Track Listing

1. Eraser
2. Analyse
3. Clock
4. Black Swan
5. Skip Divided
6. Atoms For Peace
7. And It Rained All Night
8. Harrowdown Hill
9. Cymbal Rush

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1870 in Music
• Released on: 2006-07-10
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics

Amazon.co.uk Review
"Don’t call it solo," says Thom Yorke of The Eraser, "It doesn’t sound right". Here, then, is the first – hmm, let’s say one-man record from the vocalist of Radiohead, an excursion in electronic beats and synthetic textures hailed by many critics as a return to Radiohead’s 2000 album, Kid A. Strictly speaking, though, he’s right – it’s not solo: produced and "arranged" by long-time ‘Head producer Nigel Godrich, featuring processed sounds taken from full-band sessions, and featuring at least one song originally mooted for appearance on Hail To The Thief, it appears as much an opportunity for Thom to build on the ideas not fully realised on full-band releases. Rock fans may lament Radiohead’s shifts away from guitar, bass and drums, but it’s hard to deny just how well Thom’s voice fits amid the hissy cymbals and spectral synthesiser of ‘The Eraser’ and ‘Black Swan’. Guitar surfaces on the haunting ‘The Clock’, Thom singing "You throw coins in the wishing well" over warped, droning folk, while album highlight ‘Harrowdown Hill’ strikes a rare explicitly political note for Thom, a track themed around the death of UN Weapons Inspector David Kelly. --Louis Pattison

CD Description
The debut solo effort from the Radiohead frontman, 'The Eraser' delivers elements of 'Kid A' and 'Amnesiac' as well as drawing from contemporaries such as Aphex Twin. Produced andarranged by long-time Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, 'The Eraser' gives Yorke the freedom to move further into the realms of electronica whilst retaining the melody-driven style of Radiohead.

Customer Reviews

"The more you try to erase me, the more that I appear"
Thom Yorke's Eraser is best viewed as a tangential companion piece to Kid A, in my mind Radiohead's best album. It was that record's Morning Bell that best married Thom Yorke's bare, unprocessed vocals with electronic soundscaping and instrumentation. Those dissatisified with some of Radiohead's tampering with Thom's vocals will enjoy some of the naked intimacy of his voice here, especially engrossing over the headphones. Beginning with the deceptive, faux-naive Chicago house chords of the brilliant title track, you would be forgiven for thinking that this was going to be a miminal affair. But Analyse and The Clock put guitars into the mix for tracks that wouldn't be out of place on Amnesiac, the latter having a passing resemblance to that album's Knives Out. Whereas these tracks err towards drifting ponderousness, Black Swan has a discreet pop sensibility married to I Might be Wrong-style looped guitar loops and layered harmonies.

The best part of the album, however, is its final third, beginning with Atoms for Peace, in which sweet vocals compliment meditative electronics in the mold of early Aphex Twin. The subtle textural shifts and intricate but unfussy production gives an idea of what Massive Attack tried but largely failed to achieve on 100th Window. Better still, Harrowdown Hill tells the story of weapons inspector David Kelly's suicide as an Orwellian tragedy. Despite being one of Yorke's most overtly political songs, it is also one of his most heartbreakingly universal: "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 so many of us. So you can't count". Cymbal Rush sustains this sombre and elegaic mood to round off a record as accomplished, if not more consistent, than Radiohead's last two. The album's modesty and intimacy is its genius, removed of some of the bombast and histrionics that Radiohead seem to veer towards under the burden of expectation. Viewed independently, this is one of the year's finest electronica albums and one of the most successful cross-over alt-rock / electronica records ever made.

Cheap Cardboard Covers?
First off, this is pure Thom genius. Haunting, melodic. If I have a criticism it's that it's not particularly surprising. If you'd have thought about what a Thom Yorke solo album would have sounded like before you heard it you might well have imagined this record. Which may well be a good thing, hey?

Some dunce gave this album one star and complained that it even came in a 'cheep (sic) cardboard cover'. Having had the luck to have a little inside insight on this project I think you should know that the cardboard was very deliberately chosen for its lack of environmental impact. I also think it's rather more beautiful than the same old plastic crap.

The gorgeous cover's designed by Radiohead collaborator Stanley Donwood BTW, I heartily recommend his book, 'Slowly Downward', also available on this site.

Unbelievable
I'd been told not to buy this album by a friend, who said ultimately I'd find myself disappointed.

I don't normally write any product reviews on Amazon but I simply had to for this album, even if I can only convince one undecided shopper to buy this album I can hopefully rest in peace knowing that I've changed somebodys persons world.

The first time I popped the disc in my cd player I gave the album a quick listen through thinking to myself "Hey, this is actually pretty good"

Several months on this album is so much more than that. I have all the Radiohead albums in my CD collection, my favourites being The Bends, Hail to the thief and OK Computer. However, this album really does eclipse them all.

So full of touching, beautiful moments you simply shouldn't miss out on this unbelievable work of art. I stick it on before I go to bed each night and in my dreams get transported to another world, somewhere far away from this universe into the realms of impossibility and beyond.

Try it.