Radiohead album by album

Good read, thanks for finding this.

Got to say, I really lost track of the band and what they were doing in this period. I moved across the country in 2005 and was caught up in some massive life changes. I did pick up The Eraser when it came out and liked it, though I was quite a bit disappointed that there were no "traditional" guitar-driven or acoustic songs on it (even though I was listening to more electronic music than ever at that time, and even making some of my own). "Cymbal Rush" from that album is a great track that sounds very much like it could have been a Radiohead song.



I am surprised by how candid this interview is--Yorke isn't shy about expressing his dissatisfaction with where the band was at during this era (of course, he never was). I'm also surprised they were thinking of going with someone other than Nigel Godrich in the producer chair--though as stated in the article, the feeling was things were becoming too "safe" creatively.

Anybody know what "Burning" ended up being?

 

“Cymbal Rush” was played live by Radiohead a few times. I had downloaded a lot of live rarities back then and had a burned CD that I’d listen to at work. I can’t seem to find a video of it now, though.

 

I don’t remember “Burning” turn up in any conversations or bootlegs back then. Hmm... I wonder if that was another title going around for “Spooks”? They played that a lot in 2006

 

They came through town and played two nights in a row here at a decent-sized theatre in 2006, but I couldn't go. I was so mad about it — but I couldn't make my work conflicts go away. The HTTT show I saw in 2003 had been good, but somewhat dissatisfying (I watched a bit of it on YouTube, and it confirmed my memory that band were playing pretty well but the acoustics and distance of the giant stadium they played in were insurmountable — they had a show scheduled for a better venue outdoors, but it was right in the middle of the giant east-coast blackout that year so they had to postpone and go to a similar-sized indoor one a few months later, which was a drag. Kid Koala opened for them and he was remarking from the stage how bizarre it was to be playing heady dance music on a baseball field with a retractable roof)

Ultimately, the 2006 shows became pretty legendary among fans, particularly their epic set at Bonnarroo festival in Tennessee:

 

I caught two shows of the 2006 tour - the second night in Philadelphia and the legendary bonnaroo set. I can’t even exaggerate how good the bonnaroo set was. It’s one of the best sets I’ve ever seen from any band. They were having such a good time and there was so much energy pulsing back and forth between the band and the crowd. I can’t hear “house of cards” without picturing a sky full of glow sticks raining down on Thom as he dances around them. A stunning night. The Philly show was also great, just forever kinda doomed to live in the shadow of the bonnaroo set. But check this set list!

Radiohead Setlist at Tower Theatre, Upper Darby

Radiohead can be the loudest band in the world when they’re playing “black star” or “the bends” in a small (for them) indoor theater.

 

One of the coolest Radiohead concerts ever. They played 28 songs (!) including several from the upcoming album 'In Rainbows'

1. There There
2. 2 + 2 = 5
3. 15 Step
4. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
5. Exit Music (for a Film)
6. Kid A
7. Dollars and Cents
8. Videotape
9. No Surprises
10. Paranoid Android
11. The Gloaming
12. The National Anthem
13. Climbing Up the Walls
14. Nude
15. Street Spirit (Fade Out)
16. The Bends
17. Myxomatosis
18. How to Disappear Completely
19. You and Whose Army?
20. Pyramid Song
21. Like Spinning Plates
22. Fake Plastic Trees
23. Bodysnatchers
24. Lucky
25. Idioteque
26. Karma Police
    (with false start)
27. House of Cards
28. Everything in Its Right Place

 

Tried to go to the immediately sold out 2006 Chicago show at the Auditorium Theater. Even tried to buy tickets off a scalper, but this was the only show I’ve ever seen where not a soul was selling tickets. I was so bummed. That venue especially had to be incredible to hear these songs.

 

Are we up for discussing The Eraser? If not track by track, it’s at least worth dipping our toes in it?

 

Good question

Do you want to discuss Thom Yorke solo releases on this thread?

 

Maybe after we finish A Moon Shaped Pool. Then Jonny's... then Phil's... then Ed's!

 

Thom’s records feel more linked to the Radiohead discography than the others, mostly because he’s released a handful of songs that the band played first. But I am down to discuss all of the solo albums!

 

Yeah, given how many Radiohead songs are essentially just Thom songs, I think it makes sense to touch on Eraser, Amok, et al.

 

I guess Jonny also used a song the band played first when he repurposed “Spooks” for a soundtrack

 

On 10 July 2006 Thom Yorke released his first solo album. 'The Eraser'
It was produced by Nigel Godrich, the long time Radiohead producer. The artwork was done by Stanley Donwood, also long time Radiohead collaborator


From Wikipedia:

In 2004, after finishing the tour for their sixth album, Hail to the Thief (2003), Radiohead went on hiatus. Songwriter Thom Yorke began recording The Eraser, his first solo release, with longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich in late 2004. Work continued throughout 2005 between Radiohead sessions.[2] He told Pitchfork: "I've been in the band since we left school and never dared do anything on my own ... It was like, 'Man, I've got to find out what it feels like,' you know?"[3] Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood said: "He had to get this stuff out, and everyone was happy [for Yorke to make it] ... He'd go mad if every time he wrote a song it had to go through the Radiohead consensus."[4]

Yorke recorded in Radiohead's Oxford studio, Godrich's studio in Covent Garden, and his home.[5] He wanted to "approach and engage with computers and not a lot else, and yet still have lots of life and energy in the music".[6] To generate ideas, he cut and pasted clips at random from Radiohead's library of original samples,[6] many of which were created on laptops in hotel rooms as the band toured.[7] He would send fragments to Godrich, who identified passages that could become songs, edited them, and returned them to Yorke.[7] Describing the collaboration, Yorke said: "'Black Swan', back in the day, was a ... nine-minute load of bollocks. Except for this one juicy bit, and [Godrich] goes past and goes, 'That bit. **** the rest.' Usually it's something like that."[8] Godrich is also credited for extra instrumentation.[9]

To create the title track, Yorke sampled piano chords played by Greenwood and cut them into a new order.[2] "And it Rained All Night" contains an "enormously shredded-up" sample from the Hail to the Thief track "The Gloaming", and "Black Swan" samples a rhythm recorded by Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien and drummer Philip Selway in 2000.[10] Yorke said "Harrowdown Hill" had been "kicking around" during the Hail to the Thief sessions, but felt it could not have worked as a Radiohead song.[11]

Yorke initially intended to create instrumental tracks,[6] but added vocals at the encouragement of Godrich.[12] On Radiohead albums, Yorke had altered his voice with layers of reverb and other effects; for The Eraser, Godrich wanted Yorke's voice to be "dry and loud".[12] As Yorke found it difficult to write lyrics to loops of music, saying he could not "react spontaneously and differently every time", he translated the music to guitar and piano and generated new musical components in the process.[6]

Yorke saved one song recorded in the Eraser sessions, "Last Flowers", for the bonus disc of Radiohead's seventh album, In Rainbows (2007).[4] Another song, "The Hollow Earth", was finished later and released as a single in 2009.[13]


1. "The Eraser" 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

 

It’s a pretty good album. Haven’t listened to it in ages, but I recently saw the CD atop a stack in my closet and pulled it out to listen to again soon. Production-wise, I find it a little dry, but the songs are mostly strong. “Skip Divided” almost picks up where “Idioteque” left off but in a mellower way. “Black Swan” is really good, as is the title track, “Harrowdown Hill”, and a few others. The above-mentioned “Cymbal Rush” is a classic.

The concise 9-track runtime here was also a preview of the way Radiohead would start sequencing their records after the sprawling nature of HTTT.

 

I love The Eraser. It was my main go-to for a couple months. I don't think there's a bad track on it, and agree with you about the high points.

I like all of it much more than I ever liked Idioteque. Not sure why.

 

I enjoyed this when it came out but it hasn't lasted the test of time very well. The construction of the loops and song structures got A LOT more sophisticated later on. This was really a test-the-waters release for Mr. Yorke and it paved the way for his solo bands Atoms for Peace/Tomorrow's Modern Boxes as well as clearing some fertile proving grounds for Radiohead's future material

Already mentioned upthread but I'll always associate "Analyze" with the ending of Christopher Nolan's film The Prestige

 

I forgot to mention “Analyze” which is good track (as mentioned earlier it played over the credits of Chris Nolan’s movie The Prestige, while “Black Swan” was played over the credits of A Scanner Darkly from 2006).

I bought and still have 12” 45rpm singles of both “Analyze” and “Harrowdown Hill”—the latter has a rather interesting non-album B-side called “The Drunkk Machine”:

 

“Harrowdown Hill” is the highlight of the record for me. He’s very good at the paranoid songs!

 

Wasn’t “HH” also said to have made the rounds as a Radiohead song at one point? Perhaps only as a studio rehearsal.

Edit: yes, apparently it was demoed for HTTT:

“Yorke said the song had been "kicking around" during the sessions for Radiohead's sixth album, Hail to the Thief (2003), but felt it could not have worked as a Radiohead song.”

Interesting backstory on the track’s subject matter:

“The lyrics are about David Kelly, a British weapons expert who is presumed to have committed suicide after telling a reporter that the British government had falsely identified weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Kelly's body was found in the woods of Harrowdown Hill, near Yorke's former school in Oxfordshire.”

“Did I fall or was I pushed?”

Harrowdown Hill - Wikipedia

 

Interesting take.

I disliked AMOK so much, I threw it out. I don't know if approaching it with fresh ears after all this time would help, but The Eraser is head and shoulders above it.

Still haven't heard Tomorrow's Modern Boxes yet, but I love Anima.

 

Initially this album literally put me to sleep. First listen was in the car, very stoned while on tour. I was sleep deprived, mind you, but yeah some point after Black Swan I passed out. Unfortunate too because that colored my perception of the album as mostly a dud, and I didn’t revisit it for almost 10 years.

I eventually got back to The Eraser only after Atoms For Peace (band, not the song) put out their debut in 2013, and my much more immediate love of Amok kind of prepared me for another pass at this one. Now I love it. It does have a ton of space to it and the vocals are strong.

I enjoy the Tricky-esque Skip Divided probably a bit too much, such an uncomfortable track. Meanwhile, Atoms For Peace is one of Thom’s prettiest songs ever. The grooves on The Clock and Black Swan are hypnotic and Harrowdown Hill is a stuttering gut punch. The rest of the record is a bit of a step below these tracks, IMO, but the entire thing gels well and flows as a solid listen. Great record. What they eventually did live with these songs was really cool, too.

 

I remember being really bummed that "Cymbal Rush" was distorted by the CD mastering, with audible clipping on Thom's voice during the quiet verses even before the cool live drumming enters... anyone know if the vinyl version fared any better?

 

It's been a while since I've listened to it, but the distortion on Thom on that track always seemed intentional to me.

Mind you, the vinyl version of Eraser is one of the few Radiohead-related things I don't have in that format. I've seen it a bunch of times, and just never pulled the trigger.