Thom Yorke - ANIMA

Pitchfork 83

The third solo album from Thom Yorke is the first one that feels complete without his band behind him. It floats through the uneasy space between societal turmoil and internal monologue.

The Guardian 80

(XL)

Electronic music’s Cassandra-in-chief has long soundtracked our age of anxiety with queasy mood music. His latest album takes its working methods from the live digital improv of LA e-jazz operative Flying Lotus and comes with a Paul Thomas Anderson short film.

Although Yorke sounds refreshed, the results here don’t vary wildly from the Radiohead frontman’s instantly recognisable musical signatures, evolved over 20 years. Radiohead’s go-to producer, Nigel Godrich, helped condense these improvisations into song-forms and the result is nine tracks that are often (like the strong opener Traffic) dusted with echoes of the joys of club music, and sometimes (as on the sombre but hopeful Dawn Chorus) more still and intimate.