The Eraser: Difference between revisions

The Eraser is the debut solo album by Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke, released on 10 July 2006. The album debuted at #3 on the UK Albums Chart and at #2 on the Billboard 200 in the United States, selling over 90,000 copies in its first week. Critical reception to the album was generally positive. The Eraser was nominated for both the Mercury Music Prize and the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 2007.

The song "Analyse" is featured in the ending credits of the film The Prestige^[1] and "Black Swan" in A Scanner Darkly.

A remix album titled "The Eraser Rmxs" was released originally as three 3-track EPs on 12" vinyl and as digital downloads in December 2007. It was later released as a CD & 12" vinyl in Japan in May/June 2008 and the US in August 2008.

On 11 May 2006, Yorke posted, without explanation, a link to the site theeraser.net on the Dead Air Space section of the official Radiohead website. Two days later, in an email sent to the owners of several Radiohead fan sites through W.A.S.T.E. (Radiohead's online shop), Yorke announced he was making an album and revealed a few details: it was produced by Nigel Godrich, comprises songs written and played by Yorke alone, is "more beats and electronics".^[2]

In an email to a Radiohead fan site, Yorke said, "I don't wanna hear that word solo",^[3] and asserted that the work was done with "their blessing", whilst the spokesman asserted that Radiohead were not breaking up.^[4] Radiohead launched a tour to play their own new material, nearly coinciding with the announcement. Yorke said that some of the tracks for The Eraser had been "kicking around in the background".^[4] Two songs, the title track and "Black Swan", use samples of recordings made by other members of the band.

The Eraser was produced, arranged and engineered by Nigel Godrich. The title track, "The Eraser" was co-written with Radiohead member Jonny Greenwood, and is based on piano chords (namely Cadd6 and Dadd6). Yorke revealed in an interview with Rolling Stone, that the piano parts played by Greenwood were recorded on a dictaphone at his house; "A year and a half later, I had to own up that I had sampled them, cut them into a different order and made them into a song [laughs]. Is that all right? Sorry, Jonny."^[5]

"Analyse" was inspired by a blackout Yorke experienced in Oxford. Yorke used to live on a "historical street" with 1860s built houses in central Oxford and upon arriving home one night, the street suffered a power cut. Yorke explained; "The houses were all dark, with candlelight in the windows, which is obviously how it would have been when they were built. It was beautiful."^[5]

"Black Swan" dates back to the Kid A sessions, which "has this tiny, shredded segment of something", a sample created in 2000 by Ed and Phil, which Yorke "sliced [...] into bits."^[5]

Yorke stated that "And It Rained All Night" has an "enormously shredded-up element of "The Gloaming" [from Hail to the Thief]", which Yorke recalled creating in New York because he couldn't sleep one night as a result of heavy rainfall. Yorke commented on the bassline of the song that it created "little pockets of excitement that [he'd] missed for so long."^[5]

"Cymbal Rush" is derived from "Try to Save Your Prize", a musical track from The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth Of All Time. Yorke reported that "Cymbal Rush" contained an element he had for three years, one little note from which he could "hear the melody in there straightaway." However, he said that "if you played it to anyone else without [him] singing it, you'd think, 'What's he on about?'"^[5]

Thom Yorke said much of his songwriting on the album was personal, but also inspired by the issue of climate change. Yorke was a spokesman for Friends of the Earth's "The Big Ask" campaign to reduce carbon emissions, and Radiohead played the first gig of their 2006 tour at a benefit for the group (performing "Cymbal Rush" before the album was announced).

In describing his motivation for releasing the album, Yorke said, "I've been in the band since we left school and never dared do anything on my own, and it was like, 'This is getting stupid.' It was like, 'Man, I've got to find out what it feels like,' you know? And it was good. It was a really good time."^[6]

Regarding "Harrowdown Hill", Yorke said he had "already written part of it when he realized it was about David Kelly, a chemical weapons inspector in Iraq who committed suicide in 2003 after being connected to a leak of British intelligence about weapons of mass destruction."^[7] In an interview with The Observer, Yorke said that "Harrowdown Hill" was "the most angry song [he'd] ever written in [his] life" and stated that he wouldn't discuss the background of it; "it's not for me or for any of us to dig any of this up. So it's a bit of an uncomfortable thing."^[8] In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Yorke said that he had been "feeling really uncomfortable about that song lately" but felt that "not to write it would perhaps have been worse."^[7] Yorke also notes that "'Harrowdown Hill' was kicking around during 'Hail to the Thief', but there was no way that was going to work with the band."^[5]

The album's cover, a linocut by Stanley Donwood, depicts a figure in black hat and trenchcoat standing in imitation of King Canute, trying and failing to command the ocean.^[9] Around him are iconic London buildings that have been swept away by the Thames, including the Tower of London, the Houses of Parliament and the Thames Barrier. Donwood included this picture and other images seen in The Eraser booklet in his art exhibition London Views, prior to the album's release. The images were inspired by a large flood Donwood and Yorke both witnessed in Cornwall in 2004.^[10] Donwood's cover artwork for the album was announced the winner of the Best Art Vinyl award of 2006.^[11]

The CD packaging of The Eraser is made of cardboard but unlike a digipak, it does not contain any plastic. Yorke said this was for environmental reasons; he also said in an interview that he did not have his CDs certified as carbon neutral as he did not believe carbon offsets were a constructive solution to climate issues.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[12]
The Guardian	[13]
Pitchfork Media	(6.6/10) [14]
Popmatters	(7/10) [15]
Robert Christgau	(B-) [16]
sputnikmusic	[17]
Tiny Mix Tapes	[18]

Critical reaction to the album was generally positive: based on 37 reviews by notable publications, review aggregator Metacritic gave The Eraser a score of 76/100, indicating generally favourable reviews.^[19] Critics commented on the uniqueness and fragility of Yorke's voice.^[20][21] Many reviews made comparisons to Radiohead; Andy Kellman of Allmusic stated that the album "sounds as close to a version of Radiohead minus four of its members as one can imagine", and similarities between ideas of The Eraser with Kid A were frequently noted.^[22] However, Kellman also stated that the album differed to music Thom Yorke had created with Radiohead as it "[didn't] have the dynamics [...] held by any Radiohead album".^[22] Louis Patterson from NME stated that "as a twin [to Kid A], it’s every bit the equal" whilst Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone said the album "is full of glitchy electro ballads, in the style of Kid A tracks like "Morning Bell" and "How to Disappear Completely."^[20][21] Writing for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis stated the album at its worst conjured up "the unlikely image of Autechre fronted by Private Frazer off Dad's Army".^[23] Petridis described the lyrics as "one long defeated sigh, interrupted by the occasional tut and roll of the eyes" and associated the guitars on "The Clock" with grumbling.^[23] However, Petridis did praise the album and stated that "elsewhere, the album offers a plethora of low-key delights", with "And It Rained All Night", which he said had a "compelling tension between the ambivalence of the lyrics - 'how come it looks so beautiful?' - and the music's relentlessness".^[23]

All songs written by Thom Yorke except where noted.

1. "The Eraser" (Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood) – 4:55
2. "Analyse" – 4:02
3. "The Clock" – 4:13
4. "Black Swan" – 4:49
5. "Skip Divided" – 3:35
6. "Atoms for Peace" – 5:13
7. "And It Rained All Night" – 4:15
8. "Harrowdown Hill" – 4:38
9. "Cymbal Rush" – 5:15

• Thom Yorke – vocals, instrumentation
• Nigel Godrich – arrangement, production, mixing, instrumentation
• Jonny Greenwood – piano

Album

Singles

• theeraser.net
• The Eraser page at the XL Recordings website.
• "Radiohead's Thom Yorke on Going Solo" - interview with Rolling Stone.
• "All messed up" - interview with Observer Music Monthly.