Atoms for Peace + Ultraìsta | Tracks

“Default”
Atoms for Peace

Thom Yorke seems to get funkier with age. In the video for Radiohead’s “Lotus Flower,” he puts on a bizarre but riveting one-man dance party where he gyrates and contorts his body like a mime possessed, as if the remixes he’s so fond of had taken over his soul. So it’s a logical next step that “Default,” the first offering from his solo-project-turned-second-band Atoms for Peace sounds more like a remix than a group effort. The stems could’ve been radically reconfigured and we’d be none the wiser; eerie, simmering keyboard chords enter and exit as mechanized percussion taps lightly but insistently throughout. “The will is strong / but the flesh is weak,” moans Yorke, adding “I’ve made my bed / I’m lying in it.” Clichés abound, and Yorke’s clever enough to know it; it’s as if his brain hit the default switch when it came time to write the lyrics. Where AFP’s other players—Flea or drummer Joey Waronker among them—fit in isn’t quite clear. Perhaps we’ll just have to wait for the remix.