The Eraser by Thom Yorke
The Eraser is the debut solo album by Thom Yorke of the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released on 10 July 2006 on the independent label XL Recordings. It was produced by longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich. The album comprises electronic music Yorke recorded during Radiohead's 2004 hiatus and between their 2005 rehearsals, and makes heavy use of original samples. The lyrics express Yorke's political concerns. Lead single "Harrowdown Hill" was written about the death of David Kelly, a whistleblower who allegedly committed suicide after telling a reporter that the British government had falsely identified weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The album artwork, by longtime Radiohead cover artist Stanley Donwood, was inspired by the legend of King Canute failing to command the ocean, which Yorke likened to government attitudes towards climate change. The Eraser debuted at number three on the UK Albums Chart and number two on the American Billboard 200. It was named one of the best albums of 2006 by the NME, Rolling Stone and the Observer, and was nominated for the 2006 Mercury Music Prize and the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album. Two singles were released from the album: "Analyse" and "Harrowdown Hill". It was followed in the same year by a B-sides EP, Spitting Feathers, and in 2009 a remix album, The Eraser Rmxs. In 2010, to perform the album live, Yorke formed Atoms for Peace with musicians including Godrich and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea. In 2004, after finishing the tour for their sixth album Hail to the Thief (2003), Radiohead went on hiatus. Songwriter Thom Yorke began recording The Eraser, his first solo release, with longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich in late 2004, and continued work throughout 2005 between Radiohead sessions. He told Pitchfork: "I've been in the band since we left school and never dared do anything on my own ... It was like, 'Man, I've got to find out what it feels like,' you know?" The album was recorded in Radiohead's Oxford studio, Godrich's studio in Covent Garden, and Yorke's home. Yorke wanted to "approach and engage with computers and not a lot else, and yet still have lots of life and energy in the music." To generate ideas, he cut and pasted clips at random from Radiohead's library of original samples, many of which were created on laptops in hotel rooms as the band toured. He would send sound fragments to Godrich, who identified passages that could become songs, edited them, and returned them to Yorke. Describing the collaborative process, Yorke said: "'Black Swan', back in the day, was a ... nine-minute load of bollocks. Except for this one juicy bit, and goes past and goes, 'That bit. Fuck the rest.' Usually it's something like that." To create the title track, Yorke sampled piano chords played by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood and cut them into a new order. "And it Rained All Night" contains an "enormously shredded-up" sample from "The Gloaming" (from Hail to the Thief), and "Black Swan" samples a rhythm recorded by Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien and drummer Philip Selway in 2000. Yorke said "Harrowdown Hill" had been "kicking around" during the 2002 Hail to the Thief sessions, but felt it could not have worked as a Radiohead song. Yorke initially intended to create instrumental tracks, but added vocals at the encouragement of Godrich. On Radiohead albums, Yorke had altered his voice with layers of reverb and digital effects; however, for The Eraser, Godrich wanted Yorke's voice to be "dry and loud." As Yorke found it difficult to write lyrics to loops of music, saying he could not "react spontaneously and differently every time", he translated the music to guitar and piano and generated new musical components in the process. Yorke saved one song recorded in the Eraser sessions, "Last Flowers", for the bonus disc of Radiohead's seventh album, In Rainbows (2007). Another song, "The Hollow Earth", was finished later and released as a single in 2009.
This solo release from Radiohead singer Thom Yorke finds him temporarily stepping away from his band, but without venturing too far off stylistically, as if he stole away with his laptop but stayed within earshot of rehearsal. The precisely layered music is almost entirely electronic—twitchy beats, stark samples, synthesizers, and assorted blips—with Yorke’s distinctive voice always upfront, clear, and intimate, the lyrics throughout provocative and imaginative. With few tempos changes, each song builds to a steady groove and then stays there for the duration, and though this leaves the album short on surprises, <i>The Eraser</i> achieves a continuity and stark beauty that allows it to work well as either a headphone album or as background music for a low-key party. Yorke is not attempting to make a great departure from his work with the band (the album was created with help from Nigel Godrich, who produced much of Radiohead’s output) so the overall sound will be familiar to loyal fans. But this is no mere filler until the next Radiohead release. <i>The Eraser</i> is strong enough to stand on its own and offers a fascinating, if dark, look into both Yorke’s world and ours.
