Thom Yorke Solo Album Revealed!
Amy Phillips reports:
Last night, Thom Yorke sent out the following message to Radiohead's W.A.S.T.E. fan club:

this is just a note to say that something has been kicking around in the background that i have not told you about.
its called The Eraser.
nigel produced & arranged it .
i wrote and played it.
the elements have been kicking round now for a few years and needed to be finished & i have been itching to do something like this for ages.
it was fun and quick to do.
inevitably it is more beats & electronics.
but its songs.
stanley did the cover.
yes its a record!
no its not a radiohead record.
as you know the band are now touring and writing new stuff and getting to a good space so i want no crap about me being a traitor or whatever splitting up blah blah...
this was all done with their blessing. and i don't wanna hear that word solo. doesnt sound right.
ok then thats that.

i think its out in july and im pretty certain XL are going to put it out.
love thom

So there you have it: Thom Yorke's un-solo album, The Eraser, is due out July 11 on XL Recordings. (Pretty cool that Thom Yorke decided to put his album out on an indie label, huh?) It was produced by Radiohead bosom buddy Nigel Godrich, and features the following songs (yes, they're all supposed to be lower case):

01 the eraser
02 analyse
03 the clock
04 black swan
05 skip divided
06 atoms for peace
07 and it rained all night
08 harrowdown hill
09 cymbal rush

Various sources, including Billboard.com, report that the track "black swan" will play over the closing credits of Richard Linklater's new movie A Scanner Darkly. You know, the one with the animated images of Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder playing characters in a Philip K. Dick novel.

As you probably already know (because we keep breathlessly telling you), Radiohead are on tour right now. The band canceled a show at Amsterdam's Heineken Music Hall this past Wednesday, due to the death of drummer Phil Selway's mother. The concert has been rescheduled for August 28.

The press release for Yorke's album states, "At the end of the tour Radiohead will resume work on their new album, due for release next year." Nice.
[Edited 5/15/06 20:40pm]

Dewrede said:

yeah. what he said

instant classic album cover..unique....creative...and intense...

well, wait...i except for the logo part...scrap it scrappy.

I can dig it.

I'm more interested to see what this is all about than the next radiohead cd..


but when u think about it. Isn't that really just what a radiohead cd is??

Amnesiac sounds like a thom solo album anyway.

I love that cover - how come Prince never releases albums with such cool covers?

booyah said:

You gotta have cool music to go with a cool cover... i think he gets cancelled out by that theory.

ok so that cancels out any chance of me sleeping until july 10



i am so looking forward to this. on the website it says that it
sounds more electronical, so i expect a lot of weird electronic
stuff and from the look of the site the lyrics are pure Thom as
we are used from him.

i really can't wait. this is even more exciting than just a new
radiohead project because this will be slightly different.

The last time I liked Radiohead was OK Computer. They don't really write songs anymore. Just lots of noodling around.

IstenSzek said:

I'm lookin forward to this too..

And its right around the corner

too bad the radiohead joint is due in the next year.. i think "Arpeggi" is a very innovative track.

hurry up July..

I wanna hear this bad

the site with the animation is gettin creepier each day...

I am very psyched indeed for this release. Bring it on!

NorthernLad said:

Me too!

there's a link to a track by track description of the album on ateaseweb.net

NorthernLad said:

Thanks for that info!

Pitchforks first listen (track by track review) of "The Eraser"

Matthew Solarski reports:
Major break-ups, deaths, and Thom Yorke records-- pretty much the only stories Pitchfork News wakes up on a weekend to break. A couple of Saturdays back, we caught wind that Yorke was planning his first-ever foray into, um, solitary territory ("i don't wanna hear that word solo," the man wrote in a W.A.S.T.E. e-mail), on a forthcoming album to be titled The Eraser. And now, we've had the distinct pleasure of hearing the album in its entirety. The Eraser is a sumptuous, Nigel Godrich-produced layer cake of plaintive piano, haunting synth squalls, and chugging guitars built atop skittish programmed beats and devoured by Thom Yorke's anguished ruminations on the pressures and paranoias attendant to fame and expectation. And no, it's not a techno record.

Here's a track-by-track first glimpse at The Eraser:

1. "the eraser": The title track opens with a muffled, repeated piano chord. After a few bars and a chord change, programmed beats settle in, and Thom interrupts, "Please excuse me but I got to ask," scraping the upper register. Soon, a gaggle of disembodied, moaning Thoms joins in for the chorus, which seemingly takes a cue from Morrissey: "The more you try to erase me/ The more that I appear".

2. "analyse": Vocal and rolling piano lines launch this meditation on futility. "The fences that you cannot climb/ The sentences that do not rhyme," Thom laments, sad and clever all at once. And later: "It gets you down/ You're just playing a part," one of many presumed jabs at self-identity. The chord progression somewhat recalls an accelerated "Knives Out", with a hesitant snare plodding along in the background, before Godrich drops in the first of The Eraser's many cinematic synth flourishes.

3. "the clock": A cyclical guitar line lends this track an almost motorik vibe, albeit one evoking a leisurely Sunday drive. Click-clack beats add to the pace before the inevitable opening line: "Time is running out/ For us." By the end, Thom is humming a simple, bluesy melody over the steady but relentless rhythm.

4. "black swan": Opens with an almost hip-hop beat, before a blues-inspired riff more than a little reminiscent of "I Might Be Wrong" drops in and sets the structure. "This is fucked up, fucked up," Yorke declares. Later, more identity crises are averted: "I don't care what the future holds/ 'Cause I'm right here and I'm today/ With your fingers you can touch me."

5. "skip divided": Samples of Thom drawing breaths help form the percussive foundation of this dark stalker-ly declaration. Yorke's at his most conversational here, almost pub-drunk, revealing, "When you walk in a room I follow you 'round/ Like a dog/ I'm a dog, I'm a dog, I'm a dog/ I'm a lapdog/ I'm your lapdog." Creepy.

6. "atoms for peace": Thom returns, all homesick alien, beseeching you: "No more going to the dark side with your flying saucer eyes/ No more falling down a wormhole that I have to pull you out," and striving for some higher octaves during the chorus: "I wanna geeet ouuut/ And make it woooork." Celestial tones underscore a warm, bumbling bassline-- a relatively minimal arrangement compared to the rest of The Eraser. "So many lies/ So feel the love come off of them/ And take me in your arms," he sings. Thom's own "You're Beautiful"?

7. "and it rained all night": And it's back to the Dark Side for The Eraser's chilliest number, a tune awash in eerie synth and driven by a Joy Division-esque bassline. Thom assumes the role of the poet-observer, surrealistically detailing visions of post-downpour New York, clipped vocal samples later piggybacking the bassline. It culminates in a strained, desperate: "I can see you/ But I can never reach you."

8. "harrowdown hill": Don't get thrown off by the practically post-punk opening bass riff; more haunted synth and programmed beats soon drift in and turn things nocturnal once again. "I'm coming home to make it all right/ So dry your eyes," sings Thom-- one of the most conventional, pop-esque vocal melodies on the record. "I can't take the pressure/ No one cares if you live or die/ They just want me gone/ They want me gone." The moment is suspended to make way for some riffing, which closes out the song.

9. "cymbal rush": We're greeted here by what sounds like the Pac-Man death sound effect kicked down an octave; then more funereal, ambient synth, along with pitter-patter programmed percussion not unlike that on "Kid A". "Try to build a wall that is high enough," sings Thom. "It's all boiling over." Finally, the climax: percussion picks up, guitar enters over melancholic piano chords, and more disembodied Thoms float about, moaning-- until all drops out for one final blip-bloop parade, which sputters out to an abrupt finish.

Regarding The Eraser, Yorke also wrote "inevitably it is more beats & electronics. but its [sic] songs," and that pretty much sums it up. The record is song-oriented to a perhaps surprising degree-- no instrumentals, all tracks pretty much in the four-minute range, mostly standard time signatures-- and emphasizes the trademark textural richness of Radiohead and Godrich.

The Eraser lands in stores July 11 in the U.S. (lucky Brits get it a day earlier) via XL Recordings, but for now, those of you who enjoy being puzzled, hop on over to www.theeraser.net for more (totally cryptic) album details
[Edited 5/25/06 15:25pm]

seems like promos are loose.


Hope a leak is due

damn this album is good

The Tripwire posted a review of Thom Yorke's The Eraser, which leaked less than 24 hours ago:
When I first caught wind of the news that Radiohead's frontman Thom Yorke was putting out a solo album, I am sure that many of you had similar thoughts running through your head. Can Yorke actually put together a coherent album of songs, or will he go off the electronica deep end and create a collage of bleeps and bloops in the vein of Squarepusher and Auctechre? As a huge fan of Radiohead, leaning towards an obsession, I was relieved when I heard the first seconds of the opening/title track. The Eraser is a beautifully crafted song-based album that will please any followers of Mr. Yorke.

"The Eraser" opens up this Nigel Godrich-produced album with repeated piano chords over an "Idioteque" flavored beat. When the song segues into the chorus, filled with layers of Thom's vocal harmonies, I am reminded how damn talented of a vocalist he is. It seems that Yorke has finally found that perfect balance of rock/pop and electronic experimentation that supports his music rather than weighing it down. The piano continues on "Analyse," with a chord progression remarkably similar to a sped up "Like Spinning Plates." Several songs on this album do come across as Amnesiac and Kid A b-sides, not that there is anything wrong with that whatsoever.

If you've ever had the desire to hear Yorke do some human beat boxing, "The Clock" is what you've been waiting for. It is meshed with the pitter-patter of the electronic drums for a really cool, organic sounding beat. The driving rhythm and dark melodies give way to a crunchy guitar part, again showing Nigel Godrich's amazing ability to construct such incredible sonic textures. "Black Swan" features a guitar line slightly reminiscent to "I Might Be Wrong" mashed with a bit of a hip hop beat.

"Skip Divided" lets Yorke stretch his creative legs a bit, giving us one of the most experimental tracks on The Eraser. The relatively simple beat is given added substance by the distorted manipulation of him drawing a breath. This is followed by one of my favorites off the album, "Atoms For Peace." Crackles and pops form rolling beats, with nothing more than a very simple synth line and Yorke's vocals. The simplicity of the song allows Yorke to put the spotlight on his acrobatic vocals, softly leaping into his upper octaves.

The minimalism of the previous two songs is shattered by "And It Rained All Night," springing back into the darkness that comprises so much of this record. It is one of the most accessible songs on the album being about as close to a rock tune as you'll get on The Eraser. Going out with an electronica bang, Yorke concludes his debut solo album with "Cymbal Rush." Halfway through he adds some angelic backing harmonies for just a moment, then picks up the pace by tossing in a steady beat while singing in falsetto. It is a beautiful way to end the album.

I am sure that many critics and music snobs will casually listen to this album, dismissing it as nothing more than a collection of Radiohead outtakes. Sure the songs occasionally have some Radiohead similarities, but this IS a Thom Yorke album, so shouldn't that be a little expected? The Eraser allows Yorke and Godrich to dabble a bit more in electronica, which results in some breathtaking moments. As a longtime fan of all things Radiohead, Yorke has still yet to disappoint.