Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes is an eight-track record from Thom Yorke, available on vinyl. A record born of silver darkness, pressed onto heavyweight 180g white vinyl completed with undersize 75mm centre labels, housed within heavy white board inner and outer sleeves. These are printed with a metallic silver laminate then multi-tone black and a striking neon green.
Like Radiohead's In Rainbows before it, Thom Yorke's Tomorrow's Modern Boxes initially made waves not for its music but for its distribution. Announced without warning and available as a paid "bundle" via BitTorrent -- it was not the first record distributed that way but it certainly was the most prominent -- Tomorrow's Modern Boxes shared the same shock of the new as In Rainbows, and although it's certainly written on a smaller scale than that 2007 record, it occupies a similar space within Yorke's extracurricular discography. In Rainbows represented an emotional thaw after the chilly, amorphous Hail to the Thief, whereas Tomorrow's Modern Boxes warms up the icy exteriors of Eraser. Yorke never attempts to abandon his fixation on pre-EDM electronica -- at this point, his affection for turn-of-the-millennium intelligent dance music could almost qualify as classicist -- but there's a scuffed warmth to much of this album, with the warped waves of keyboards gently gliding into a rhythm later articulated by a loop. Such aural sleights of hand never call attention to themselves but neither does the album as a whole. Tomorrow's Modern Boxes is deliberately underwhelming, an old-fashioned grower that doesn't startle upon first listen but rather slowly unfolds. Even then, the album is stubbornly subtle, with Yorke exploring the space between gaps, not the chasm itself. Less charitable listeners could call it mood music and they wouldn't be wrong, because Yorke and producer Nigel Godrich are so controlled, they offer variations of a theme instead of a wide palette. This is not dissimilar to Eraser, but instead of wallowing in alienation, Yorke has found comfort within it on Tomorrow's Modern Boxes and the difference is palpable. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
- Format: Vinyl
- Genre: Electronic, Alternative, Rock
- Limited Edition
- White Vinyl
- 180 Gram Vinyl
- Remember, for our lowest prices, always order directly from our official JocoRecords website!
TRACKS
A1 A Brain In A Bottle
A2 Guess Again!
A3 Interference
A4 The Mother Lode
B1 Truth Ray
B2 There Is No Ice (For My Drink)
B3 Pink Section
B4 Nose Grows Some
