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The Eraser
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Eraser | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Thom Yorke | ||
| Released | 10 July 2006 | |
| Genre | Art rock, electronic music | |
| Length | 41:01 | |
| Label | XL XLCD200 / XLLP200 | |
| Producer | Nigel Godrich | |
| Professional reviews | ||
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The Eraser is a solo album by Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, released on 10 July 2006 in the United Kingdom and on 11 July in the United States and Canada. 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. The Eraser was nominated for both the Mercury Music Prize and the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.
Contents |
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 the 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".
In a later posting on Dead Air Space, Yorke said, "don't call it a solo record", asserting that Radiohead was not breaking up. In fact, Radiohead launched a tour to play their own new material, nearly coinciding with this announcement. Yorke said that some of the tracks for The Eraser had been "kicking around" since 2000, but that he had no immediate plans for more solo records. Two songs, the title track and "Black Swan", use samples of recordings made by other members of the band.
"The Eraser" is based on piano chords (namely C6 and D6) played by Radiohead member Jonny Greenwood: "the piano chords are Jonny's. I recorded them on a dictaphone around his house one day. 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."[1] Greenwood is given co-writing credit on this track, the only track of the album not credited solely to Yorke.
"Analyse" was inspired by a blackout in Oxford. Yorke "used to live in central Oxford, on one of those historical streets, with all these houses built in the 1860s. I came home one night and for some reason, the street had a power cut. 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."[1] "Analyse" was played by Yorke at the 2006 Mercury Prize ceremony. The song also accompanies the end credits of the 2006 Christopher Nolan film, The Prestige.
"Black Swan" dates back to the Kid A sessions. The song "has this tiny, shredded segment of something that was one of the library samples we had. It was Ed and Phil doing this thing, and I sliced it into bits. The sample was 2000, but the song was 2005."[1] The 2006 Richard Linklater film A Scanner Darkly features the song over the closing credits.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Yorke explained that "'And It Rained All Night' has this enormously shredded-up element of "The Gloaming" [from Hail to the Thief]... I remember doing that in New York. I couldn't sleep one night, and it was one of those New York things, where the rain just chucks down. The rain was so loud." Yorke finds the bassline for this song particularly interesting: "I'd ring up a friend, say 'Listen to this,' and play him the bass riff on 'And It Rained All Night.' It was things like that, little pockets of excitement that I'd missed for so long."[1]
"Cymbal Rush" is derived from "Try to Save Your Prize", a musical track from The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth Of All Time. Yorke also reported that "In the last song, 'Cymbal Rush,' the first bit you hear is something I had for three years: one little note. I could hear the melody in there straightaway. But if you played it to anyone else without me singing it, you'd think, 'What's he on about?'"[1]
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."[2]
"Atoms for Peace" was the title of a speech given by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953. It is also the motto of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Harrowdown Hill in Oxfordshire is notable for being the place where the body of Dr David Kelly was found in 2003. His evidence had raised questions about Saddam Hussein's possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction — the official justification for the UK government's decision to invade Iraq. In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Yorke said, "The government and the Ministry of Defence... were directly responsible for outing him and that put him in a position of unbearable pressure that he couldn't deal with, and they knew they were doing it and what it would do to him... I've been feeling really uncomfortable about that song lately, because it was a personal tragedy, and Dr Kelly has a family who are still grieving. But I also felt that not to write it would perhaps have been worse."[3] In another interview, Yorke said that "Harrowdown Hill" is "the most angry song I've ever written in my life. I'm not gonna get into the background to it, the way I see it... And 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."[4] 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."[1]
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.[5] 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.[6]
The CD packaging of The Eraser is unusual for a high profile release in that it is made of cardboard but unlike a digipak, it does not contain any plastic. However, Yorke said in an interview that he did not have his CDs certified as carbon neutral, agreeing with British environmentalist George Monbiot's assertion that the practice is pointless.[citation needed]
- "The Eraser" (T. Yorke/J. Greenwood) – 4:55
- "Analyse" (T. Yorke) – 4:02
- "The Clock" (T. Yorke) – 4:13
- "Black Swan" (T. Yorke) – 4:49
- "Skip Divided" (T. Yorke) – 3:35
- "Atoms for Peace" (T. Yorke) – 5:13
- "And It Rained All Night" (T. Yorke) – 4:15
- "Harrowdown Hill" (T. Yorke) – 4:38
- "Cymbal Rush" (T. Yorke) – 5:15
| Title | Release date | Album | Peak chart positions |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK | U.S. Modern Rock Tracks |
|||
| "Black Swan" | July 2006 | The Eraser | - | 40 |
| "Harrowdown Hill" | August 2006 | The Eraser | 23 | - |
| "Analyse" | October 2006 | The Eraser | - | - |
XL Recordings will release three separate 12" vinyl records containing remixes of tracks from The Eraser in early 2008.[7] The remixes will also be released as digital downloads on boomkat.com in December 2007.[8]
vinyl: January 21, 2008; digital download: December 17, 2007
- "And It Rained All Night (Burial Remix)"
- "Skip Divided (Modeselektor Remix)"
- "Analyse (Various Remix)"
vinyl: January 28, 2008; digital download: December 18, 2007
- "Atoms for Peace (Four Tet Remix)"
- "Black Swan (Cristian Vogel Spare Parts Remix)"
- "Black Swan (Vogel Bonus Beat Eraser Remix)"
vinyl: February 4, 2008; digital download: December 19, 2007
- "Harrowdown Hill (The Bug Remix)"
- "The Clock (Surgeon Remix)"
- "Cymbal Rush (The Field Late Night Essen Und Trinken Remix)"
- ^ a b c d e f Fricke, David (2006-06-01). Radiohead's Thom Yorke on Going Solo. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2006-07-16.
- ^ Plagenhoef, Scott (2006-08-16). Interview: Thom Yorke. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved on 2007-04-06.
- ^ Everett-Green, Robert (2006-06-14). Radiohead retooled. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved on 2006-06-14.
- ^ Mclean, Craig (2006-06-18). All Messed Up. Observer Music Monthly. Retrieved on 2006-06-18.
- ^ Powers, Ann (2007-06-28). Thom Yorke, free agent. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2006-07-01.
- ^ Meacher, Colette (2006). Got It Covered. Latest Art. Retrieved on 2007-12-13.
- ^ Thom Yorke to release remixes on 12" singles. ateaseweb.com (2007-12-12). Retrieved on 2007-12-13.
- ^ Thom Yorke announces Eraser remix downloads. atease.com (2007-12-15). Retrieved on 2007-12-16.
- 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.