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Rating:
Thom Yorke's first solo work.
It begins with the obsessive rhythms of "The Eraser," the name that gives the title to the album, the singer's voice is accompanied first by some piano chords which then join a naturally electronic drum. The first track presents almost an easy and hypnotic melody, it's almost as if the CD cover has become music. In the chorus, we can hear a group of angels accompanying Thom's light and subtle singing. In short, a very easy yet very profound track.
The second track is called "Analyse," the album's first masterpiece. A direct and melancholic track that immediately enchants the listener... it seems like a b-side from the times of "Kid A" and "Amnesiac" if it weren't for the absence of the other four Radiohead members, but it doesn't matter, this is the first true gem of the album. Now it's time for "The Clock", introduced by a massive dose of samplers and electronic drums, with Thom's singing as always superb, perhaps in this album Thom's voice gains a space that it rarely managed to achieve in Radiohead records. Here, the voice, with its damn melancholic melodies, is the main link of the entire song structure (listen to the final part of this track).
"Black Swan" finally sees the presence of a bass and an arpeggiating guitar, creating a very interesting soundscape, for the least electronic track of the album. Again, we are faced with a melody that captivates from the first instant and that drags the listener into a sea of sounds where getting lost becomes essential. The fifth track, "Skip Divided", takes us back to monstrously electronic and dark territories, Thom doesn't sing, but speaks, making the song even more glacial, then little by little, the ice melts and we return to be surrounded by that sea of sounds that characterize this album. The track is definitely the most Kid A of the album.
"Atoms For Peace" immediately captivates with the very soft keyboard and the voice that seems to almost bounce on this rubber carpet, with the high notes sending shivers down your spine. Thom maximizes his vocal and emotional potential for the most "spatial" and "hallucinatory" track of the entire album. We reach the seventh track, "And It Rained All Night", an aggressive piece, direct like a punch to the stomach, a piece that gives vertigo and makes your head spin, it almost feels like drowning in a sea of sounds and pure electronics, where Thom's voice is the only salvation to rise to the surface and make that surrounding sea our friend. "Harrowdown Hill" presents a right balance between the rock sound of the guitar and the synthesizers, it feels like wandering in a marine forest in the dead of night... this too is a dark and captivating track, the ending, with the veiled voice and some piano notes, to which a rocking guitar is added, is as good as it gets, but the journey is about to end...
"Cymbal Rush" is the track that brings us back to earth, and it does so with style and class and a dose of sweet melancholy that significantly raises the level of the album. The last track is an orgy of sweet sounds, of pianos and synthesizers and angelic voices that show the way when it seems everything is lost.
The journey, hypnotic and dreamy, closes with the sweet notes of a piano. We are grounded once again.
The sea has brought us back to shore.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples 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 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 Ghemison
The coordinates of 'The Eraser' remain in the realm of the more electronic side of Radiohead, while winking at the smudged melodies of Notwist.
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.
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."
