01. the eraser

please excuse me but i got to ask,
are you only being nice because you want something?
my fairytale arab princess
be careful how you respond
you might end up in this song
i never gave you an encouragement
and its doing me in doing me in doing me in doing me in
the more the more you try to erase me the more
the more the more that i appear
the more the more the more you try the eraser
the more that i appear
you know the answer so why do you ask?
i am only being nice because I want something
you're like a kitten with a ball of wool
and it's doing me in doing me in doing me in
the more the more you try to erase me the more
the more that i appear
the more the more i try to erase you the more
the more the more that
you appear
no youre wrong youre wrong youre wrong
youre wrong youre wrong

they are only being nice because they want something', 'you are merely a distraction. im a kitten with a ball of wool.

sundaycomedown
empty streets
ant powder

tennis ball
swollen lip
creamscryingcream
long long long long
hold me cool down

firework rocket
a braver man than eye

sunday papers
artichoke broken hearts
vodka
railings cling clang
the sound of empty bottles
berlin
in a sack
hang on
heavy metal

change
digital channel

'this is a stitch up'

they are only being nice because they want something

the chink in your armour
you fatal flaw
spitting an obligatory compliment to make me feel at ease

lunatic
soothsayer
naysayer
hypocrit
be amusing
be amused
makes notes
say nothing
admit everything
admit nothing

politics is poison
words are blunt instruments
you give nothing

so receive nothing
i am imagining
while people are carrying
tongueing
fucking
drinking

all on candid camera
right now this camera is saying nothing

--'scrapbook', radiohead.com

project for a new century

anyway
accept no imitations

turn on the shredder
and begin hoping now to have found solution to everyday recurring problems
to building new life much like the first
mirror image
barely different
safe
the soft whispering and corrosion
not realised
this is important

wait
change your locks and email and phone numbers

a few factual errors
--------
do you choose the plastic?
or the real?
man i choose the plastic.
--------
the more that i struggle
the further i get in trouble
the more i erase you
the more you appear
any other time
any other time
please
not now

never ever never
ever never ever
pick up the phone

calm down
take three of these
with a glass of water
shut up

oh no it doesn't
oh yes it does
you should be with me
we should be together
no we shouldn't
no
we shouldn't

oh dear how sad
never mind
oh dear how sad
never mind

pass it round
down is the new up
-------
calm down
take three of these
with a glass of water
shut up

To me the most exciting... you know... exciting music I ever had is when you get all those things mixed up together and you can't tell where one starts and one ends... you know there's something else going on....It's probably lazy and a little bit just a response to what people think I am or I am not to say that this is a political record because it has a lot of love songs and personal songs...

--Thom Yorke on XFM, 21 August 2006

Q: "Were these songs written in a concentrated period?"

Thom: "Absolutely, except for 'Cymbal Rush' - that riff that had been around for ages - and 'The Eraser', where the piano chords are Jonny's. I recorded them on a dictaphone around his house one day. A year and a half later, I had to own up that I had sampled them, cut them into a different order and made them into a song [laughs]. 'Is that alright? Sorry, Jonny.'"

--Rolling Stone | 1 June 2006)

The first lines you hear on the album are, "please excuse me, but i got to ask, are you only being nice because you want something?/my fairytale arab princess be careful how you respond/you might end up in this song". When asked to comment on the lyrics of "the eraser" there's a long pause before he simply answers, "I can't."

--Paste | August 2006.