First Listen: Judge Jury and Executioner

(Image taken from Stereogum)

Atoms for Peace, Thom Yorke's side project, has released a new song from their upcoming album titles Amok. The track was dropped some point last night. This is what I think after the first initial listen. (Note: This is just my opinion after the first listen. It can change after subsequent listens).

First comes the very jittery drum loop. Very Thom Yorke/Radiohead. I'm not surprised that he would create such a beat like this one, as he revels in electronic music.The song progresses and what catches my attention next is the backing vocals. There is only one word to describe the backing vocal track: haunting. It sort of drones on in the background as the beat keeps going and the bass, played by Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, and gives this eery atmosphere. Yorke's vocals remind me a lot of the hauntingly beautiful vocals in "Lotus Flower" as he uses the same falsetto range. (Here is a link to "Lotus Flower" off Radiohead's King of Limbs):

Bottom Line: Very good track, indeed.

Two gripes, though.

The track kind of sounds like a Radiohead song to me. In a way, it sounds like what Radiohead might have/should have produced after In Rainbows. It had that perfect mix of electronic/instrumentation much like In Rainbows did. Not to say King of Limbs was not a good album, but "Judge Jury and Executioner" seems like it would be a more natural progression from the sound they established in In Rainbows. This, while good, doesn't seem to impress me as much as I would've hoped. Even though, Thom Yorke is one of the main song writers in Radiohead and has a huge influence on their sound, his solo album The Eraser does not sound like a typical Radiohead album.

Next... it's rather short. It only clocks in about 3 minutes. My immediate thought at the end of the song was, "it's over...?" This is a problem because the song sort of doesn't really seem to do/say much. In fact, it's rather repetitive. I was waiting for the song to progress or to take me somewhere, but it never did. This isn't necessarily a horrible thing, but I would've wanted the song to exhibit more of Yorke's personality.

So am I going to buy this album when it comes out? Yeah, I would. I think that this track was pretty good. I'm definitely going to be listening to it again and see if my initial opinion still is the same or if it changes. Here is the video for "Judge Jury and Executioner":