Thom Yorke
The Eraser

THE REVIEW

Honestly, I wasn't too thrilled when I heard about Yorke's solo album.
Now, probably the simplest reason is that my recent listening habits aren't that close to the musical ideas of Radiohead (whom I loved for at least two years, especially after the Kid A breakthrough) and you might argue that maybe the hyperactive gentleman in question, releasing a solo album, could have offered something new or at least distant from the directions of the famous group, and that consequently it would have been interesting to see the importance that Yorke the man has in the band's dimension. But no, I expected all this, which is why The Eraser can’t be considered more than a pastime for both the composer (and I sincerely hope) and the listener.

Little to discuss, 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, in the sense that the roughness and assertiveness that those records had do not exist here; everything flows smoothly and muddily, the melodies—because these are always the basis of the discussion—are subdued and soft, they never have schizophrenic jolts (I was wrong thinking they belonged to him; the importance of the other band members, especially the Greenwood brothers, is crucial in creating their sound) everything exists under a canopy of artificial sounds reminiscent of the Warp school.
Now, electronic music is fine, but it lacks imagination, instinctiveness, and genius in using it, the sounds (in reality a Cut/Paste job based on fairly approximate blips and samples even if well-produced) echo the aforementioned albums too much, it’s all been said and redone unfortunately.

The songs are there, like "And It Rained All Night," a nice piece, even pretty nasty, but... it's practically "The Gloaming"!!!! Now, having worn out Amnesiac by listening to it so much, how can I react????
The initial funky loop of "Harrowdown Hill" could bring fresh air instead of falling back onto the usual distant melody (even though it's actually nice), the Title Track is based on a bouncing piano with a beat similar to "Packt Like Sardines In A Crushed Tin Box," "The Clock" and "Black Swan" are "I Might Be Wrong," while the toy lullaby of "Atoms For Peace" finally manages to be more personal.
The closure is given by "Cymbal Rush," very beautiful and touching, though among such similar sounds it stands out less...
In short, I found this album monotonous and lacking in bite, with some nice melodies that, however, should be exploited by the other band members.
Let’s hope for the imminent (or supposed?) new album, for now it's nice to find him again but nothing more.