El miedo acecha el territorio

by Thom Yorke

¡El miedo acecha al territorio! reúne los escritos de Thom Yorke y Stanley Donwood en torno al periodo de 1999 y 2000, durante el proceso que desembocó en los magistrales discos de Radiohead, Kid A y Amnesiac. Se incluyen faxes, notas, letras de las canciones de ambos álbumes, dibujos, listas y garabateos que ambos autores se enviaban con regularidad. El resultado es un documento íntimo que conduce al interior de la mente creativa de Yorke y Donwood, misma que a su vez refleja los miedos, augurios y fantasías que el mundo provocaba, conforme sus ciudadanos enfrentaban la llegada del nuevo milenio.

Genres: Music, Poetry, Nonfiction, Art, British Literature, Collections

Kindle Edition

First published November 4, 2021

About the author

Thomas "Thom" Edward Yorke (born 7 October 1968) is an English musician and singer-songwriter who is the lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the rock band Radiohead. He mainly plays guitar and piano, but has also played drums and bass guitar (notably during the Kid A and Amnesiac sessions). In July 2006, he released his debut solo album, The Eraser.

Yorke has been cited among the most influential figures in the music industry; in 2002, Q Magazine named Yorke the 6th most powerful figure in music, and Radiohead were ranked #73 in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in 2005. Yorke has also been cited among the greatest singers in popular music; in 2005, a poll organised by Blender and MTV2 saw Yorke voted the 18th greatest singer of all time, and in 2008, he was ranked 66th in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Singers of All Time" list.

From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thom_Yorke

Reviews

[li.reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

if you too are insufferable and like radiohead, you will probably enjoy this book

[cameron]

i really enjoyed this but i am also just a radiohead fan

[José Mesquita · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little treat for longtime fans.

[fran ☾ · Rating 4 out of 5]

rip george orwell you would’ve loved the radiohead book

[rebeca ravara · Rating 4 out of 5]

in thom yorke we trust

[Nikolas Kalar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book that probably more rightly deserves a three-and-a-half star rating than four, but we round up here.

More a treat for the fans than anything else, "Fear Stalks the Land!" is mostly a lyrics book, with a few additional poems, stories, emails, faxes, illustrations, and other ephemera. If you're one of the Radiohead faithful (and really, who isn't), you'll enjoy this further glimpse into the world of Kid A and Amnesiac. If you're the kind of person who says, "yeah, I like that "Creep" song, and I guess "Karma Police" is pretty good, too," you can probably skip this.

If, however, you fit neither of those categories and are rather someone who likes to observe the artistic/songwriting process, this may also be worth your time.

Because Thom Yorke's lyric-writing style at the time was to cut, chop, and rearrange the lyrical and musical phrases and lyrics he had written, sometimes even between songs, until they appeared entirely different from themselves, and therefore new and more exciting. And "Fear Stalks the Land!" does an excellent job of highlighting, simultaneously, the entirety of the original musical concept, as well as those now-classic phrases that made the final cut. An exciting glimpse into the process of one of the western world's most influential bands.

[Timothy Ball · Rating 5 out of 5]

two headed monsters
three headed brides
nobody is free to do what they want
waited on hand and foot
the world's best-selling drug
comrades with mobile phones
the illegitimate sons
crawling out from under stones
daddy daddy I've come home

I want to see you smile again like diamonds in the dust
the amazing sound of the killing hordes
the day the banks collapsed on us

cease this endless chattering like everything is fine
when sorry is not good enough
sit in the back while no one drives

sing along here>
so glad you're mine
so glad you're mine

police on horseback
broken bones
we sit in the back while no one drives
a woman flutters her eyelashes in Washington
and bombs rain down in Sudan
women and children first
carry on smiling
and the world will smile with you

[Reuben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sketchbook of ideas, almost none of the poems seem finished, but they combine with the drawings to create a wonderfully harrowing, uniquely desolate, and frankly disturbing "you're-just-a-kid-in-the-dark" type of experience.

Thom Yorke's mind seems a terrible place to be. He's a great writer though.

It's super interesting background on how Kid A/Amnesiac came to be. I loved the repeated lyrics throughout different songs; the variety of contexts made Yorke's ideas much more palpable.

I am a little disappointed that there was really only one finished poem with a story included ("Airborne"), which also happens to be my favorite of the bunch.

"A grin like roadkill" was one of my favorite Yorke-isms.

3.5/5

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

i want to preface this by saying that I’m a really big radiohead fan only really be enjoyed by radiohead fans. I really enjoyed this collection of poems lyrics and drawings. this is basically just like an avant-garde poetry collection with drawings. the depressing and social commentary aspects are always cool and listening to my radiohead cds while reading this added to my experience

[Teresa Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

fever dream and an inside on unreleased lyrics

[Jaslyn★ · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a casual reader this would be baffling, but for a hardcore Radiohead fan this is packt with interesting things. I wish it was twice as long, classic Radiohead to leave me wanting more!

[🌶 peppersocks 🧦 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reflections and lessons learned/the content of this book made me feel…
“Adults strap ballast to themselves to weigh them down
Or become lost souls wandering
An adult loses interest in all things so keeps lists
Like this one
Adults cannot make up their minds
An adult feels like they've lost something”

Me in the 90s: ooo, I do enjoy a bit of clever boy indie music - yes please Pablo Honey… oh, The Bends is just so fragile and beautiful, they totally get me… ahhh, but OK Computer is very clever, with levels that a lot of us probably don’t fully understand… *moans along to Paranoid Android for the 105th time that month

I enjoyed me a bit of Radiohead… So when Kid A and Amnesiac were released, we skipped towards HMV, but whereas a lot of people were still nodding enthusiastically at the front of the racks, I hung back a bit… I still couldn’t name many of the songs now, but these were songs that were no longer resonating. Listening along whilst reading this felt a nice reminder, but probably only a book for the hardcore on that era? The images will always be haunting though…

[Evie PP · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is the most lame embarrassing nerdy shit I have every read but I do not care I loved this so much. It made me anxious and disgusted and sad and excited all at once. I know a lot of it is nonsensical but how I felt reading how to disappear completely as it played I actually can not explain. That song makes me so emotional and it’s incredible. The you and whose army page also made me so happy but so sad at the same time and syncing my reading of that to the song was also another amazing experience. I also need to give a shout out to 54 NOTHING [145] the illustration and text on that page was amazing I honestly have no words. I think realistically this book isn’t for everyone it’s for people really love Radiohead (in a Patrick Bateman type of way) and I think if you are willing to put meaning to all the nonsense it’s a great investment of time. I think I can compare reading this to listening to the French Dispatch sound track before watching the movie and how seeing everything in its right place feels just feels so nice and complete ahh.

[Renata Arruda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gostei de entrar na mente do jovem Thom Yorke e ter acesso aos textos e ao fluxo de consciência que, mais tarde, se tornariam as letras do "Kid A" e "Amnesiac" -- e de também ter um vislumbre das questões que mais o angustiavam ali pelo final da década de 1990, início dos anos 2000, e que permanecem mais atuais que nunca: emergência climática, capitalismo selvagem, exploração midiática e o mundinho artificial das celebridades.

[Sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think Thom Yorke is possibly the foremost talent alive today. His mind astounds me constantly. I think this collection is so indicative of the genius of the double release of Kid A and Amnesiac and the collaboration with Stanley Donwood is such a forefront image when one thinks of Radiohead. My adoration is endless for this work.

[Veerle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A treat for the fans that I thoroughly enjoyed! These writings, musings and sketches were made in the run-up to Kid A. It is really interesting to see what eventually led up to the lyrics of this beautiful album.

[Ekaterina Kamenova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Odd, baffling, chaotic, dark, very very dark, and still intriguing in terms of ideas and creative process.
Feels like reading through a diary of a young person very deeply frustrated with the world they live in. Which is kind of what it is.

[Julijona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tikrai knyga Radiohead fanams, kurie nori pamatyti visą Kid A ir Amnesiac albumų kūrimo procesą. Labai gera!

[Josh Corah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting read if you’re into Radiohead/thom yorke. Packed with loads of cool sketches and some insight into lyrics that didn’t end up on the songs themselves.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want this but it’s Pete Wentz’s poetry surrounding one of the early FOB albums

[Sunayna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stan rating

[lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

yesterday i woke up sucking a lemon

[البندري · Rating 1 out of 5]

everybody who’s rated this more than 2 stars is asskissing

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a cool little peek into the creative process that spawned Kid A and Amnesiac. If only 32-year-old Thom could see just how truly dark the world would get. I enjoyed reading these poems and seeing the seeds of the songs I know and love within them. Bleak, depressing, delicious. For serious Radiohead nerds only.

[Foley Stocks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I somewhat expected that this would be nicely presented but kind of vapid in content (or be all presentation, so to speak). But it was surprisingly interesting and at points even insightful. Probably requires some familiarity with the music that came from it to be properly appreciated, though.

[Stephanie]

Almost all reviews are from diehard Radiohead fans. As the partner of a diehard Radiohead fan, this is also cool to read. Would I have picked it up if I were not at his house without a book of my own? Probably not.

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Literally just Kid A/Amnesiac (+ extras) in written form, as an insufferable Radiohead die hard I'm obsessed. The accompanying fever dream artworks in particular have me RABID I love this band so much.

[Esteban Mejía · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unas 3 estrellas siendo muy generoso. Acá encontré muy poco, sólo ciertos escritos o algunas ilustraciones realmente captaron mi atención, pero en Thom Yorke no encontré una verdadera fortaleza en sus escritos, a diferencia de otros musicos.

[Dominika Hvorková · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a sketchbook
open it at random
it's chopped up
recycled
scored out
it's a diary
it's a record


this sums it up pretty well. dark, raw, fragmented, intimate. thank you, D., it is a lovely gift.

[grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

a book about the melancholy that comes along with being alive. survivors guilt, capitalism being the end to us all, apathy tearing humanity apart, war and hatred and the irony of being an “artist”. this book will only continue to get more relevant as we continue to watch the world fall apart.