Thom Yorke
The Eraser

THE REVIEW

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.