Anima/ Thom Yorke - electronica

By Narendra Kusnur

Album: Anima
Artiste: Thom Yorke
Genre: Electronica
Label: XL Recordings
Rating: ****

Among all the post 1990s bands, British outfit Radiohead has perhaps been the most unpredictable musical chameleon. Starting off with alternative rock and grunge influences, it slowly dived headlong into electronica and avant garde music, mixing live takes with heavy use of samples, loops, distortion and ambient effects.

Though all its members made a strong contribution, Radiohead is often identified with its vocalist Thom Yorke. Blending a constantly changing falsetto with computerised tweaks, he has sung songs of angst and despair, taking listeners on an elevated sonic trip.

Each fresh effort by Yorke is greeted with anticipation, and his third solo album Anima is no exception. Assisted by long-time Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich and named after a theory of the collective unconscious popularised by Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung, it highlights Yorke’s obsession with visions, dreams and hallucinations.

Yet, dark and gloomy as they may sound, the nine songs have a certain pep and rhythm that would make listeners want to tap their feet along. There's a natural synchronicity and flow, and the tunes effortlessly and smoothly blend one after another like a river with slight bends in its magical course.

Yorke sets his intentions clear on the opening track ‘Traffic’, where an infectious beat and an explosion of synthesisers accompany the lines “Show me the money, party with a rich zombie, Suck it in through a straw, party with a rich zombie, Crime pays, she stays, in Kensington and Chelsea, You have to make amends, to make amends to me.”

Supple basslines adorn ‘Last I Heard (... He Was Circling The Drain)’. By the time the third number ‘Twist’ is mid-way, one has a clear idea of the album's sonic direction. Yorke’s ever-varying falsetto is backed by a tight groove on ‘I Am A Very Rude Person’ and ‘Impossible Knots’.

‘Not The News’ has all the elements of a heady, DJ-driven electronic dance music (EDM) track. On ‘The Axe’, Yorke sings tongue-in-cheek, “Goddamned machinery, why don't you speak to me?, One day I'm gonna take an axe to you, The pitter-patter, what does it matter?, And where's that love, you promised me?”

In many ways, Anima may draw comparisons with the earlier Radiohead albums Kid A, Amnesiac and The King Of Limbs. And to be sure, it may take a while to grow, specially for those new to electronica or the band’s or his solo discography.

But if you've been a Radiohead and Thom Yorke fan, rest assured that Anima pushes his creative capabilities to another level. Brood in the lyrical darkness or sway to the intoxicating sonic palette, this album provides a unique trip.