Thom Yorke: Anima Vinyl 2LP Thom Yorke

Third solo album from Thom Yorke, and quite possibly his best yet. For ANIMA, the Radiohead frontman once again teams up with longtime producer Nigel Godrich to explore themes of dreams, anxiety, and dystopia, through “layers of electronic fuzz and deconstructed noise.”  The title “ANIMA” is a nod to Yorke’s obsession with dreams – a direct reference to Carl Jung’s concepts of anima and animus, while the experimental/electronic nature of the album continues the trajectory set by his two previous solo efforts (2006’s The Eraser and 2014’s Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes). Inspired by seeing Flying Lotus perform an improvised set with loops, Yorke set forth with a new approach to writing: sending Nigel Godrich lengthy unifinished tracks, to which Godrich would edit and send back short loops and samples for Yorke to write lyrics to. The result is beautiful, poignant and haunting at the same time –  his most realized and coherent effort to date. It is also accompanied by a short film of the same name by Paul Thomas Anderson (exclusively on Netflix).

“For some reason I thought a really good way of expressing anxiety creatively was in a dystopian environment.” – Thom Yorke

This 2LP pressing includes the full 9 track album, plus a vinyl-only bonus track “(Ladies & Gentlemen, Thank You For Coming).”

• black double vinyl pressing
• written by Thom Yorke and produced by Nigel Godrich
• 9 track album w/ exclusive bonus vinyl-only track
• printed inner sleeves
• digital download included
• music label: XL Recordings 2019

reviewed by ENTROPIC BEACH 06/2019