Emily's Albums A to Z

Listened: Wednesday June 23

I can’t believe The Eraser came out in 2006. That seems much longer ago than I realized. When I heard this album for the first time I was struck by how incredibly cutting edge and modern it sounded, and I still feel the same today. When Thom recently toured with his supergroup Atoms for Peace and played this whole album live, it sounded as fresh as it did four years ago.

I love the electronic basis for all the songs. Despite how computerized they clearly are, there is a definitely warmth to them, which is hard to pull off. Plus when Atoms for Peace did all the songs live, they recreated and reinterpreted a large percentage of the songs with “traditional” instruments, not computers, which was a bit mind-blowing.

I see the songs on this album as a precursor to In Rainbows – a Radiohead album I have heard referred to as “sexy”. Which is kind of odd in the context of Radiohead, but I totally got what was meant by that. Songs like Atoms for Peace on this album are very intimate and, yes, sexy.

And who doesn’t love this classically Thom Yorke statement from The Eraser – “The more you try to erase me the more that I appear”? Thom is the master of the understated “Screw you.”