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Rating: INTRODUCTION:
The Radiohead are an excellent band, among the best of the past three/four decades. Their music is very fascinating, the symbolic and musical references could drive any fan crazy, they are excellent musicians and the overall result is always effective and interesting, Thom York's voice is magnetic and just sufficiently tormented to grip anyone by the stomach, and, last but not least, they are among the few bands that have never been static but continue to dare to get their hands dirty with more or less new but always alien music.
This is precisely what makes you love a band: seeing and above all feeling that they don't always dish out the same old thing. The commitment and the desire to always challenge themselves are the best aspects of this band. Clearly, maintaining high quality in a journey that freely mixes pop, rock, psychedelia, and electronic is not easy, but having a vast fan base helps especially if, after a masterpiece like 'Ok Computer,' they seek new paths because now with rock, everything has been done.
And it's precisely this mixing with electronic, mainly of the Warp school ('Geogaddi' teaches), that doesn’t convince me. I may be blasphemous, but after the above-mentioned album, Radiohead stopped thrilling me, although they still surprised me (it's always nice to see someone manage to blend naturally chilly electronica with so much emotion): for example, I find 'Kid A' an excellent album but nothing more, I find it deeply mistaken to crown it as a masterpiece when it reworks musical forms already in vogue with a snobbish attitude. That said, I approach without any prejudice Thom Yorke's solo work, who is the singer and leader of Radiohead.
END OF INTRODUCTION
What can one expect from this album: sparse and tormented folk (like Eddie Vedder’s solo album could be)? Dark experimental sounds? A single, relentless drone for forty minutes? A huge joke of farts on a drum?
None of that: the coordinates of 'The Eraser' remain in the realm of the more electronic side of Radiohead, while winking at the smudged melodies of Notwist. I would be inclined to speak of apocalyptic folktronica. The dominant elements are minimal beats, beautiful piano melodies, a voice of a disgruntled angel on judgment day, and a very polished production (actually too much, it is perhaps the same flaw that flattens Beck's Sea Change, also produced by Godrich); sometimes stronger bass and rhythms elbow their way through, and those are the moments when the album amazes.
Take the transgenic blues of And It Rained All Night and you'll feel true emotion, a compelling rhythm, and an atmosphere at once dreamy, tormented, and ready to fight for the future. Or Harrowdown Hill, almost funk-like, in its progression through a post-atomic desert.
Indeed, terms such as post-atomic or apocalyptic come to mind when listening to this work, a dark and rather sharp work as I did not expect, reaching its peak in the dragged-out and lyrically artificial conclusion of Cymbal Rush.
A literary comparison that jumps into my mind is with certain works of Ballard, suspended on the future, pessimistic and hopeful only in the disillusionment of reason just like this excellent album that does not stray from the Radiohead tradition but travels alongside it like a rather bright comet.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 The Eraser (04:55)
Please excuse me but I've got to ask
Are you only being nice
Because you want something
My fairytale arab princess
Be careful how you respond
Cause you might end up in this song
I never gave you an encouragement
And it's doing me in
Doing me in
Doing me in
Doing me in
Doing me in
The more you try to erase me
The more, the more
The more that I appear
Oh, the more, the more
The more you try the eraser
The more, the more
The more that you appear
You know the answer
So why do you ask?
I am only being nice
Because I want someone, something
You're like a kitten with a ball of wool
And it is doing me in
Doing me in
Doing me in
Doing me in
Doing me in
The more you try to erase me
The more, the more
The more that I appear
Oh, the more, the more
The more I try to erase you
The more, the more
The more that you appear
No you're wrong!
You're wrong!
You're wrong!
You're wrong!
You're wrong!
You're wrong!
You're wrong!
02 Analyse (04:02)
A self-fulfilling prophecy of endless possibility
In rolling reams across the screen
In algebra, in algebra
In fences that you cannot climb
In sentences that do not rhyme
In all that you can ever change
The one you're looking for
It gets you down
It gets you down
There's no spark
No light in the dark
It gets you down
It gets you down
You've traveled far
What have you found?
That there's no time
There's no time
To analyse
To think things through
To make sense
It gets you down
It gets you down
You're just playing a part
You're just playing a part
By candles in the city
You never looked so pretty
By power cuts and blackouts
Sleeping like babies
It gets you down
It gets you down
You're just playing a part
You're just playing a part
You're playing a part
Playing part
Well there's no time
There's no time
To analyse
analyse
analyse
03 The Clock (04:13)
Time is running out for us
But you just move the hands upon the clock
You throw coins in the wishing well
Wake up
You just move your hands upon the clock
It comes to you begging you to stop
Wake up
But you just move your hands upon the clock
Throw coins in the wishing well
For us
You make believe that you are still in charge
04 Black Swan (04:49)
What will grow crooked, you can't make straight
It's the price that you've gotta pay
Do yourself a favor and pack your bags
Buy a ticket and get on the train
Buy a ticket and get on the train
Cause this is fucked up, fucked up
Cause this is fucked up, fucked up
People get crushed like biscuit crumbs
And laid down in the bitumen
You have tried your best to please everyone
But it just isn't happening
No, it just isn't happening
And that is fucked up, fucked up
Well, this is fucked up, fucked up
This is your blind spot, blind spot
It should be obvious, but it's not
You cannot kick-start a dead horse
You just cross yourself and walk away
I don't care what the future holds
Cause I'm right here and I'm today
With your fingers you can touch me
I am your black swan, black swan
(but I made it to the top, but I made it to the top)
And this is fucked up, fucked up
We are black swans, black swans
(but I made it to the top, but I made it to the top)
And for spare parts, we're broken up
You are fucked up, fucked up
This is fucked up, fucked up
We are black swans, black swans
And for spare parts, we're broken up
05 Skip Divided (03:35)
I'm in a skip divided, malfunction
I flap around and dive bomb
Frantically around your light
Enveloped in a sad distraction
I've got your voice repeating endlessly
Could you guide me in
Could you smother me
I swoop around your head
But I never hit
I'm blinded by your daylight
Electric veins passed through me
I thought there was a big connection
I only got my name, I only got this situation
I just need a number and location
Without appropriate papers or permissions
I'm known to bite tight situations
And as I head into your french windows
I thought there was this big connection
I only got my name, I only got my situation
I just need my number and location
The wall keeps telling me
Hey Hey, Hey Hey
Hey Hey, The devil may
Hey Hey, Hey Hey, Hey Hey
You are a fool, you are a fool
For sticking round, for sticking round
Yeah, you are a fool, you are a fool
For sticking round, for sticking round
I've done every trick in the book
I tried to look in you
Every trick in the book
Well, how come i look?
No one can undress dress your elliptical caress
Don't look into my eyes cause you're desperately in love, in love, in love
Oh, when you walk in the room everything disappears
When you walk in the room it's a terrible mess
When you walk in the room I start to melt
When you walk in the room I follow you round
Like a dog, I'm a dog, I'm a dog, I'm a lapdog
I'm your lapdog, yeah
I just got a number and location
I just need my number and location
07 And It Rained All Night (04:15)
And it rained all night and washed the filth away
Down New York airconditioned drains
Oh, the click click clack of the heavy black trains
A million engines in neutral
Oh, the tick tock tick of a ticking timebomb
Fifty feet of concrete underground
One little leak becomes a lake
Says the tiny voice in my earpiece
So I give in to the rhythm
The click click clack
I'm too wasted to fight back
Tick tock goes the pendulum on the old grandfather clock
I, I can see you
But I can never reach you
And it rained all night and then all day
The drops were the size of your hands and face
The worms come out to see what's up
We pull the cars up from the river
It's relentless
Invisible
Indefatigable
Indisputable
Undeniable
So how come it looks so beautiful?
How come the moon falls from the sky?
Can see you
But I can never reach you
I can see you
But I can never reach you
08 Harrowdown Hill (04:38)
Don't walk the plank like I did
You will be dispensed with
When you've become
Inconvenient
Up on Harrowdown hill
Near where you used to go to school
That's where I, that's where I'm lying down
Did I fall or was I pushed?
Did I fall or was I pushed?
Then where's the blood?
Then where's the blood?
But I'm coming home, I'm coming home
To make it all right
So dry your eyes
We think the same things at the same time
We just can't do anything about it
We think the same things at the same time
We just can't do anything about it
So don't ask me ask the ministry
So don't ask me ask the ministry
We think the same things at the same time
There are so many of us
Oh you can't count
We think the same things at the same time
There are so many of us
Oh you can't count
Can you see me when I'm running
Can you see me when I'm running
Away from them
Away from them
I can't take the pressure
No one cares if you live or die
They just want me gone
They want me gone
But I'm coming home, I'm coming home
To make it all right
So dry your eyes
We think the same things at the same time
We just can't do anything about it
We think the same things at the same time
There are too many of us so you can't
There are too many of us so you can't count!
It was me written to the background Harrowdown Hill
It was me written to the background Harrowdown Hill
It was a slippery slippery slippery slope
It was a slippery slippery slippery slope
I feel me slipping in and out of consciousness
I feel me slipping in and out of consciousness
I feel me
09 Cymbal Rush (05:15)
Try to save but it doesn't come off the rug
Try to build a wall that is high enough
It's all boiling over, all boiling over
Try to save your house
Try to save your songs
Try to run but it follows you up the hill
It's all boiling over, all boiling over
Your loved ones
Your loved ones
A normal conversation
A normal conversation
You should have took me out when you had a chance
You should have took me out when you had a chance
All the rooms renumbered and losers turned away
Don't turn away
Don't turn away
(There were ten in the bed and the little one said roll over
There were ten in the bed and the little one said roll over)
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Other reviews
By Lennox
"Thom Yorke's voice becomes a sort of musical Charon ferrying souls toward the sublimation of the senses."
"Tracks like 'Black Swan' enter your veins and immediately provoke cerebral addiction, making you return listen after listen."
By let there be rock
In the chorus, we can hear a group of angels accompanying Thom’s light and subtle singing.
'And It Rained All Night' is an aggressive piece, direct like a punch to the stomach.
By sickman
The change post-Ok Computer was almost entirely in his mind, so much so that it feels like watching a kind of Kid A\Amnesiac under anesthesia.
I found this album monotonous and lacking in bite, with some nice melodies that, however, should be exploited by the other band members.
By anitaerrabunda
With "The Eraser" he becomes visionary and whispering, and the architectures of collaboration disappear.
All his power lies in tenderness and imagination.
By myork
"The Eraser has completed its mission. It has erased our thoughts."
"I can see you, but I can never reach you."
