| I'm so pleased you used the word "humour" in this review. I've always thought Thom's lyrics were very funny (as in he intends them to be funny, not "really rubbish" funny). I think his sense of humour is just very very dark. Which is just the way I like it. |
|
| this record is half-baked at best. it feels rushed and unfinished. boo to this album and i hope that it isn't indicative of future radiohead material. booooo |
|
| I agree with KissMyGrits. This material sounds like second-hand autechre soundscapes (the more academic(read: boring) sounding stuff)with nary a memorable thom vocal. |
|
| .....and I thought the electronic elements on Kid A and Amnesiac were well integrated into the music. The song craft here is cluttered and just isn't as strong. |
|
| I have now listened to "The Eraser" one late evening after the other. It is a stripped-down album, full of intense and creative singing. This album makes much sense without the full Radiohead-sound. In its sparseness "The Eraser" stands in other traditions of "alienated melancoly" - Nick Drake comes to mind first (though Drake was working on the acoustic side). By the way, jazz pianist Brad Mehldau is a huge admirer of Thom´s and Nick´s singing styles. So I disagree with other readers and can only congratulate Nigel Godrich for his production. With all its rawness this is very organic music! |
|
| very much in the raw. loved it. |
|
Posted 07/19/2006 - 03:03:00 AM by : |
| So The Eraser echews its bit-splintered self through a wooden washing barrel funnel-tubing all flowering back over the very pittance of its essence eh? Yeah, I like Thom`s chugging of his chug-a-long songs, sponging the tidal remains of his neo-one inexactitude dudes. So get a thrippin` grip Ian Incoherent Incomprehensible on your flippantly Indefensible rant. Our Yorke Machines out there are, and you comment-reader, are programmable pretty as turning on-off the city lights. A flight-plan Stan to awkwardly thwart a preventative disaster like a Radio don`t play Head could only come off as "close-me-in-on-all-sides" punk uncle Thom, father of two, paranoid as Michael Jackson (if he is) then why doesn`t he wear shades in all those non-interviews. So get to the glitch, foot floor to the sewing machine stitch and don`t flinch when the abbrovative eponymous of too many starchies kids you B. Too lazy to use a spel chekker. Schmeantless, schnock on wood, old The Eraser, working backwards back over itself, unpulling a raincoat back over his head, parachute reverses itself into the backpack & we`re all falling through the air anyway. Wake up Ian, Kiss MY Grits, whose the unfinished one now? |
|
| Hey, stylus people, offer a job for cherryblossom. she´s the mistress of zen brevity and has that kind of taste that is no enemy to art! |
|
| This review is nicely written as far as essays go, but I don't see how you are able to apply what you're saying to the actual music on the album; as far as i can tell, this album just isn't great. I love the experimental route Radiohead has taken over the past six or seven years (esp. on Kid A and Amnesiac) but most of the Eraser doesn't sound as carefully thought through as Yorke's proper Radiohead stuff. Rather, listening to the Eraser makes me think more of the group's recent b-sides, in that they are interesting sketches and ideas that often don't follow through well enough to merit the serious attention of proper Radiohead album. Sometimes this is still plenty in terms of listening value (esp if you're a devotee of the band/members), but to me, your review is just too glowing for something that I couldn't describe as anything more than "interesting" or "worth a listen". |
|
| 2 months later and somehow I'm enjoying this more with each listen. The burden of "is it as good as Radiohead" no longer seems to apply. As the days grow cooler and the shit grows thicker in the weeks leading up to this November's election (in America, I mean), this feels much more immediate and necessary. |
|