Album reviews: Thom Yorke and John Carpenter's latest releases

THOM YORKE: SUSPIRIA

Brooding, disconnected, an ever-present sense of dread and paranoia ... it’s not too hard to imagine why Luca Guadagnino, the Italian director behind the new remake of 1977 horror classic Suspiria, was so set on having Thom Yorke write the music for him, writes Stephen Jones.

The Radiohead singer’s 23-track album — his first full film score — takes in a range of influences from choral to Krautrock, and offers a chance to take his experimental sensibilities one step further, away from the constraints of the popular album format.

But amidst its eerie instrumentals and suffocating darkness, Suspiria also features some insanely beautiful songs. ‘Open Again’, a smothering slow-roller enveloped by swirling delay loops, was described by Yorke as “the most simple and pure statement in the film I think, lyrically”. And ‘Unmade’ — a fragile falsetto piano ballad that shatters into tiny fragments — is a moment of stunning clarity that could easily have made it on to a Radiohead record (perhaps it still will).

Does an Oscar beckon? It’ll certainly be up there. Either way, this is a worthy addition to an already glittering back catalogue.

JOHN CARPENTER: HALLOWEEN

Horror fans were excited when the news was announced that not only would John Carpenter be involved in the new Halloween movie, he would also be composing the soundtrack. Carpenter hasn’t been involved in the canon he created since Halloween III in 1982, writes Rob Barker.

Fresh from remakes of some of his classic themes — with his sons Cody and Daniel Davies — the trio have put together a soundtrack worthy of the horror classic.

Four decades since the original, his budget may have greatly increased, but the spirit is the same, with pulsating Moog and Roland keyboards, mellotrons and pianos recreating elements of the original score, alongside dramatic, chilling new elements. Perfect late-night listening for the season of the witch.