ANIMA - Thom Yorke: Review
is the long tenured frontman of legendary British rock band Radiohead. He first released solo material in 2006 with the wild electronic experiment The Eraser. Since Eraser there have been three critically acclaimed Radiohead albums, the founding of Thom's group Atoms For Peace and it's full length album Amok, Thom's second solo record Tomorrow's Modern Boxes and his soundtrack to the movie Suspiria. Anima arrives as Thom's first release in 2019 and was dropped on short notice with no singles.
Review By Lavender:
Thom didn't give me enough time to build up excitement for this release but I most certainly would have. The Eraser is a fantastic and underrated electronic experiment that I consider to be on the same level as the Radiohead album it preceded In Rainbows. Since then I have been less head over heels with Thom's releases aside from Radiohead's masterpiece A Moon Shaped Pool. Atoms For Peace got off to a good start with the Judge Jury And Executioner single and the amazing Before Your Very Eyes but with such a short full length project I wish there was more consistency. The follow-up to this came Thom's second solo effort Tomorrow's Modern Boxes in 2014 and while it certainly had its moments I wasn't thrilled by this release either. Given that I hadn't heard any of the material from this record before diving into it I didn't really know what to expect, and while ANIMA deals in a similar sonic palette as many Thom Yorke side efforts, this one expresses the sparse electronic landscapes and paranoid sadness in a fully realized vision.
The album opens up with Traffic and while this isn't the best or my favorite song here it gets the album started off right with some tone setting elements. The quick looped electronic beat that drives the song is hypnotic and the repetition creates a lull only disturbed by occasional cold vocals from Thom that are comfortable hanging in the background. The instrumental is the songs biggest highlight and it does a great job of helping transition listeners into the headspace of the album.
There aren't really any lowlights on the record necessarily but we will work our way up to the albums sharpest moments. Impossible Knots sounds like a decent Radiohead album cut from the 2000's but sounds out of place on the record. The frontal and driving bassline blends well with Thom's quiet and distant singing but not with the rest of the songs on the album that typically go for much more synthetic and haunting instrumental palettes. This isn't a huge deal given that the song is the second to last in the tracklist but it still interrupts a little bit of the flow. The middle of the record isn't its greatest moment either with the songs I Am A Very Rude Person and Not The News being placed back to back. Rude Person has some pretty intimate vocals that are both chilling and effectively catchy but the instrumental could seriously use some more bite than what it has. This is one of the shorter songs which is good because its main saving grace is Thom Yorke's great vocal performance and excellent lyrics. Not The News is a touch nondescript but everything here fits the albums sonic concepts very well. The beat is much busier than a lot of the other tracks here but it doesn't really have that compelling of a build and Thom tends to steal the show every time his vocals enter the song, overall I'm just not head over heels for this song.
As for the rest of the album I have pretty much no complaints left. Last I Heard is the second track and it opens up with some airy vocals hanging in front of soft but overpowering walls of sound in the background. The song has a haunting but incredible instrumental build that makes it feel like the walls are closing in as it progresses and its final moments are a gentle but complex climax of this sensation that makes the song a true out of body experience. Twist may be my favorite song on the entire record and at 7 minutes long it takes it's time lulling you in and hypnotizing you with the bass heavy instrumental and tight vocal refrains. The robotic rapid fire "Twist" refrain in the songs early moments sets the stage for just how emotionally driving these songs can be with minimalist expression, but on the other hand when Thom's emotive singing contrasts with the rigid backing instrumentation it gives the sensation of trying to break free of the songs surroundings. The track shifts and changes in subtle but meaningful and impactful ways throughout its runtime and it keeps the track both refreshing and continuously compelling as it evolves.
Dawn Chorus is another stroke of genius on ANIMA that plays role reversal with much warmer and more organic instrumentation trying to weave life out of Thom's robotic and calculated vocal delivery. The track is absolutely gorgeous and builds one of the most dramatic and textured instrumentals I've heard all year around Thom's short but hard hitting refrains. The Axe is an excellent track with a dramatic build around a tightly looped instrumental that feels claustrophobic and haunting. Some of my favorite vocals pop up on this track with Thom's cries of "I Thought We Had A Deal" adding another layer to the atmosphere and sheer scariness of this track. Finally the closing track Runaway features some bouncy and heavy keys as well as pitch adjusted vocals that work perfectly with the swelling instrumentation. The track doesn't sound much like anything else here yet serves as a unique and clarity delivering final moment on the record.
ANIMA is Thom Yorke's solo dream fully realized as more than ever before he delivers a myriad of emotional and sonic tones in the minimalist electronic genre. With soft spoken but very impactful instrumentals the album works one excellent build after another into its tracks and vocally Thom serves as a jack of all trades delivering exactly what nearly ever song here needed. While I don't see this turning anyone who didn't enjoy The Eraser into big Thom Yorke fans, people who have enjoyed his solo work and some of the more soft-stated Radiohead albums of recent years should eat this record up and for good reason, it is fantastic. 8/10
