Yorke Breaks Out of the ‘Box’

When Radiohead introduced their debut album, 1993’s “Pablo Honey,” the whole world was stunned by a completely new take on psychedelic rock. But today, their past originality is often used as a reason to forgive musical stagnation. Admittedly, Thom Yorke and his band have been experimenting with some new possibilities, especially on 2011’s “The King of Limbs” and 2006’s “The Eraser,” but on both of these releases, they still failed to overhaul the “Radiohead sound.”

“Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes” continues Thom Yorke’s search for a transformation, but this time, he is braver than ever. With the total abandonment of guitar, the addition of repetitive and pulsing synths, and a new, emotionally reserved sound, Yorke presents his most minimalistic and contemplative work yet.

The introduction of these new elements suggests why “Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes” has to be a solo album—without his other band members, Yorke is free to distance himself from the band’s established sound and sit in front of the computer with Radiohead’s longtime producer Nigel Godrich. Most of the instrumentation on Yorke’s new album consists only of three parts: loops, echos, and ambience. The departure from guitar-driven rock is reminiscent of Keane’s transition to piano-led rock; and just like his guitarless compatriots, Yorke becomes free to create a fresh, futuristic sound. On “Interference,” for example, the mix of keyboard and synthesizer gives rise to not only a new harmony but also a digitized sound world. This transformation manages to retain Radiohead’s psychedelic roots while remaining refreshing to even the most dedicated fans of the band.

Also new to Yorke is the extensive use of loops on “Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes.” Although the use of loops themselves is far from innovative, the transition to cyclic synths works perfectly with Yorke’s search for a mesmerizing sound. This is best represented by “Truth Ray,” where Yorke’s vocals and the ambience that surrounds it echo hypnotically in different channels, giving the haunting illusion of a song played endlessly in outer space. Similar repetition is used effectively in “Guess Again!,” “There Is No Ice (for My Drink),” and many of the other tracks on the album to create a sense of stasis. “Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes” is not an album that builds and accumulates momentum; rather, it is one that remains static and otherworldly from the first minute to the last.

Yorke also departs from the characteristic tone he employed on his earlier releases with Radiohead. Instead of his trademark longing murmurs, he refines a more distant sound that continues the experiment he began in “The Eraser.” But on “Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes,” this sound is much more developed and also made more effective by the surrounding instrumentation, creating the dystopian sound world that defines the album. On the closing track, “Nose Grows Some,” the alienation of Yorke’s vocals is even more amplified by heavy reverberation and becomes an organic, shifting component of the melancholic atmosphere. Together with tracks like “Interference” and “Guess Again!,” “Nose Grows Some” raises Thom Yorke to a new level—one on which he is more detached, more mature, and a true master of his craft.

Despite the excitement that surrounded the sudden unveiling of his latest solo album, Yorke’s bizarre release of “Tomorrow's Modern Boxes” is actually not as interesting as the music itself. After Beyoncé dropped an album out of nowhere at the end of 2013 and U2 shamelessly distributed an album to everyone’s iTunes library, Thom Yorke’s collaboration with BitTorrent doesn’t sound like a big deal. In fact, it gives the impression that the Radiohead frontman is desperate for attention and knows that the songs themselves are unable to draw it. However, this is far from the truth. Indeed, none of the tracks on “Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes” are as revolutionary as “Creep” or “Let Down,” but at the very least, Yorke’s latest marks a very difficult step forward for an extremely accomplished musician.