The mere fact that Thom Yorke even recorded a solo album is enough to lead some Radiohead fans to scream, “Treason!” While many found themselves in total bewilderment. Others, myself included, were excited about the upcoming release from one of music’s most consistent entities.

One of the primary points of contention many held regarding this album, is that its coming signified the man’s departure from Radiohead. It’s an obvious point to jump to. Fortunately, Yorke has repeatedly denied that his situation with the world’s biggest band was anything less than perfect.

The Eraser was conceived, recorded, and edited before it was even announced. In fact, the announcement came in the form of Yorke promoting the already created website for the album, TheEraser.net. Further support was garnered by the inclusion of the album’s brilliant “Black Swan” as the title track of Richard Linklater film rendition of A Scanner Darkly.

The album is an ambitious project, even for the architect of OK Computer. While listening to the piece, it always feels on the verge of something significant, but even through the skillfully employed techniques, something is clearly missing. After much deliberation, I think what’s missing is his band.

The album was performed and synthesized entirely by Yorke. Although he’s not bad with the keyboards and Mac software, this album really gives him a chance to show off his voice. Without anybody else to shine, he gets to sing all over the place. The lyrics seem to be very personal. He even borrows one title, “Atoms for Peace,” from the motto of the International Atomic Energy Agency. But in the end, it really just sounds like Radiohead minus Johnny Greenwood.

All in all, it’s lyrically impressive and musically redundant, being that it sounds almost identical to Hail to the Thief. It’s not great, but good, which is a lot less than I expect from Yorke. At least it’s something to hold off those cravings until the new Radiohead hits next year.

Grade: B -