There’s something about Thom Yorke’s voice. He has a unique ability to elicit sadness without coming off as a whiner (unlike, say, Coldplay). The lyrics of his new album, The Eraser, seem at first to be mostly nonsense, basically there to give Yorke an excuse to use his voice as an instrument… much like he does when fronting the band Radiohead. But look closer and there is meaning to be found.
Just give a listen to the title track, The Eraser. The combination of creepy piano chord progressions and a snazzy beat with Yorke’s haunting voice sends chills up my spine and sets the tone for the rest of the mostly melancholy album. Yet for some reason, it doesn’t make me depressed like most sad music… it just makes me feel.
The Eraser sounds like a natural evolution of Radiohead’s sound. It’s a little more minimal, a strong example of “less is more.” It’s a little more digital than the band’s analogue noise/music, but only a little. This could very easily be mistaken for the next Radiohead album and non-hardcore fans won’t even be able to tell the difference. For me, that’s a good thing because I love Radiohead. For Yorke, however, it kinda defeats the purpose of striking out solo… then again, maybe that is the point. Yorke is, of course, the heart of Radiohead. Why wouldn’t his album sound similar?
The bottom line is that current fans of Radiohead will love this album. If you fall into that category, you should have already picked this album up. If you haven’t what are you waiting for?
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