by
Thom Yorke
- Record Label: XL
- Release Date: Oct 26, 2018
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MojoOct 25, 2018It's an album that is, by turns, melancholy and unsettling, tragic and nightmarish, unfolding with a creeping narrative dread. [Dec 2018, p.93]
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Oct 26, 2018Its ballet scenes are climactic, cathartic centerpieces, dramatically illustrating the power of sound to move, to manipulate, to conjure. Yorke’s score is a shrine to that dark power.
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Nov 13, 2018It achieves the toughest task for a soundtrack--to maintain interest independent of the images it was built to accompany and accentuate--with impressive ease.
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Nov 13, 2018Yorke’s job here is to maximise the impact of the film through sound, something he does masterfully whenever employed. ... The film itself may have done some harm to Guadagnino’s reputation as a defining director of this era. The soundtrack, however, will do no damage to Yorke’s credentials as a composer.
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Nov 12, 2018Despite avoiding it for a period of time, Yorke came through with his best solo album yet. He assuredly created a multi-layered horror soundtrack that serves as an engrossing confection of new musical landscapes in its own right while being essential to the film’s effect.
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Oct 29, 2018In its minimalist opacity and Vantablack depths, it’s the polar opposite of Goblin’s playfully neon-hued approach, and it’s in going to that extreme that Yorke has made Suspiria his own.
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Oct 29, 2018It’s to Yorke’s credit that the sense of foreboding he conjures, whether in the discordant Volk or the more elegant Olga’s Destruction (Volk Tape), manages to be so evocative even without Guadagnino’s visuals.
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Oct 26, 2018From micro passages like the 30-second ‘An Audition’ to the 14-minute swell of ambient vocal track ‘A Chorus Of One’, he successfully contrasts optimism and tenderness with hopelessness and terror, with an impressive breadth of emotion being evoked across each track.
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Q MagazineOct 25, 2018At its best you're reminded of Yorke's eminent skill: a fluency in dark, otherworldly romance that makes the alien sound familiar. [Dec 2018, p.106]
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UncutOct 25, 2018Thom Yorke's Suspiria might not be to everyone's taste--but it feel enough, for now. [Dec 2018, p.20]
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Oct 25, 2018“Suspirium” is a radium-glow piano ballad that would have fit in nicely on Radiohead’s most recent album; the jazzy soul of “Unmade” and the trip-hop shiver of “Has Ended” are even more surprising, carrying welcome echoes of Yorke and co.’s brilliant Amnesiac-era B-sides. These tunes are vintage Yorke, and they make you wish he’d written more of them for Suspiria. At least until you hear the second half of this record, where the song-songs thin out in favor of even weirder electronic buzzes.
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Oct 25, 2018A handful of tracks stand out, and are among Yorke’s best solo work.
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Oct 31, 2018Suspiria benefits from Yorke’s attention to atmosphere. But there’s no getting around the fact that perhaps half of the soundtrack is unmemorable and (out of context, at least) incredibly dull. There’s a right way to experience this music, and that’s by viewing the film, just as Yorke intended.
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Classic Rock MagazineNov 7, 2018Yorke's minimalist fragility fits the bill entirely. [Dec 2018, p.89]
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Oct 26, 2018Altogether, Suspiria is an appropriate accompaniment to the film, generating fear and discomfort as much by what's presented by Yorke as what's left to the imagination.
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Oct 26, 2018It's not quite the complete package of course. Like most music composed for cinema, it suffers without the images, sound that exists to enhance is often lacking when left alone. It doesn't lack anywhere near as much as most scores do though, suggesting Yorke might match his bandmate after all.
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Oct 25, 2018As gorgeous and misstep-free as it is, the soundtrack risks a bit of that souvenir, collector’s item feel native to score-based soundtracks. That being said, it’s nowhere near as padded-out as those typically are. While melodies and tones recur, track to track, it plays out with an ear toward immersion.
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Oct 25, 2018Despite its supernatural setting and modern day political commentary, you get the sense that Yorke remains hopeful amongst the darkness. Perhaps this is down to age, perhaps it’s some sort of foolishness--but the optimism never completely fades from Suspiria and gives it a human quality that is not immediately obvious amidst the Seventies synths and modal incantations.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 64 out of 71
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Mixed: 1 out of 71
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Negative: 6 out of 71
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Oct 26, 2018
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Feb 11, 2019
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Dec 8, 2018Este soundtrack es difícil de describir, logró armonizar todos mis sentidos, es simplemente fantástico