Thom Yorke
Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes
26 September 2014
self-released
4 stars out of 5
When you’re the main face of Radiohead, people pay attention
to your solo projects. Tomorrow’s Modern
Boxes is Yorke’s second solo LP, ending an eight-year gap between records.
Yorke and the rest of Radiohead have never felt comfortable with fame, though
their records—although increasingly fewer and farther between—always generate
headlines through both their music and their method of release. TMB is no exception, having been
released through the modern warship BitTorrent rather than the standard flotilla
of digital music wooden galleons led by iTunes and Amazon. In some ways it’s
the anti-Songs of Innocence: where U2
forced their new record down your throat for free, Yorke is charging $6; where
U2 reach out—nay, intrude—with
bombast and arrogance, Yorke hides in the locked rooms of his songs, generally
reluctant to let you in.
This is a record of delicate beauty—indeed, cracks are
visible throughout its fragile structures, making it seem like the whole thing
could fall apart at any moment. The album’s first half is comprised of somewhat
song-like songs, with more-or-less regular beats and parts that resemble verses
and (sometimes) choruses. The second half is Yorke’s version of Side B of Bowie’s
Low, made up of ambient thought-pieces
that visit some chilly, remote places. The finale, “Nose Grows Some,” bows out
shyly and quietly, and though offering the smallest helping of alienation of
any track on the album, it’s by no means a warm, reassuring hug. No, Yorke’s
music may seem emotionally naked, revealing all of his pain and anguish, but
this nakedness is in itself a construction, a manufactured skin worn on top of
his clothes, not the natural being beneath. Yorke hides, rather than reveals,
but his hiding places are beautiful, memorable, and haunting.
reviewed by Richard Krueger
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