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THOM YORKE
RATING: 6
PLAY THESE: BLACK SWAN, ATOMS FOR PEACE, HARROWDOWN HILL
SKIP THESE: AND IT RAINED ALL NIGHT
The debut release from Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, The Eraser is a low-key electronic album that will be sure to simultaneously intrigue and irritate many Radiohead fans. It's no secret that most Radiohead fans are itching for another Bends-like album full of four minute guitar rock songs, so there is a certain sense that Thom is pushing his luck here. The Radiohead faithful have been very patient, reluctantly granting the band full license to experiment with electronica for almost six years (which is almost as long as Radiohead were a guitar band, believe it or not), while holding onto the idea that one day Yorke will oblige them with some more melodic guitar rock, with the type of soaring melodies that Thom used to excel at. It remains unclear as to whether or not this is going to happen, but the optimistic fan might read The Eraser as an encouraging omen. What if the rest of his bandmates are tired of electronica, and told Yorke to go make a solo album if he wants to persist in making electronic music? What if Yorke has finally gotten this kind of music out of his system, clearing the way for a classic sounding Radiohead album? Of course, this is highly unlikely, but we can always hope.
If you are having trouble picturing what this album sounds like, just imagine a CD full of 'Idioteque' remakes (without any guitars), and you won't be far from the mark. The album also features little of the kind of dynamics that makes Radiohead albums (even the recent ones) so captivating, and all of the tracks sound pretty uniform. However, the thing that bugs me the most about this type of music is the lack of melody. Thom Yorke's melodies used to soar, but now his vocal lines stick to about two or three notes, following the chords in a flat, linear fashion. Sometimes this strategy works well ('Black Swan'), but more often than not it just sounds a bit thoughtless, almost as if Yorke is spending more time click-clacking on his computer rather than composing actual music. Sometimes I worry that Yorke has lost his muse, and that he delves into electronica simply because he is no longer capable of crafting real songs. After all, intensively creative people like Yorke are a strange breed. Sometimes musical geniuses burn out rather quickly, never again able to summon the magic that flowed so freely in the beginning. I'm not claiming that this is the case with Yorke, but sometimes it makes you wonder....
So what are the best songs? Well, there are few actual "songs," but a few tracks do stand out. The aforementioned 'Black Swan' is a very compelling track, with it's "effed up" refrain and poisonous, spitting Yorke vocal delivery. 'Atoms For Peace' is a very pleasant, minimalist tune with some cool sound effects going for it. Oh, and the melody during the chorus is to die for, showing glimpses of the type of musicality that made early Radiohead so great. The angry 'Harrowdown Hill' is a not-too-thinly-veiled diatribe against the suspicious suicide (murder?) of Dr. David Kelly, a British U.N. weapons inspector whose death followed his pronouncement that Saddam Hussein did not possess weapons of mass destruction. When Yorke incants, "you will be dispensed with when you become inconvenient," his anger is not difficult to perceive, as this is easily the most political song he has written to date. It's a dense, heavy-sounding track - probably the best moment of the entire album.
Apart from the three aforementioned tracks, however, everything else is pretty blah. Granted, the album grows on you with each successive listen, but in the end it's weaker than every Radiohead record, including Pablo Honey. If you're a Radiohead fan, it's definitely worth seeking out, but I'm not sure that it's going to convert any new fans - and it may even turn a few Radiohead fans off.