Appropriately, The Eraser absolutely slays ... or falls flat, depending on your tastes. Tetchy and glitchy, the album is a brisk exercise in paranoia that succeeds if your tastes are more Kid A than OK Computer. Consider it Yorke's Nebraska--the two are certainly akin with their spartan soundscapes and solo jaunts into desolation--albeit for the 21st century. In fact, with its bare instrumentation lap-pop ambience, this album makes Kid A sound like garage rock.
Examples: "The Eraser," where Yorke intertwines stuttering piano and preprogrammed drumbeats with his desperate wail; "Atoms for Peace," where Yorke's choked melancholia is held up by glimmering electronics; and "And It Rained All Night," where rattling bass and scat singing are haloed by the sounds of dissonant dread.
In perhaps a direct acknowledgement that The Eraser isn't for everyone, "Black Swan" stands as the album's mission statement. Over an assault of looping electronics, Yorke intones "This is fucked up / fucked up." It echoes the album's ability to distance unwilling listeners, exercise personal demons and bemoan the current deluge of international fuckups. Now that's pretty chilly.
