from pitchfork today:

Quote :

"Matthew Solarski reports: Major break-ups, deaths, and Thom Yorke records-- pretty much the only stories Pitchfork News wakes up on a weekend to break. A couple of Saturdays back, we caught wind that Yorke was planning his first-ever foray into, um, solitary territory ("i don't wanna hear that word solo," the man wrote in a W.A.S.T.E. e-mail), on a forthcoming album to be titled The Eraser. And now, we've had the distinct pleasure of hearing the album in its entirety. The Eraser is a sumptuous, Nigel Godrich-produced layer cake of plaintive piano, haunting synth squalls, and chugging guitars built atop skittish programmed beats and devoured by Thom Yorke's anguished ruminations on the pressures and paranoias attendant to fame and expectation. And no, it's not a techno record. Here's a track-by-track first glimpse at The Eraser: 1. "the eraser": The title track opens with a muffled, repeated piano chord. After a few bars and a chord change, programmed beats settle in, and Thom interrupts, "Please excuse me but I got to ask," scraping the upper register. Soon, a gaggle of disembodied, moaning Thoms joins in for the chorus, which seemingly takes a cue from Morrissey: "The more you try to erase me/ The more that I appear". 2. "analyse": Vocal and rolling piano lines launch this meditation on futility. "The fences that you cannot climb/ The sentences that do not rhyme," Thom laments, sad and clever all at once. And later: It gets you down/ You're just playing a part," one of many presumed jabs at self-identity. The chord progression somewhat recalls an accelerated "Knives Out", with a hesitant snare plodding along in the background, before Godrich drops in the first of The Eraser's many cinematic synth flourishes. 3. "the clock": A cyclical guitar line lends this track an almost motorik vibe, albeit one evoking a leisurely Sunday drive. Click-clack beats add to the pace before the inevitable opening line: "Time is running out/ For us." By the end, Thom is humming a simple, bluesy melody over the steady but relentless rhythm. 4. "black swan": Opens with an almost hip-hop beat, before a blues-inspired riff more than a little reminiscent of "I Might Be Wrong" drops in and sets the structure. "This is fucked up, fucked up," Yorke declares. Later, more identity crises are averted: "I don't care what the future holds/ 'Cause I'm right here and I'm today/ With your fingers you can touch me." 5. "skip divided": Samples of Thom drawing breaths help form the percussive foundation of this dark stalker-ly declaration. Yorke's at his most conversational here, almost pub-drunk, revealing, "When you walk in a room I follow you 'round/ Like a dog/ I'm a dog, I'm a dog, I'm a dog/ I'm a lapdog/ I'm your lapdog." Creepy. 6. "atoms for peace": Thom returns, all homesick alien, beseeching you: "No more going to the dark side with your flying saucer eyes/ No more falling down a wormhole that I have to pull you out," and striving for some higher octaves during the chorus: "I wanna geeet ouuut/ And make it woooork." Celestial tones underscore a warm, bumbling bassline-- a relatively minimal arrangement compared to the rest of The Eraser. "So many lies/ So feel the love come off of them/ And take me in your arms," he sings. Thom's own "You're Beautiful"? 7. "and it rained all night": And it's back to the Dark Side for The Eraser's chilliest number, a tune awash in eerie synth and driven by a Joy Division-esque bassline. Thom assumes the role of the poet-observer, surrealistically detailing visions of post-downpour New York, clipped vocal samples later piggybacking the bassline. It culminates in a strained, desperate: "I can see you/ But I can never reach you." 8. "harrowdown hill": Don't get thrown off by the practically post-punk opening bass riff; more haunted synth and programmed beats soon drift in and turn things nocturnal once again. "I'm coming home to make it alight/ So dry your eyes," sings Thom-- one of the most conventional, pop-esque vocal melodies on the record. "I can't take the pressure/ No one cares if you live or die/ They just want me gone/ They want me gone." The moment is suspended to make way for some riffing, which closes out the song. 9. "cymbal rush": We're greeted here by what sounds like the Pac-Man death sound effect kicked down an octave kicked down an octave; then more funereal, ambient synth, along with pitter-patter programmed percussion not unlike that on "Kid A". "Try to build a wall that is high enough," sings Thom. "It's all boiling over." Finally, the climax: percussion picks up, guitar enters over melancholic piano chords, and more disembodied Thoms float about, moaning-- until all drops out for one final blip-bloop parade, which sputters out to an abrupt finish. Regarding The Eraser, Yorke also wrote "inevitably it is more beats & electronics. but its [sic] songs," and that pretty much sums it up. The record is song-oriented to a perhaps surprising degree-- no instrumentals, all tracks pretty much in the four-minute range, mostly standard time signatures-- and emphasizes the trademark textural richness of Radiohead and Godrich. The Eraser lands in stores July 11 in the U.S. (lucky Brits get it a day earlier) via XL Recordings, but for now, those of you who enjoy being puzzled, hop on over to http://www.theeraser.net for more (totally cryptic) album details."

5/24/2006 10:45:59 AM

id love to see this at #1 in the sales chart as much as i wanna see soap #1 at the box office

5/24/2006 11:19:54 AM

so i'm expecting a lot the gloaming-esque material, which isn't necessarily a bad thing

5/24/2006 12:47:55 PM

what are they scared to say if they think it's good or bad

5/24/2006 11:44:49 PM

http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=409363

5/24/2006 11:48:19 PM

i was looking for that thread earlier

so i could paste the pitchfork update

5/25/2006 12:05:42 AM

yeah didn't see that thread. i didn't really think this was new news or anything. it was just the first "review" (though maybe more of a synopsis really) of the album. i'm thinking maybe they didn't do too much commentary because they hold that until they've had more time to digest things (with big releases like this at least). this story was more to just be the first ones with this info.

and who knows, they may have only heard it once and just scribbled some notes about it. i would imagine they're keeping this shit pretty locked up until much closer to the release date.

5/25/2006 4:01:14 PM

i was listening to a few radiohead gigs and cymbal rush came on. id forgotten yorke has played it live before (its a shitty recording but the songs appears to be pretty good).

5/26/2006 8:21:08 AM

get it before it goes down

yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=4543024962A720F8

5/30/2006 8:55:52 PM

damn it's down

5/30/2006 11:06:04 PM

the album has been given the subtitle "The Songs Even I Wouldnt Put On Amnesiac"

5/31/2006 12:26:46 PM

haahhah damn

5/31/2006 1:17:07 PM

BLEEP BLOOP

5/31/2006 1:24:37 PM

perhaps marko prefers u2 would make another dismal album.

5/31/2006 2:30:36 PM

ZING!

(I'm with Grayson)

5/31/2006 2:55:09 PM

So the album has been out for a week now, opinions?

6/6/2006 10:32:53 AM

i'll have it soon

6/6/2006 10:45:22 AM

is it Com Lag 2?

[Edited on June 6, 2006 at 11:47 AM. Reason : +]

6/6/2006 11:46:15 AM

Just downloaded it, I'm giving it a listen now.

6/6/2006 12:02:49 PM

its aight, but ever since i read the pitchfork glimpse of the album, all i can picture are "disembodied Thoms float"ing throughout every song.

6/6/2006 1:03:42 PM

i'm at a place called vertigoooooooooooooo
maybe they should put an avocado on the cover


ehh, marko?

6/6/2006 1:26:04 PM

i have it, haven't listened to it

but i bet a dollar i think its about as good as i thought amnesiac was

6/6/2006 1:37:28 PM

i give it three and three quarter stars



[Edited on June 6, 2006 at 2:57 PM. Reason : ]

6/6/2006 2:57:32 PM

i'm really liking this album

6/10/2006 10:09:34 PM

i was expecting something completly different when i listened to this album, that said i liked it very much especially harrowdown hill.

had a very kid a, amnesiac feel to it

6/10/2006 10:13:56 PM

i like most of it, some of it feels empty. it makes me want another good radiohead album, i wasn't happy with hail to the theif

6/12/2006 10:53:31 AM

anyone have a link for download?

6/12/2006 12:41:59 PM

anyone

6/13/2006 2:29:13 PM

its 2006 and you still can't find music on the internet?

6/13/2006 2:30:53 PM

im sure i could find it, but if someone already knows where to find it

well, that would be much easier, wouldn't it?

6/13/2006 2:32:51 PM

http://live.video.rainbow-media-online.com/ifcvideos/henry_show/ThomYorkeWithTitles.swf

7/9/2006 3:27:24 PM

^^just go to albumbase.com. its not p2p so you can't get caught supposedly

7/9/2006 3:57:49 PM

Drunkk Machine should have been on the album, probably my favorite song of the bunch
megaupload.com/fr/?d=6UIYDW44

8/16/2006 10:31:46 PM

There are two b-sides getting released with the harrowdown hill single.

Jetstream http://rapidshare.de/files/29895867/Jetstream.mp3
The Drunkk Machine http://rapidshare.de/files/29895863/The_Drunkk_Machine.mp3

8/21/2006 8:39:41 AM

this dood could make an album of farting noises and people would line up down the street to buy it

8/21/2006 10:51:35 AM

Thom's definitely better off with Radiohead... Most of the songs are good.. but not up there with the best of radiohead.. even after listening to this for a couple of weeks, I still can't get myself to like black swan and atoms for peace... no matter how much ppl compare them to the stuff on Kid A, they are not that good for me.. Any news on the next radiohead album? I'd love to hear more from the band..

8/22/2006 3:59:43 PM