2006 August | Paste

With this record, it was a bit mad because there were no songs. I mean, Nigel may’ve had it on his mind—since he’d been working with Paul McCartney, Mr. Melody—and didn’t intend on telling me. In fact, all the lyrics came as it was going along, which was somewhat of a difficult situation, because the only way I could really complete them, bizarrely, was to try and play most of the tracks on an instrument. Generally speaking, I couldn’t write just listening to the laptop. I know that Stipey [Michael Stipe] has done this over the years, where R.E.M. sends him tracks, and he drives around in this old Volvo, and he used to write lyrics like that. I have done a lot that way, but I was finding the pace of what we were doing so fast that I just didn’t have time. So, the easiest way to do it was desperately figure out how to play it. Which is really interesting because it feeds back to the guitar part in "Black Swan," which hadn’t been there for ages. But to sing something, I needed to strum something and then the song came, a very peculiar way around.

2006 August 21 | XFM

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...

2006 August | Paste

As we discuss the Orwellian nature into the world’s collective psyche, Yorke’s other side begins to appear, the one similar to Toto sniffing around the Wizard’s curtain. Unlike what most critics would have you believe, Yorke isn’t a pessimist; he’s a realist with a might big spotlight. Yet, continually using one’s influence as an artist to shed light on the atrocities of modern life isn’t really in the job description, though it’s always tempting.
“I wouldn’t want to take on that kind of responsibility, but I think I can’t help finding myself—given the particular weapon I have at my disposal—wanting to use it occasionally in certain circumstances. But I thin it’s best used inside the music; that’s where you can have the best effect. Some people are able to do it—Neil Young, Bob Marley; Bob Dylan’s done it endlessly. Lots of rap does it; Public Enemy does it endlessly, so it’s possible to do and do well. But I always have to be aware when it comes to writing and when it comes to music, you don’t just come and say, ‘I want to put this in the song.’ It naturally evolves, and it’s naturally a part of what’s going on … Anger is an energy source for me, especially lyrically when I’m presented with something I consider utter madness … My writing is a constant response to doublethink."

Rolling Stone

I also like the lines in "Black Swan": "You cannot kick-start a dead horse/You just cross yourself and walk away."

[Laughs] As always, whatever psychic garbage you've got going on in your head, you end up using it. You should have seen the stuff I didn't put in. That's the shit you don't want to know about.

2006 August | Paste

The Eraser, however, is not the same old shit, by any means. In a very true way, it's an album of love songs. but before you think Yorke has gone completely soft, by clarification, the "love" here is the whole package, complete with mean streaks and caustic wit, not merely the trite, romantic-idealist definition. "Who would want to listen to that crap?" Yorke says. "it's not real; love isn't like that. Well, it isn't for me--maybe that's why I don't get any action", he laughs.
For Yorke, a true love song speaks to the realities of love--the egotistically sadistic side, the analytical side, the physical depravation side, all of it, not some 'here are your roses, I love you darling' Lionel Ritchie sendup.
"Happily ever after... not!"
The Eraser's title track is the most pointed. 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".

2006 August | Paste

My favourite was "And It Rained All Night", just because i'd never written a lyric like that before. it was basically a cut-and-paste of something I'd written, where i had my lounge just covered in bits of paper, and one was four pages long, which I cut down and cut down--all the way through thinking "this is never going to work". Then we actually ended up recording it on a full moon through the night, because I have one of those big, fat telescopes my partner bought me, and since Nigel is the only one who knows how to use it, when he comes to my house it's like 'come on, set it up for me'. So I'd go up to the roof and look at the moon and then run back downstairs and quickly write away. back and forth, it was really good, actually; it surprised me to write that lyric. and it really surprised me that I got Nigel's voice in the headphones at the end going, 'yeah, that's good', because all the way through I was thinking 'this is so wack, it's never going to work'.