Bleep

Recorded, made in secret and only revealed when Radiohead started a tour so as not to fuel rumours of the band splitting up, the news was announced with the posting of a link to The Eraser microsite by Thom Yorke on the Dead Air Space site in May 2006. This was followed by an e-mail to fans from Yorke himself announcing that he did not want the word "solo album" to be used. Cloaked in mystery and launched in unorthodox style, now a typical trait from the Radiohead camp, this album is Yorke's deeply personal exploration of an electronic sound pallette first borne out through the Kid A / Amnesiac sessions of 99-01; a place where the guitars become a textural afterthought to the sincere embrace of the digital.

Produced, arranged and engineered by long-time Radiohead cohort Nigel Godrich and often sampling recordings of sessions with his band members, the album has fleeting flashes of the craftsmanship and musicality of Radiohead arrangements but with the skewed perspective of crisp beats, frosty drones and buzzing synths. Emotive, fragile, politically charged and absent of Radiohead bandmates; Yorke's sense of vulnerability is given a new context within the music it lies in. Tracks lay down bruised laments to love's lost; famously comment on the suicide (or murder?) of David Kelly; and generally report on growing old with(in) a world at odds with itself. With the instruments stripped back and his haunting vocals fully incorporated into the jittery electronic soundscape, The Eraser is a remarkable and intimate work from one of the most incredible vocalists of our era.