Maybe it’s the fact that I’m on holiday, renting a home barely 15 feet from Lake Erie listening to the waves crash behind me, but I’m in a good place right now. Yesterday, after a 3 hour drive to Ann Arbor to take in some local burgers at Krazy Jim’s, hit up Underground Sounds for a couple exquisite pieces of vinyl, then grab some new graphic novels at Vault of Midnight, we made our way across the US/Canadian border across the bridge in Detroit. We made it to our destination in Kingsville and proceeded to decompress with tacos, beer(me), and Shrek 2. The boy and I played a couple rounds of pool(first round not so bad, second round godawful…Minnesota Fats would be ashamed.).
This morning the sun is shining through the windows, the waves are strong and thick hitting the deck, the agenda is wherever the day takes us, and I’m thinking about another pot of coffee and the new Thom Yorke album Anima.
Yes, have you not heard? Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich have cut and pasted together what will probably be another epic tome on society, social anxiety, and how we’ve failed as humane and loving sentient creatures(so, sort of a Black Mirror episode put to a musical narrative.) Yorke’s previous solo efforts are, in my mind, essential listening. The Eraser and Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes both had an overwhelming sense of melancholy and dread, while never being too heavy. Yorke likes his dance-y numbers, and he displays his Flying Lotus/Four Tet love on those records. But he’s also always countering the dance floor vibes with a heavy sense of dystopian sci-fi. Philip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, HG Wells, and even bits of Carl Sagan live in the ideas and narratives on his albums. I have a feeling Anima will not be any different.
As a surprise bonus, Yorke once again worked with one of my favorite film directors Paul Thomas Anderson to make a film short that showcases two of the albums tracks. Not only that, but it’s hitting Netflix on June 27th.
Check out the trailer for the Anima short film below, and preorder the album here. Now, about that other pot of coffee…
Complex Distractions 