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I'm not going to write out a long review of Thom Yorke's The Eraser because you can already find it everywhere else. What stands out to me after the first couple of listens is that the vocals are really the focus of the record. Everybody is talking about whether the electronic instruments are too sparse, too glitchy, or too, well, electronic. The guy has a great voice and it's not hidden at all on this album. This is an album that's worth hearing, and not just as something to hold you over until the next Radiohead record.
Terry Gross did a great interview with Thom on Fresh Air yesterday. I know most critics will refuse to recognize it, but Thom sounds quite happy. There's a good bit near the beginning of the discussion where he talks about how he feels like he just gave up on the OK Computer tour and how that really defined his public persona for the next few years. I remember seeing Radiohead at Radio City Music Hall on the next-to-last show of that tour, and it was very obvious that he wanted to be anywhere by there. Still, it was my first time seeing them headline a show and it was a great one. One of the songs that they played at that show in 1998 was a new one called "Nude" or "Big Ideas." It was just the 5th time that they played it live, and 4th with a full band (thanks, 58hours). This is one of the songs that they've been playing on their tour over the past couple of months in a slightly-mellowed version. It's good to hear that song resucitated after eight years, but my love of it has been tempered a bit when I hear it next to the other new ones. It used to be one of my favorite unreleased/lost Radiohead songs, but that was very likely because of the "I was there, I heard it" feeling. Still, I hope it makes the next record. I think it would be a great song to close out an album. Maybe I'll try to post an MP3 of that NYC performance here soon.
UPDATE: Here it is.
Radiohead - Nude/Big Ideas live 4/17/98
Jerad posted this in Albums | Comments (0)
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