Thom Yorke/Nigel Godrich = The Eraser

I'm exicted for this.

http://billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002502412

love thom

-- Tim Finney (tfinne...) (webmail), October 17th, 2005 1:50 AM. (Tim Finney) (link)

haha i love this guy, so pretenious.

and don't call it an album, it's a project grouping of sound developments. also: labels are for canned goods, NOT PEOPLE.

In what sense?

I hope this solo album doesn't mean in essence, it's Hail To The Thief II coming out on two different (one 'lectro, one geetars) discs.

xpost

I respect that some of their fans have been divided since OK Computer, but I personally really dig the electronic element that they've added to their music. Alot of that come from Nigel, I'm sure, but if they switch up producers for the new album (like they plan to do), it should be interesting to see how it all pans out.

Regardless, I don't think a new Radiohead album will be considered "jumping the shark", especially not with that attitude going into it.

What does this mean??

There's a bootleg compilation around called "Towering Above The Rest" (you can apparently find it in some record stores or google for the d/l) which collects most of them. Out of about 40 there's a nice compilation of 10/15 to be made, but it won't have the coherence of any of their albums. Well, possibly Amnesiac.

I found that cunnilingus review. Good god.

so. thom yorke’s solo album.
It’s-not-a-solo-album.
um, like, whatever. it sounds like a collection of radiohead demos.
Not exactly. More like song sketches before RH turn them into Rock Epics.
so that’s why it’s sparse, minimalist glitchtronica?
Sparse? Listen to it on headphones. Dense layers of Thom. Thom humming like a theremin. Hosts of angelchoir Thoms. Devil Thoms’ breathing woven into the rhythms… actually, it’s strangely erotic.
eeurgh!
No, really, this is the closest Thom has come to writing personal stuff, like, err, love.
featuring flying saucers and algebra? come off it. it’s just his Grumpy Old Man extended metaphors about politics again.
It’s not about lyrics, or even language. He slices up words themselves, stuttering, repeating. “Peel all of your layers off, I want to eat your artichoke heart” – this is about cunnilingus, isn’t it?
gross! he looks like a lizard!
Ah, yes! The salamander! He appeared to me in a dream, and gave me magical glasses to translate the Book Of Donwood, foretelling the Coming Apocalypse when the lost rivers of Clerkenwell rise up to wash London away…
have we taken our medication recently?
Err, no.

^^^^^I can't work out head or tail of this.

I dug out the Eraser after that Twist/Stuck Together stuff got leaked. I actually think I like this throwaway stuff when he's not trying to write Proper Songs a lot better. Anyway this thread made me dig out the remixes so we'll see what to make of those. I've generally not been a fan of his collaborations (tho that could be the fault of his collaborators. He's got one of those voices that no one seems to know what to do with.)

god, I never thought about the artichoke line in that way

recently I returned to the album, too, and really enjoy listening only to the last 4-5 tracks as if they were one, stunning EP. I definitely prefer side B to side A. such an underrated album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmurNrsa-90

^^^^^really oddly love this.

But yeah the second side of The Eraser is definitely where it all happens, especially towards the end.

That artichoke heart line is just so odd I don't know what to make it, but it's already established my mind is full of filth.

I was (just) reading Matt Groenig's comment about how he hated "TroutMask" the first time, but persevered as double albums were so expensive. And it ended up his favourite album of all time.

I think thesedays music is so cheap to come by, it's easy to hear something once and discard it and not *have* to try again, much less play it eight times as MattG did.

Which is a long way of saying "I got a cheap CD on holiday, didn't rate it"

Remixes commissioned for this so much better than the remixes for that last Radiohead album

otm about the second half of The Eraser. a few weeks ago i was at a coffeeshop late at night, only one in there, and the barista put on the Eraser. it was the first time i had heard it in a few years, and i had that same thought about how the second half of it is just amazing. i still think "Cymbal Rush" is the standout track, and ranks up there with the best radiohead songs.

I dunno, tho. Every time I listen to it and try to decide what my favourite song is, it shifts. The only song I'm not 100% on is Skip Divided, but even though that starts badly, it somehow manages to twist around and make me love it anyway by the end despite the unfortunate "number and location" hook. I think because it's so droney - if that's the one I'm thinking of, it's the one where it's only one chord and he just weaves in and out of these odd drone tonalities which is always complete bait for me.

The end of Cymbal Rush is just incredible, though. Though the song reminds me a lot (in terms of mood and theme) of Wolf At The Door, it's kinda like a bleepy version of that.

Just love Atoms For Peace so much, the little leaps and swoons that his voice makes on that just make me so unspeakably happy. I think that was the moment that he remembered that his voice really can be a thing of wonder. (I can p much count on the fingers of one hand the male singers I don't actively dislike.) And those phased-out synths on It Rained All Night - fucking hate the bassline on that, though. Clearly Thom Yorke has never seen that Kim Deal video about the problems with ~real bassists~ ugh ugh ugh. But the synths are so amazing.

I'm not keen on the remixes, though, sorry. Radiohead remixes are always just so tedious and worthy, I just can't get with them - well, the Four Tet one's alright, but a) that's one of my favourite songs on the album and b) Four Tet remixes are always so damn sparkly. I could just do without all that particular beard-stroking end of Nu-DM.

What I had forgotten were so great was the *B-sides*. But anything Radiohead related, the B-sides are almost always more interesting than what makes it on the proper album. Why don't they just make up the track lists and then just switch?

I don't know, it's funny what albums one persists with if one is determined to like them. There's usually *something* about it that hooks you in and makes you want to give something another go. I mean, that said, I was also determined to like Bodysong and I tell you, I have never made it more than three songs into that album, I just can't do it. (sorry Jonny - and Mel, don't hit me. I tried.)

The song, Atoms For Peace, I'm talking about.

The supergroup is just... WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY???!?!?!?

Like, you take my favourite male singer of the past 20 years, and you stick him in a band with the WORST. BASSIST. EVAH. when the bass is the most important instrument and it's just ... tooth-gnashingly repellent to me.

I was also determined to like Bodysong and I tell you, I have never made it more than three songs into that album, I just can't do it.

whoa whoa WHOA. you need to go back. i mean, maybe it's not your thing. but bodysong is actually really, really really good. as much as i've come around to parts of The Eraser, bodysong will probably always be my favorite radiohead side-release kind of thing. it's amazing.

No no noooo me and Bodysong do not get on. It just inspires this instinctive "GET IT OFF GET IT OFF" reaction in me, and that really bothered me because I wanted so badly to really love it. It upsets me that I don't like it, but I can't put the time and effort into getting my head around it.

Did Ed O'Brien ever release any solo stuff? I discovered, completely by accident, that my all time number one favourite Radiohead song was actually written by him, which completely surprised me.

no solo stuff to my knowledge. the only radiohead song that i'm aware of that he wrote by himself was hunting bears?

No! Apparently he wrote Meeting In The Aisle as well! Which I always thought was Jonny but no, it was Ed.

oh, i guess wikipedia says there's other stuff:

Notable songwriting contributions to Radiohead include the opening riff on the songs "Go to Sleep", and the riff that makes up the closing song on The Bends, "Street Spirit (Fade Out)". He has also written the instrumental "Meeting in the Aisle", "Lull", and the music to "Big Boots".(citation needed)
He mainly helps to expand on the musical framework created by Thom Yorke, and is known for his contributions to "Karma Police", (he created the effect that closes the song and his backing vocals during the chorus are an integral part of the song), "Lucky" (creating the effect that opens the song) and "Treefingers" (his guitar chords were processed electronically to sound like ambient music).

I know, I know. I've read the stories that he basically goes round Yorke's house and kicks him out of bed and shakes him down for demo CDs he's being precious about, which he takes home and picks out the ones to make into proper songs and cleans them up and arranges them.

Which makes me wonder, given what was said upthread, if it's not Jonny that's missing from this album but Ed's magic editorial touch.

one last thing on bodysong (sorry!) - did you ever actually SEE the film, rather than just listening to the music? maybe i'm so fond of it because i also love the documentary, but the music is definitely amplified by the visuals, and vice versa. listen to that dreaded first song again, this time with scenes of conception:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1rzsOgwzJk

Is it safe to watch at work? I don't have the bandwidth to watch a nine minute youtube at home, that'd take half an hour to load. :-(

(Blimey, I was just looking at Ed's wiki page - I was trying to figure out if he used a Copycat or a Memory Man to get that wibbly-wubbly analogue delay sound, but halfway through his list (just to the Electroharmonix section) I had a hard-on, what an effects connoisseur!)

probably not safe to watch at work, sadly, since there's a bunch of footage of childbirth.

this is easily my favourite post-okcomputer "radiohead" record

ditto.

there were b sides? i should check out the b sides.

there's always B-sides when it comes to RH/TY (haven't listened to them yet, tho)

Jetstream is amazing, one of the best things Thom has done. It should have been on the album in place of The Clock (the weakest song on The Eraser, to me).

Any thoughts on All For the Best (http://stereogum.com/79431/new_thom_yorke_-_all_for_the_best_stereogum_premie/mp3s/)? This and Atoms for Peace are hands down my favorite Thom Yorke songs—at least, the two I actually still listen to with any kind of regularity—mostly for this creeping melancholy that squeezes in through the repeating (up?)beat track and then kinda takes hold. Really affecting, for me at least.

Also: I remember being really impressed by the acoustic set of The Eraser on Henry Rollins when the album came out—in some cases more than the album tracks.

Jetstream is great, but I actually prefer Drunkk Machine (absolutely classic Yorkeian word salad)

I loved their version of All For The Best! (Miracle Legion are one of those bands I saw way too many times when I was growing up, just because of where I lived at the time, they were kinda local) It's a beautiful song and they did it well. (RH covers are often questionable quality at best. Wanted to murder them for butchering New Order)

Mainly because Thom + Andy Yorke duet = just completely amazing ear candy why have they never recorded one before (well, duh, it's obvious why they haven't, but still, I'm glad it happened.) Does make me wonder what could have happened had Andy Yorke ever had a more interesting backing band. (Some of the more interesting footage in that "Anyone Can Play Guitar" Oxford scene rockumentary (feh) was stuff from Andy Yorke + Jonny Greenwood's teenage band. Alternate histories with different combinations of Yorkes and Greenwoods could have been possible...)

Actually the Modeselektor remix of Skip Divided is OK, it's better than the original. Though I'm lukewarm on Modeselektor in general (the only thing they've been involved with that I unconditionally love is Moderat, but I suspect that's because Apparat is so full of wonderfully lovely that he makes everything better.)

Realising, though, that a great deal of my discomfort with Skip Divided is actually the same thing that draws me in and makes me intrigued by it every time. That this is a song that appears to be about obsessive limerent stalker-dom, written by someone who is the focus himself of so much stalky limerent obsession- makes it v v uncomfortable listening for me, like "here's a really ugly mirror I'm holding up to yr face" - is this what it feels like to be the focus of it? Which makes it horrible listening for an obsessive fan, and yet at the same time, the accuracy with which he utterly nails the emotions running through the head of the obsessive stalker freak is unnerving, it's easy to project a kind of "oh, he gets it" onto it.

Of course this is just my reading of the song - his lyrics are so opaque most of the time it's probably not about obsessive stalking at all, but an extended metaphor for the government's dismantling of the NHS and who really knows with him. You can't ever tell for certain, and that's what I like about the lyrics. (He's not quite at Bernard Sumner's level of "so nonsense it could be profound, so profound it could be nonsense" but I like the fact that you can project anything at all into it.)

Anyway.

"all for the best" is amazing.

I really expected this album to not be as good as it is when I first heard about it, since I kind of assumed that Thom Yorke's interests were channeled through Radiohead and refined into complete works. If anything, the lyrics on The Eraser (album, not track) seem more distinct and straightforward than most recent Radiohead material.

<3 that Modselektor remix so much. I cut it out of one of their live sets that had been posted online and must have listened to it a few dozen times before it was released. The remix 12" releases for this album are in a pretty gold foil outlining the Thom York/Stanley Donwood art from the album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhlp0jHF4KA

This album has aged really, really well.

I think the Atoms For Peace album is a bit better.

Weird. Loved The Eraser but not sure if I've ever managed to play Atoms For Peace all the way through.

Eraser has better melodies (maybe even, like, songs) and a more personal approach to production imo. I came around to Atoms for Peace, but after listening to that and Tomorrow's Modern Boxes this one is sounding amazing.

(TMB is great too, really love how it flows, but considering that The Eraser is a decade old, I think it could be released today and still sound fresh)

I find the Atoms For Peace album almost completely uninteresting. It's pleasant enough when a track comes up on shuffle but I never want to sit down and listen to it, whereas any random song off of The Eraser will make me stop and pay attention to it, and 75% of the time I'll navigate to the album in my library and play the whole thing.

it's already a decade old? how time flies, in my mind it had been released maybe two or three years ago. solid album, both the catchy melancholic guitar tune "black swan" (spooky that this was released way ahead of the lehman crash) and the funky "harrowdown hill" with the church organ background sound are excellent.

When "Harrowdown Hill" came on I was thinking "I remember liking this a lot, I wonder why?" and then that super-hooky pop chorus comes out of nowhere. I love how nothing in the track really changes or supports it.

DJP otm

also I am a big nerd and have all the remix 12" releases of The Eraser

this is such a great record. love it front to back. better than in rainbows and king of limbs

This album has aged really, really well.

― sam jax sax jam (Jordan), Tuesday, March 22, 2016 8:50 AM (eight months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

So I haven't listened to this probably since it came out, but Ezekiel Kweku just tweeted a YouTube of "The Clock," and I thought, I bet I would really enjoy hearing this album again, if nothing else than as a snapshot of the era.

crazy, i was just listening to/singing this today. it really has aged well. i'd rank it above most radiohead albums at this point.

I really like the lower register voice he uses in 'Skip Divided', he should sing like that more often. I think this album is probably his peak as a vocalist, he has a really pure tone throughout.

This is still the best thing Yorke has done outside of Radiohead.

It's possibly better than The King of Limbs and A Moon Shaped Pool, too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsOpgklj5SE

No thoughts on the Suspiria soundtrack?

I picked it up the other day with the new Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks bootleg series and I ordered the first Cardigans album and that came in the mail the same day, so I'm just now getting to Suspiria.

It's. . . okay. At times, it feels like completely stock "scary horror movie music" with it's super high register shrilling strings and quick silences. The original songs Thom sings are nice, with 'Has Ended' coming up as my pick for the highlight.

"Has Ended" is my favourite as well, but I liked pretty much the whole thing (despite the messy track order of the second disc). And it works great in the movie - which I enjoyed as well.

Apparently Thom's releasing another solo album next year, too!

I revived the Suspiria soundtrack (originally for the Goblin soundtrack) a couple times. I think it’s great, some of his very best work

Revives the Suspiria thread, I meant

Iphoooooooooone