow-ups Kid A and Amnesiac. But surprise! It really isn't. Many of these songs would have very comfortable on the band's last release, Hail To The Thief. The nine tracks actually are in a pattern - the opening two tracks (the title track and Analyse)are keyboard, but more conventional than experimental. The next two, The Clock and Black Swan (the song receiving air time) are a shift to guitar-oriented music; the electronic noodling comes with the next two cuts, Skip Divided and Atoms for Peace. The final three tracks repeat the keyboard-guitar-electronica pattern (And It Rained All Night, Harrowdown Hill, and Cymbal Rush, respectively).
The mood of The Eraser is one of dark days ahead. Whereas the theme of Hail To The Thief was to go after George Bush's election in 2000, The Eraser seems more focused on the British government and its support of the U.S. in the war on terrorism - Yorke is an outspoken critic of PM Tony Blair - Harrowdown Hill is a pointed commentary in particular. Whereas my musical heroes, the late and lamented Midnight Oil (and, mind you, Radiohead is a worthy successor), would have used their songs to tell people to get off their asses and do something, Thom Yorke is telling people to hunker down - there is an end in sight, but wait until an all-clear is sounded.
Rating - 9 out of 10.
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gretriever
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Posted: 07/11/06 - 15:55 Post subject:
| shelflifers wrote: |
Are the songs catchy? Or do they ramble on? |
Catchy... Eraser, The Clock, Black Swan, Skip Divided, It Rained All Night. Rambling on... Cymbal Rush went about 2:45 and then went into an instrumntal line - I was thinking "Not another Motion Picture Soundtrack" (from Kid A - that is easily my least favorite RH song - when I first heard it I thought, who fell asleep in the engineer's booth?). But it recovered nicely. Closing tracks have to be good for me. This one got saved into the good column. The only weak song is And It Rained All Night; TY's voice doesn't mix well with the music on the cut.
I'll decline to comment on the comparison to The Bends. Contrary to most bands, I started with Hail To The Thief and have been working my way backwards. The Bends is next or me - I'd've gotten it today but the store didn't have it in stock.
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shelflifers
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Joined: 10 Jun 2002
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Location: Austin, TX
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Posted: 07/11/06 - 16:11 Post subject:
| gretriever wrote: | | shelflifers wrote: |
Are the songs catchy? Or do they ramble on? |
Catchy... Eraser, The Clock, Black Swan, Skip Divided, It Rained All Night. Rambling on... Cymbal Rush went about 2:45 and then went into an instrumntal line - I was thinking "Not another Motion Picture Soundtrack" (from Kid A - that is easily my least favorite RH song - when I first heard it I thought, who fell asleep in the engineer's booth?). But it recovered nicely. Closing tracks have to be good for me. This one got saved into the good column. The only weak song is And It Rained All Night; TY's voice doesn't mix well with the music on the cut.
I'll decline to comment on the comparison to The Bends. Contrary to most bands, I started with Hail To The Thief and have been working my way backwards. The Bends is next or me - I'd've gotten it today but the store didn't have it in stock. |
That's interesting. I've never met anyone who loves Radiohead because of their newer albums. But that's cool.
The Bends is one of the best straight-up POP album ever created. have fun with that one!
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I wasn't a huge fan of fake plastic trees and sort of ignored radiohead until "Optimistic" was on the radio, then "There there" caused me to break down and buy "Hail to the Thief" and fell in love, now I too am going backwards.
