CRS
Chandler, Arizona, United States

There's an old saying. If you don't want someone to join a crowd, you ask them, "If everyone were jumping off of a cliff, would you?" Well, I have. So my answer would be "Yes". True story.
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Review of Atoms For Peace, Amok

Sunday, November 24, 2013

this entry brought to you by atoms for peace, "before your very eyes..."





Thom Yorke's first side project outside of Radiohead was a solo effort that had a song called "Atoms for Peace", which became the name of the band created for his second side project, and it's not that I dislike it. The are three genuinely blistering songs on here, the skittering "Default", the dark and bouncy "Judge Jury And Executioner", and the song which sounds like it most belonged on Radiohead's King of Limbs, "Before Your Very Eyes..."

Yet I'm surprised how unmoved by it I am. The majority of the music here is so-so, the most shrug-worthy among them the strange "Stuck Together Pieces", a song with a descending bass line and a cow-poke drum beat. I absolutely loved the album Atoms For Peace evolved from, Eraser, with its minimalist Radiohead-minus-everything-except-a-beat take, and felt like it justified its existence outside of Yorke's day job. With Atoms For Peace he's taken the concept of working outside of Radiohead but expanded it into a full band, with excellent drummer-for-hire Joey Waronker, and the only bass player your average music fan can name, Flea. But even with the input of the Red Hot Chili Pepper's famed bass player, Amok sounds less like its own thing, and more like an uninspired Radiohead record that is, perhaps, a little more dancey. Does "Ingenue", with its plodding drum line and tinkering, confused synth sound like anything but a B-side from Hail to the Thief?

I'll admit, none of this is necessarily a bad thing; Middle-of-the-road Radiohead is still plenty good. The stand-out tracks on this album are really, really good. Still, I can't help but feel like Thom Yorke and Flea had a lot of potential that is just missed here.
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with love from CRS @ 1:01 PM 

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