Thom Yorke

Mon 15 Jul 2019 to Sun 21 Jul 2019

Thom Yorke - ANIMA

Floating through the uneasy space between societal turmoil and internal monologue, Thom Yorke's third solo album, ANIMA, is melancholic mastery.

ANIMA is an album of atmospheres with Yorke’s plaintive voice painted in as just another instrument. Its tone throughout is meaty, full-blooded, and often a little menacing. With wraith-like frequencies and fibrillating pulses, Yorke’s melancholy has grown teeth.

Born out of an extended period of anxiety, Yorke has said this album had a difficult gestation, undermined by his penchant for self-excoriating angst. Though Yorke’s solo material has always sounded somewhat anxious, this time these emotions are filtered into an impressionist work, allowing them room to exorcise themselves against convincing electronica. Where its predecessors attempted, sometimes awkwardly, to staple classic song structures to abstract strangeness, ANIMA just lets go.

Teaming up with long-time production partner Nigel Godrich, together they have created a set that emanates unease and anxiety through floating sound patterns. It’s like a fever dream peppered with strange sci-fi samples creeping in.

ANIMA was launched with an innovative viral marketing campaign that has seen strange adverts surface across the globe, purportedly placed by a company called ‘Anima Technologies’, that promote a ‘dream recovery service’. Yorke also joined forces with Paul Thomas Anderson, to create a short film sequencing three tracks from the album to accompany the release. You can catch this artfully produced mini masterpiece streaming now on Netflix.