Word: radioheads
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...have stoked its outrage into an album of compelling ferocity. Lead voice Black Thought delivers focused and occasionally paranoid rants about a crumbling society ("Watch who you put all your trust in/ Worldwide we coincide with who's suffering") while producer, drummer and resident genius ?uestlove samples dystopian anthems (Radiohead's You and Whose Army?) to create a sound track to indignation that rivals vintage Public Enemy...
...lead singer of a critically beloved, commercially successful band in its prime releases a solo album, it's a bit like a married man with two kids zipping by in a fiery new Porsche. Something, you suspect, ain't right at home. Sure enough, Thom Yorke has admitted that Radiohead, years-long holder of the title Only Band That Matters, has hit a lethargic patch. Personal lives have grown comfortable, professional momentum has slowed. With the future uncertain, Yorke made The Eraser--which turns out not to be a betrayal of his band but a love letter...
From the ethereal melodies to the beats layered upon beats, The Eraser is full of Radiohead music--dark, dystopian, oddly beautiful--minus the other members of Radiohead. (It was composed mostly on a laptop.) In spots, the band is missed. The Clock creates some grinding tension but never figures out how to release it, while Black Swan eddies around a chorus ("This is f___ed up, f___ed up") that hardly mines new emotional territory. You can sense Yorke's grasping for something, and with the help of producer Nigel Godrich, who oversaw Beck's midcareer-crisis record, Sea Change...
...More often than not, though, Yorke speaks for, and to, himself. On Atoms for Peace, he sings, "No more going to the dark side with your flying saucer eyes ... No more talk about the old days, it's time for something great." The Eraser isn't--but by distilling Radiohead into something intimate, it may point the way toward greatness to come...
...more of a detante - the band's two musical tendencies rallying around a not-so-cryptic political stance. But in the new songs, perhaps because Yorke now has a separate outlet for his more personal yearnings, the fusion of urgency and detachment feels organic, unforced and fertile. Like Bonnaroo, Radiohead is bigger than ever and poised to reach audiences far beyond its core constituency. The band sounds reorganized and reenergized, ready to plant the seeds of what will come next...