The Eraser
Studio album by Thom Yorke
Released	10 July 2006
Genre	Rock, electronic music
Length	41:01
Label	XL XLCD200 / XLLP200
Producer	Nigel Godrich
Professional reviews
Allmusic link The Guardian link NME (8/10) link Pitchfork Media (6.6/10) link Rolling Stone link The Times link
Thom Yorke chronology
The Eraser (2006) Spitting Feathers (2006)

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. The Eraser was nominated for both the Mercury Music Prize and the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album. The critical reception to the album was generally favourable: based on 37 reviews from notable publications, review aggregate MetaCritic gave The Eraser a score of 76%.^[1]

Background

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".

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.

Music

Sound and influences

The title track, "The Eraser", is based on piano chords (namely C6 and D6). Yorke revealed in an interview with Rolling Stone, that the piano parts are played by Radiohead member Jonny Greenwood, which 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."^[2] 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 Yorke experienced in Oxford. Yorke used to live on a "historical street" with 1860s built houses in central Oxford. 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."^[2] "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, which "has this tiny, shredded segment of something", a sample created in 2000 by Ed and Phil, which Yorke "sliced (...) into bits."^[2] The 2006 Richard Linklater film A Scanner Darkly features the song over the closing credits.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Yorke said that "And It Rained All Night" has an "enormously shredded-up element of "The Gloaming" [from Hail to the Thief]", that Yorke recalled doing 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 I'd missed for so long."^[2]

"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. But if you played it to anyone else without me singing it, you'd think, 'What's he on about-'"^[2]

Lyrics

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."^[3]

"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."^[4] 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."^[5] 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."^[2]

Imagery

A part of the album art. Buildings shown drowning include Big Ben, the home of the Secret Intelligence Service at 85 Vauxhall Cross and Battersea Power Station

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.^[6] 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.^[7]

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. 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.

Track listing

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

Singles

References

External links

• 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.