Reverse Running, the 8th track off Thom Yorke's latest project
AMOK, has one of the prettiest melodies Thom has written in recent memory. Which goes to show his recent (well, i don't know if you can call 5 or 6 years 'recent') focus on rhythm hasn't impacted on his ability to write a gorgeous tune. In fact, whilst
The King Of Limbs, which turned two years old this past week, had some decrying the overemphasis on experimental beats, it still had some of my favourite Radiohead vocal melodies in songs like Lotus Flower and Codex, which goes to show Thom's never lost it.
Another thing that Thom shows he's never lost is his voice. Okay, he probably can't hit the screeching high notes he did 20 years ago in Creep. But why would he want to? Case in point: the ease with which he floats into that falsetto in the middle of Reverse Running, so gorgeous and yearning. There is an emotional weight to this vocal that moves me, something that perhaps wasn't so obvious on TKOL, with the exception of some moments on the 2nd half of that album.
Something you will notice about this Atoms for Peace record too is how Thom's vocals just kind of float within the mix, weaving in and out of the other instruments but never really standing clearly out in front. The lyrics of the songs too seem to put more focus on the instrumentation, being very mood-based and stream-of-consciousness (as Thom's lyrics have always been but especially so in recent years) rather than focusing on any tangible idea. In
this recent interview with Steve Lamacq, Thom talks about how he really didn't overanalyse any aspect of this album, be it the production or the lyrics. As you would expect, this makes the album feel much freer and looser and actually really
fun to listen to. You can almost hear how much fun Thom and the band are having jamming and making this record.
What is clear on
AMOK though, is a very different way of songwriting and arrangement than we are normally used to from his work with Radiohead. Or at least, it would be to more casual fans who haven't been following his electronic and DJ-ing impulses in recent years. The songs do not peak and trough or work towards a climax or pay-off nor do they embellish with musical details like harmonies and counter-melodies. Instead, the songs each take a few brief but compelling rhythmic and melodic ideas and develop them over the course of the track. In this sense,
AMOK sees Thom getting closer than he ever has to the ethic of the producers he has aspired to like Four Tet and Burial.
And yet the way they achieve this sound is totally unique. Using the word "jam" to describe a record as electronic as this sounds weird (in the Lamacq interview, Thom says using the word "jam" is "against his religion"), but it is really what
AMOK is, in a sense. 5 brilliant musicians playing and feeling their way around unique polyrhythms, before Thom and Nigel Godrich do their production magic, cutting and pasting ideas and passages into the tracks as they are. As they have said in most of the press they've done about the record, what they wanted to do was to blur the line between electronic production and live instrumentation. What they have done as a result is create a record that will engage you on every level, if you're into this sort of stuff. And make you want to dance. I know i do.
AMOK is out 25th February. Buy it
here.
Atoms for Peace - Reverse Running /
