Amok (Atoms for Peace album)

Amok
Studio album by Atoms for Peace
Released February 25, 2013
Recorded 2010 - 2012 in Los Angeles[1][2]
Genre Alternative rock, experimental rock, electronica, IDM
Length 44:35
Label XL[1][2]
Producer Nigel Godrich
Singles from Amok
  1. "Default[3]"
    Released: September 10, 2012
  2. "Judge, Jury and Executioner[4]"
    Released: March 11, 2013
  3. "Before Your Very Eyes...[5]"
    Released: July 1, 2013

Amok is the debut album by the alternative rock band Atoms for Peace, released on February 25, 2013 by XL Recordings.[1][2] The album features Radiohead singer Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, keyboards and programming), Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea (bass), Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich (production and programming), Joey Waronker of Beck and R.E.M. (drums), and Mauro Refosco (percussion) of Forro in the Dark.[1]

Amok produced three singles: "Default", "Judge, Jury and Executioner" and "Before Your Very Eyes...". A music video for "Ingenue" was released via YouTube on February 28, 2013. The album received generally favourable reviews.

Background and recording

Atoms for Peace formed in 2009 to perform songs from Thom Yorke's 2006 album The Eraser. After the tour ended in 2010, the band spent three days jamming and recording original material in a Los Angeles studio. The members bonded over a shared love of afrobeat including Fela Kuti."[6] Describing his role in the sessions as "conducting", Yorke would show the band electronic music he had created and they would recreate it with live instruments. He said: "The music I do on my laptop is so angular. When you get people to play like that, it's so peculiar ... One of the things we were most excited about was ending up with a record where you weren't quite sure where the human starts and the machine ends." Yorke and producer Nigel Godrich edited and arranged the recordings from the sessions over two years, combining it with Yorke's electronic music.[6]

Release

The first single, "Default", was released as a download on September 10, 2012.[3] The second single, "Judge, Jury and Executioner", was released as a download on January 7, 2013 and on vinyl on March 19, 2013.[4] "Before Your Very Eyes..." was released as the third single on July 1, 2013.[5]

On February 18, 2013, Amok was made available via streaming from the official Atoms for Peace website.[7]

A music video for "Ingenue" was released via YouTube on February 28, 2013. It was directed and choreographed by Garth Jennings and Wayne McGregor respectively, who had previously worked with Yorke on the video for the Radiohead song "Lotus Flower" (2011).[8] On October 17, a video for "Before Your Very Eyes..." was released, directed by Andrew Thomas Huang.[9]

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 76/100[10]
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [11]
A.V. Club A-[12]
Consequence of Sound [13]
The Guardian [14]
The Independent [15]
NME (8/10)[16]
Pitchfork (6.9/10)[17]
Rolling Stone [18]
Slant Magazine [19]
Sputnikmusic [20]

Amok has a score of 76 out of 100 on review aggregate site Metacritic, indicating "generally favourable reviews".[10]

Alexis Petridis of The Guardian wrote: "As a technical exercise, Amok is hugely impressive ... its sound is rich and deep, full of intriguing shifts and contrasts. But there are times when it feels the painstaking process used to create it may have assumed a greater importance than the business of actually writing songs ... Still, when Amok works, the results are spectacular."[14] Sputnikmusic found that though the album "rarely escapes sounding like a solo record from the Radiohead frontman ... it's quite likely that the average listener might find something to enjoy within the dense, layered folds of Amok."[20]

Slant Magazine wrote: "With such richly diverse membership, it's disappointing that Atoms for Peace is so highly derivative of Yorke and Godrich's recent work ... the result is essentially a collection of agile, minimalist rock songs with a handful of interesting but ultimately superficial electronica flourishes."[19] Pitchfork Media wrote that while Amok "is certainly a more colourful, layered work than The Eraser ... for all the rhythmic chicanery at play, [it] feels strangely static and contained, giving a perpetual sense of jogging in place."[17]

Track listing

No. Title Length
1. "Before Your Very Eyes..."   5:47
2. "Default"   5:15
3. "Ingenue"   4:30
4. "Dropped"   4:57
5. "Unless"   4:40
6. "Stuck Together Pieces"   5:28
7. "Judge, Jury and Executioner"   3:28
8. "Reverse Running"   5:06
9. "Amok"   5:24
Total length:
 44:35

Personnel

Chart positions

Weekly charts

Chart (2013) Peak
position
Australian ARIA Albums Chart[21] 11
Austrian Ö3 Albums Chart[22] 18
Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders)[23] 6
Belgian Albums Chart (Wallonia)[24] 14
Canadian Albums Chart[25] 4
Danish Albums Chart[26] 5
Dutch Albums Chart[27] 3
Finnish Albums Chart[28] 14
French SNEP Albums Chart[29] 15
German Albums Chart[30] 16
Irish Albums Chart[31] 12
Irish Independent Albums Chart[32] 3
Italian FIMI Albums Chart[33] 13
Japanese Oricon Albums Chart[34] 9
New Zealand RIANZ Albums Chart[35] 14
Norwegian Albums Chart[36] 6
Portuguese AFP Albums Chart[37] 12
Spanish Albums Chart[38] 22
Swedish Albums Chart[39] 42
Swiss Hitparade Albums Chart[40] 4
UK Albums Chart[41] 5
UK Independent Albums Chart[42] 1
US Billboard 200[25] 2
US Billboard Alternative Albums[25] 1
US Billboard Digital Albums[25] 3
US Billboard Electronic Albums[25] 1
US Billboard Independent Albums[25] 1
US Billboard Rock Albums[25] 1

Singles

Single Year Peak chart positions
BEL
[23]		 JAP
[25]		 UK Indie
[43]
"Default" 2012 — 93 31
"Judge, Jury and Executioner" 2013 43 — —
"Before Your Very Eyes..." 61 — —
"—" denotes a release that did not chart.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "AMOK". http://www.radiohead.com/''. December 4, 2012. Retrieved December 4, 2012.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Atoms for Peace Pick Release Date for Debut Album". Rolling Stone. November 5, 2012. Retrieved November 11, 2012.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Pelly, Jenn (September 26, 2012). "Thom Yorke's Atoms for Peace Detail Vinyl Release of Debut Single". Pitchfork. Retrieved November 11, 2012.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Battan, Carrie and Amy Phillips (January 7, 2013). "Listen/Watch: New Single From Thom Yorke's Atoms for Peace: "Judge Jury and Executioner"". Pitchfork. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 ""Before Your Very Eyes..." single on Atoms for Peace official website". Retrieved October 19, 2013.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Q&A: Thom Yorke on Atoms for Peace's 'Mechanistic' New Album". Rolling Stone. November 5, 2012. Retrieved Feb 18, 2013.
  7. ↑ "Stream the Atoms for Peace Album AMOK Now". Pitchfork Media. February 18, 2013. Retrieved Feb 19, 2013.
  8. ↑ Snapes, Laura (February 28, 2013). "Watch Thom Yorke Dance in Atoms for Peace's Video for "Ingenue"". Pitchfork. Retrieved February 28, 2013.
  9. ↑ Philips, Amy (October 17, 2013). "Video: Atoms for Peace: "Before Your Very Eyes"". Pitchfork. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Amok – Atoms for Peace". Metacritic. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
  11. ↑ "Amok - Atoms for Peace".
  12. ↑ "Atoms for Peace - AMOK". February 26, 2013.
  13. ↑ "S Album Review: Atoms For Peace – AMOK".
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Petridis, Alexis (Feb 21, 2013). "Atoms for Peace: Amok – review". Guardian. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
  15. ↑ Gill, Andy (22 February 2013). "Album review: Atoms for Peace, Amok". The Independent. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  16. ↑ "NME review".
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Berman, Stuart (February 25, 2013). "Atoms for Peace - AMOK". Pitchfork. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
  18. ↑ Vozick-Levinson, Simon (February 18, 2013). "Amok - Album Review". Rolling Stone. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 "Slant review".
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Tan, Irving (Feb 21, 2013). "Album Review - Atoms for Peace: Amok". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
  21. ↑ "Atoms for Peace – Amok". australian-charts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  22. ↑ "Atoms for Peace – Amok". austriancharts.at (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 "Discografie Atoms for Peace" [Discography Atoms for Peace]. Ultratop (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  24. ↑ "Atoms for Peace – Amok". Ultratop (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 25.4 25.5 25.6 25.7 "Amok – Atoms for Peace: Awards". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  26. ↑ "Atoms for Peace – Amok". danishcharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  27. ↑ "Atoms for Peace – Amok". dutchcharts.nl (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  28. ↑ "Atoms for Peace – Amok". finnishcharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  29. ↑ "Atoms for Peace – Amok". lescharts.com (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  30. ↑ "Album – Atoms for Peace, Amok" (in German). Media Control. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  31. ↑ "Top 100 Artist Album, Week Ending 28 February 2013". Chart-Track. GfK. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  32. ↑ "Top 10 Independent Artist Album, Week Ending 28 February 2013". Chart-Track. GfK. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  33. ↑ "Atoms for Peace – Amok". italiancharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  34. ↑ 「アモック」 アトムス・フォー・ピース│オリコン芸能人事典 [Amok: Atoms for Peace | Oricon Entertainment Encyclopedia] (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  35. ↑ "Atoms for Peace – Amok". charts.org.nz. Hung Medien. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  36. ↑ "Atoms for Peace – Amok". norwegiancharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  37. ↑ "Atoms for Peace – Amok". portuguesecharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  38. ↑ "Atoms for Peace – Amok". spanishcharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  39. ↑ "Atoms for Peace – Amok". swedishcharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  40. ↑ "Atoms for Peace – Amok". Hitparade (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  41. ↑ "2013-03-09 Top 40 Official Albums Chart Archive". Official Charts Company. British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  42. ↑ "2013-03-09 Top 40 Independent Albums Archive". Official Charts Company. British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  43. ↑ "2012-09-15 Top 40 Independent Singles Archive". Official Charts Company. British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved August 19, 2013.

External links