By Nicolas Henderson

Staff Writer

@happenstance98

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke is at it again.

Seven years after his band Radiohead released its critically acclaimed album “In Rainbows” under an unheard of online “pay what you want” method, Yorke and his mysterious ways are back with the unexpected release of his second solo album, “Tomorrows Modern Boxes”.

On Friday morning at approximately 10 a.m., Yorke via Twitter announced his new album had been released through BitTorrent, a service that is commonly associated with the illegal downloading of music and movies. As Yorke and longtime collaborator/producer Nigel Godrich explained in their album announcement message, the track files are locked behind a paywall, and after you pay the very reasonable $6 fee, the tracks are instantly downloaded.

Yorke hopes that if this method works, artists will be able to independently release their material and collect more money for themselves rather than a large portion of it going to record labels and music distribution services. The album was also released on vinyl.

Those who follow Radiohead may be aware of their psychedelic app, “Polyfauna”, which recently got a complete update. When the app was released earlier this year, the soundtrack featured soundscapes based on Radiohead’s most recent effort, 2011’s criminally underrated “The King Of Limbs”.

The recent update features a new soundtrack, odd electronic bleeps, eerie piano and haunting Yorke vocals. App users now realize they had been given a preview of Yorke’s new album, as small parts of many of the tracks on “Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes” are used as the new soundtrack for the app.

As with nearly all Yorke related releases, this one is a grower. It starts with the upbeat “A Brain In A Bottle”. The tracks drum beat is strikingly similar to the Radiohead track “Lotus Flower”, and it is almost impossible to not imagine Yorke shaking/dancing along with the beat as you listen. The second track “Guess Again!” is the most Radiohead-esque on the album and instantly stood out to me. The beautiful piano part is reminiscent of Radiohead’s 2001 track, “Pyramid Song”, but the upbeat drum part combined with Yorke’s vocals make it feel like a combination of the aforementioned song and something off of Yorke’s debut solo release.

The album continues with “Interference”, the song with the least electronic drum interference (the heavy use of electronic drums throughout the album annoyed me a bit during my first listen, but grew on me during my second listen). Interference is followed by the highlight of the album for me so far, the epic “The Mother Lode”. This song combines many elements to create a beautiful six minute soundscape, aided by Yorke’s haunting vocals. The track reaches an intense climax around three minutes in as string instruments begin to accompany Yorke for a great musical moment.  This is followed by another album highlight, “Truth Ray”, which almost seems like the big brother to “Interference”.

Another common theme with Yorke releases is to have one really weird track per album, and “There Is No Ice (For My Drink)” is that weird track. It is basically seven minutes of incoherent electronic noises accompanied by Yorke muttering “There is no ice” for the first half of the song, before Yorke joins in with the jumbled mess of noises for the rest of the song. Not quite the seven minute epic I was expecting, but it definitely has its place on this album.

“There Is No Ice…” segues right into “Pink Section”, which is basically another two and a half minutes of noise, but it is much more orchestrated and organized, and is one of my favorite tracks on the album. The eerie piano part sounds like something taken straight out of “Ghost Adventures”. This would be a good track to listen to on Halloween. The album closes with the beautiful “Nose Grows Some”, which features a welcome return of actual singing after two songs without it.

Yorke is one of the few artists consistently producing fresh sounding and genre breaking material. Whether it’s with Radiohead, supergroup Atoms For Peace, or solo material, Yorke always delivers, and “Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes” is no exception. While I can’t say I like it more than his solo debut, it is a perfect follow up.

Hopefully a new Radiohead album is to come. Until then I would recommend giving Yorke’s new album a few listens. But be prepared, it’s weird.