RADIOHEAD | AMNESIAC | 11TRACKS
:: SIMILAR ARTISTS * Aphex Twin / Underworld
After Radiohead shocked the world with Kid A, the experiment with electronic music, they return with a second CD of music from the same sessions as Kid A. Unfortunately, there seems to be a little less thought about Amnesiac, and that is shown by some of the tracks which, in my opinion are mixed. Tracks like the Pyramid Song, Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box and Knives Out are amazing feats of work, but then there are tracks like Pulk / Pull Revloving Doors, which I just can’t stand listening to.
For those who don’t know what happened before the Kid A experiment, they had made one of the worlds greatest albums, OK Computer, which was a complete masterpiece. That was ’97. Last year, they followed it up with the shocking departure to the electronic side. No more whinging vocals, they had been changed to electronically processed lyrical mumblings. No more strumming, powerful guitar chords, they’d been replaced by the screams of a thousand and one computers, synthesisers and minimalism.
During the planning for Kid A, there were ideas of releasing a double album. They thought they had enough material from the original Kid A sessions to release a double, but thankfully, the world wouldn’t of seen the last of it if they did. One CD is enough to shock most Radiohead fans. After the initial thoughts of a Radiohead ’electronic’ album, many people were suprised after a few listens. It was one of those albums which could be listened to, and you hate it the first few times. But after that a strange ambience and understanding takes over, and you begin to accept the music. And, Amnesiac can only be like that. If you read the cover notes ’’These recordings where (? shouldn’t it be were) made on location at the same time as Kid A’’, you will notice that they remain the previous strange fusion of electro-rock. Kid A was a suprising success in both the UK and USA, reaching high in to the charts. The music on Kid A, and on Amnesiac would be enough to drive your average N’Sync-er to tears and beyonds. How could this ’meaningless dribble’ reach such a high chart position without lots of cute young blonde 18-year-old boys, or fake boobs? How can an album that doesn’t have a gimmick succeed. How can they release a song, like Pyramid Song, that hasn’t got a ’dance jam’ break in the middle, where the music stops, and everybody on screen dances from side-to-side, Janet Jackson ’’All for You’’ style? Radiohead, R&B it ain’t! The continuing electronic influences have led to many dubbing this album Kid B.
CONCLUSION. Unlike my previous review of the Daft Punk album, I am not going to include little ’’FAV’’ icons to denote favourite tracks from the album, because it isn’t a collection of singles, or even a collection of pieces of music. It is something you should really listen to as a whole. You can’t dip in to it, like you could just dip in to OK Computer, you have to fully immerse yourself in listening to it, or not listen at all. Unless you are fully immersed in to the listening and comprehension of the tune you will not get it. That’s why it’s not at the top of the MTV playlists, because the 25-second attention spans we are seeing today do not last long enough to fully take in a Radiohead record! The reason I don’t mark favourite tracks, is because they are all good, but you have to think about them as moments in time, that Radiohead have recorded. The whole of Knives Out, Pyramid Song. The restart around 3:55 of I Might Be Wrong...
’’I didn’t really cut it / too much of a coward / trussed up in tuxedos / we’re the orchestra at the ball / and it slides like slime’’ - another quote from the Kid A booklet.
I LIKED THIS, SO WILL I LIKE THAT?
Kid A lovers will feel right at home with Amnesiac, and will see it as ’Kid B’ or the 2nd disc of Kid A. Those who thought Kid A was good, but too much of a departure from OK may prefer Amnesiacs sounds. Those who were utterly appalled at Kid A (tip, listen to it a lot, and you will enjoy... trust me!), will probably not find Amnesiac a good purchase. Go back to your den, listen to OK Computer and The Bends. Oh, and give me your phone number and I’ll ring you next time Radiohead release a ’normal’ guitar album.
Radiohead is doing great work in introducing people to the indie-’tronic side of music and bringing people already heavily in to electronic in to line with previous albums (like OK Computer). If it wasn’t for Kid A, I wouldn’t have found out about Radiohead and bought OK and The Bends. I love all the albums the same.
I’d write much more, but MouthShut is limited to 8000 characters!