A melancholic lap dog sings again

Three years after the last Radiohead album, frontman Thom Yorke is breaking the silence with his first solo album to date, claiming that the material wouldn't fit on a Radiohead album and that he's got Go from his bandmates to do this.

At any rate, entitled "The Eraser", the album is a fairly low key production with just Yorke's voice and a varying electronic landscape to back it up. But it works surprisingly well and seems to grow with each listen. Like a good classic should.

The album opens with the title track, where Yorke sings and hums to a simple beat, with a piano-like synth-driven the song. It should be too simple to attract my attention, but there is something in the loaded atmosphere ... hm, yes, there is actually a touch of the Reznoresque desperation in both the lyrics and the soundscape. Not as agressive, of course, but it's there. Very interesting and a good appetizer for what is to come!

The next four songs are all of a very high quality, the Nine Inch Nails-feeling is still present on some of the songs but with a more low key and softer touch. "Analyze" is a fairly soft song, almost a ballad. But hot on the heels of that song Yorke launches into the musically most complex song on the album, "The clock", with multiple layers of tick-tock, humming and singing. It was the song that first stood out for me and it has remained a favorite for a month now!

The "Black swan" is another high point, possibly the most Radiohead-like song with little left of the Reznoresque start. On "Skip divided", Yorke is back in the very strange soundscape of the "The clock" and "The eraser". It sounds like the perfect soundtrack to a Tim Burton animation, "Corpse Bride Returns" perhaps? The lyrics are dark and cynical and goes hand in hand with the melody through this great song.

No more common dress or elliptical caress
Don't look into your eyes
'cause i'm desperately in love in love.
When you walk in the room everything disappears.
When you walk in a room it's a terrible mess.
When you walk in a room i start to melt.
When you walk in a room i follow you round,
like a dog, i'm a dog, i'm a dog, i'm a lapdog.
i'm your lapdog, yeah.
i just got a number and location.

There are actually no weak tracks on this album, both "And it rained all night" and "Harrowdown hill" are two other great songs. The album ends with the beautiful "Cymbal rush", a fast-paced song that sounds like a mixture of The Communards and Sigur Ros!! What a way to end an album, it raises the adrenaline level and infects the listener with a need to replay the album immediately.

Even if the next Radiohead album shouldn't live up to the high expectations of the fans, Thom Yorke has proven that he's got more than one musical leg to support him - The Eraser is a wonderful and solid piece of music, a great start of his solo catalogue, and an album that deserves to be high on the Best Albums of the Year charts of 2006!