Tall Tales (Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke album)

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"In the wrong hands, this could've wound up as quite garish. And what it does for my music is quite unusual. For the sound, the melodies, I tried to balance the heavy against the light on the album with its sequencing, and the difference in Thom's vocals, but Jonathan's take on all that—his layers—takes it to yet another place, which is why I wanted him to work on this."

—Mark Pritchard, 2025 [9]

The artwork for Tall Tales was created by Jonathan Zawada, who was described as a "third member of the group" in a press release. [21] Zawada first corresponded with Pritchard in 2006 over email, but they did not meet in person until 2010. [22] They collaborated on several projects before Tall Tales. [22] Zawada first spoke to Yorke in 2020 over Zoom. [22]

Zawada began working on the artwork after Pritchard sent him instrumentals, and was given creative freedom. [23] [9] Zawada and Pritchard talked frequently while the album was produced. [22] The two considered releasing the album as black squares, gradually revealing the artwork to allow the audience to "form their own relationship with the music before introducing any visual context". [22] Zawada was directly influenced by 1960s and 70s British children's television. [22] He used artificial intelligence during the design process, but licensed content before using it. [23] Rather than using prompts, he programmed the desired results and used locally downloaded models. [24] [23] Pritchard noted the contrast between the CGI and the imperfect AI artwork. [23] The video for "A Fake in a Faker's World" was among the first completed. [23]

The music videos were taken from a feature-length film accompanying the album. [25] [26] [27] It saw one-night cinema screenings across the world on 8 May. [28] [21] Zawada wanted the film to support the music while not "taking over it too much or being entirely secondary to it". [22] He said none of the videos were generated by AI, and only used it for assistance with backgrounds and textures. [24] Zawada said he saw himself as "worldbuilder" rather than a filmmaker. [9] A limited amount of Tall Tales zines designed by Zawada were given to attendees. [29]

Release

Yorke debuted "Back in the Game" during his 2024 Everything tour. [30] [31] [32] He and Pritchard posted a clip of the song on Instagram on 7 February 2025. [33] It was released as the first single on 13 February, alongside a music video from Zawada. [34] [5] On 11 March, Tall Tales was announced alongside the release of the second single, "This Conversation Is Missing Your Voice". [35] On 26 March, venues and details about the film were shared. [28] "Gangsters" was released on 9 April, [36] followed by "The Spirit" on 8 May. [37] The film was shown on 8 May. [27]

Tall Tales was released on 9 May 2025, and was Yorke's first release through Warp Records. [38] On 16 May, Yorke and Pritchard announced a global scavenger hunt, with 400 Tall Tales coins to be found. [39] Found coins are listed at the website The Forger's Ledger, with photos, locations and the names of the finders. [40] [41] Some coins were found in deluxe vinyl editions of Tall Tales. [41] Pritchard posted a video of the coins being produced. [39]

Reception

Tall Tales
Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke - Tall Tales album cover art.png
Studio album by
Released9 May 2025
Recorded2020
StudioVintage Keys, Wizard of Oz
Genre
Length61:49
Label Warp
Producer Mark Pritchard
Thom Yorke studio albums chronology
Confidenza
(2024)
Tall Tales
(2025)
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 81/100 [42]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [14]
Clash 8/10 [19]
Hot Press 9/10 [43]
The Independent Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [16]
The Line of Best Fit 9/10 [15]
Mojo Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [20]
Pitchfork 7.6/10 [13]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [18]
The Spectator B+ [44]

At Metacritic, which aggregates scores from mainstream critics, Tall Tales has an average score of 81 based on 11 reviews, indicating "critical acclaim". [42] AllMusic writer Andy Kellman called the album a "coherent, if often cryptic joint effort". [14] Writing for Clash , Phil Taylor said the mix of Pritchard's production and Yorke's voice would trigger anxieties in listeners they "hadn't known about". [19] Will Russel of Hot Press called Tall Tales a "marvellous album altogether". [43] Helen Brown of The Independent called the album a "filmic sequence of 12 songs" made up of "existential jitters". [16]

Mojo's Victoria Segal noted the lack of hope, with the album focusing on "nameless dread". [20] Writing for Pitchfork , Jazz Monroe said that while the album was not particularly attention-grabbing, its experimental sound and "risky maneuvers" made up for it. [13] Christopher Hamilton-Peach of The Line of Best Fit called Tall Tales a "menacing, evocative and hypnotically immersive" statement on society. [15] He also said Zawada's visuals lent a "decidedly disturbing lens" to the album. [15] Writing for Rolling Stone , Jon Dolan called the album a "detour that leads to new epiphanies". [18] Rich Juzwiak of Resident Advisor called the album a "minor work" for both artists, but said its lasting impact was yet to be seen. [11]

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Thom Yorke; all music is composed by Mark Pritchard and Yorke.

Tall Tales track listing
No.TitleLength
1."A Fake in a Faker's World"8:18
2."Ice Shelf"4:47
3."Bugging Out Again"4:44
4."Back in the Game"4:41
5."The White Cliffs"8:19
6."The Spirit"4:55
7."Gangsters"3:29
8."This Conversation Is Missing Your Voice"3:54
9."Tall Tales"5:10
10."Happy Days"4:20
11."The Men Who Dance in Stag's Heads"3:41
12."Wandering Genie"5:31
Total length:61:49
Japanese edition (bonus track) [45]
No.TitleLength
13."Ice Shelf" (Original Instrumental)4:20
Total length:66:15

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes. [46]

Charts

Chart performance for Tall Tales
Chart (2025)Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA) [47] 65
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) [48] 53
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [49] 42
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) [50] 61
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [51] 66
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [52] 17
Japanese Albums (Oricon) [53] 38
Scottish Albums (OCC) [54] 8
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [55] 49
UK Albums (OCC) [56] 43
UK Dance Albums (OCC) [57] 1
UK Independent Albums (OCC) [58] 3

References

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