Critics split over Thom Yorke's Tomorrow's Modern Boxes

Pitchfork gave Thom Yorke's Tomorrow's Modern Boxes 6.3 out of 10 on 1 October, and musicOMH gave it four stars out of five the same day. The album came out as a paid BitTorrent Bundle on 26 September, with no warning.

Larry Fitzmaurice, Pitchfork's reviewer, called it Yorke's least satisfying work so far, the place where his voice and the machines blur into one. Daniel Paton at musicOMH thought it the least immediate album Yorke has been involved with, and one that might yet last as well as Kid A has. They did agree on “Guess Again!”, whose piano figure put both of them in mind of “Pyramid Song”; Fitzmaurice thought it possibly the most Radiohead-like track on the record.

“The Mother Lode”, six minutes of Yorke harmonising over a house beat, drew the warmest words. Slant called it possibly his greatest solo achievement, and jenesaispop the best thing on the album. “There Is No Ice (For My Drink)”, seven nearly wordless minutes, split the critics. musicOMH made it the centrepiece, while Fitzmaurice filed it with the tedious stretches.

Several critics thought the release less new than the letter from Yorke and Nigel Godrich made it sound. Lindsay Zoladz at Vulture thought the album pleasant, at times lovely, but plainly a minor one. She pointed out that artists had sold their own music cheaply on Bandcamp for years and that Moby, Madonna and De La Soul had already used BitTorrent's Bundles. Matthew Foster at The Quietus spent much of his review mocking the method, then recommended the record anyway, good if not Amnesiac, with “Interference” and “Truth Ray” its high points.

Paste's Tyler Kane gave it 8.2 out of 10 and welcomed it as the proper follow-up to The Eraser he had not expected, with Radiohead known to be heading back into the studio. The record, Fitzmaurice wrote, makes plain Yorke's need for a creative foil, and builds anticipation for whatever Radiohead do next.

The reviews, 27 September to 6 October