You And Whose Album? (Amnesiac - Radiohead)

Member Name: kfingleton

Product:	Amnesiac - Radiohead
Date:	27/04/01 (175 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Different

Disadvantages: Different

It’s the same old story, you wait ages for a bus and then two come along at once. The Radiohead story in recent times has been eerily similar to this because after their three year hiatus after OK Computer, Radiohead have now released two albums in the space of 10 months. I've had an MP3 copy of this album for some time now, but MP3 as a format doesn't really do music much justice. Now I have the hard evidence to draw from and believe me when I say there is nothing quite like it.

It’s hard to find a way to view this album. It was recorded during the long and fraught recording sessions that produced Kid A, so is it a sister, a progression, or a b-sides album? Personally, I think it is too strong a record to be seen as a b-sides album, it is very rare for b-sides to have been so painstakingly created as this and the last album have been. The attention to detail is immaculate, every sound processed to reproduce Thom Yorke’s vision to the letter. Even the lyrics may have to be sacrificed to make way for the artwork in the sleeve. Amnesiac is the sister of Kid A, but it is not by any means the same.

It begins with what sounds like rattling tin cans on the back of the car of a couple of newly-weds. Pact Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box sounds like the child of Idioteque’s strange drums and discordant vocals and the keyboards of Kid A’s opener, Everything In It’s Right Place. The music is mixed with Thom Yorke’s wonderful ability to take everyday phrases and somehow twist them as he tells us "I’m a reasonable man / Get off my case".

Pyramid Song seems to have changed names more than Prince since its inception. It is was called Egyptian Song on the internet and during the recording of the two albums but I find the connection with the lyrics baffling. It begins with Thom, a piano and haunting strings. If anyone has heard the b-side How I Made My Millions or the UNCLE collaboratio
n, Rabbit In Your Headlights the sound is similar. The offset beat shows superb invention on the band’s part. The lyrics are the most beautiful Thom has penned in my opinion. "And we all went to heaven in a little row boat / There was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt". Jonnie Greenwood's string arrangement is beautiful.

Pulk / Pull Revolving Doors brings will bring back the cries of Aphex Twin aping. This track sounds like it could have been on Kid A, especially with vocals very similar to that of the title track on Kid A itself. This is probably the most ambitious song the band have done to date and I would love to hear a dance remix made of it. The lyrics seem to be about the function of doors, possibly inspired by the rationality of Ronseal ads…or possibly not.

You And Whose Army gets a personal update, because after two months I really love the song. Once the piano and more guitars kick in it turns into R.E.M. with a darker side. This is definitely the darkest song on the album and a thinly veiled attack on President Blair ("You and your cronies"). Thom spits out the words in spite.

I might Be Wrong also has guitars; it’s a bit like The National Anthem, except a little less frantic. The cut-and-paste sound of the drums really makes the track sound very dark and strange. It’s reminds me of sort of faster version of My Iron Lung for some reason too. Thom also sheds light on the accusations that the band are depressing by admitting "I used to think / There is no future left at all". I would love this to be a single, just to see how the consumers would deal with something as complex as this. The outro is also a welcome addition.

I believe that Knives Out is possibly a future single and there is little surprise in this as it is easily the most commercial and least complex track on either of the albums. This song could even have fitted onto OK Computer, but the lyrics
are even more interesting for this. "I want you to know / He's not coming back / Look into my eyes / I’m not coming back". I could be reading far too much into this but it almost seems like a warning to those who think that this track signals a return to the rock band that Radiohead were. But Radiohead have progressed on from that stagnant arena, almost certainly for good and the fact that this song is probably better than every single song on OK Computer is very telling indeed.

Morning Bell Amnesiac will start much debate in music circles. Is it better than the original version? Why did they do two versions at all? Does it show a lack of invention? In order I have to say "yes", "because they sound very different" and "no". The fact that they could turn the disjointedness of the original into this MPS sound-a-like shows real invention. It almost has an easy-listening vibe to it. "A funeral march for / agony's last edge", a lyric from another band might be the best way to describe it.

If you have the Kid A style Winamp you will have a live version of Dollars And Cents from the show in Paris and this version isn’t dissimilar. In fact, unlike the early live versions of Kid A songs, the live versions of Amnesiac tracks are very true to the album sound. The refrain "Won’t you quiet down" gets very haunting and has real passion and frustration bursting from it. It reminds me a lot of the OK Computer track Climbing Up The Walls, with that nightmare feel enhanced by the synth strings.

Hunting Bears is an instrumental but is nothing like Treefingers, its Kid A counterpart. The only similarity is that it’s a bit pointless and pretentious. (Radiohead! Pretentious?) If there is one criticism of this album it is that we have no need to hear Thom fiddle with his guitar. It is quite a nice wee track, but could do with being stuck on at the end.

To st
retch my terrible Ronseal joke even further past the boundaries of being at all funny, Like Spinning Plates does exactly what it says on the tin. This track is very strange indeed. It ripples like an eel and how they recorded it I haven’t a clue (actually they reversed another song they were working on, so I do know really). But it is a very intriguing track and the music is wonderfully evocative of 1980s computer games for some reason. According to the website Followmearound.com Thom sings "I'm living in a cuckoo land / And this just feels like spinning plates", but how they figured that out I haven’t the faintest idea.

"Coming up tonight on Jazz Club, we have Oxford’s finest indie-jazzaphonic rock band, The Radioheadz with a little number they’ve titled Life in A Glass House…nice". This is a cool, jazzy little ditty and it is a quite fantastic end to the album. It doesn’t have the beauty of Street Spirit (Fade Out) or the purity of Motion Picture Soundtrack, but has it's own appeal. I first became aware of this track when the NME followed the band in Italy on the OK Computer tour. It makes a brief appearance in the tour film Meeting People Is Easy. Humphrey Lyttleton (waddayamean you don’t know who he is?) does the trumpet on this track. The lyrics are quite strange too: "Well of course I'd like to sit around and chat / Well of course I'd like to stay and chew the fat". Whether this is a reference to Greg Hempel, Glasgow University Rector is highly debatable. But if this song was to appear on a crappy BBC 1930s costume drama, it wouldn’t seem out of place, except for the fact that it would be by far the best thing on the show.

A word on the sleeve (something I couldn't have written about with my Napster copy in hand). If you're a big Radiohead fan, pay the couple of quid extra for the novelty 'limited (i.e. probably limited to 500,000) edit
ion of the album. It's the actual book that is shown on the cover of the normal version and has a library card on the inside. The artwork is fascinating and includes snipets of typed lyrics from the album as well as other assorted words. It's got even more novelty value than the Kid A secret booklet. But like I say, if you're not a big fan, it's not worth the extra dosh, because you'll look at it a couple of times and then never again just like any other record sleeve.

And that, my friends, is my review of Amnesiac, more positive than William Hague’s real beliefs on winning the election. But unlike Hague, this is actually a real classic victory for Radiohead. Not only have they succeeded in isolating the Hear’say loving masses but they haven’t made an awful record in the process. In fact, if we ignore the pointlessness of Hunting Bears (which actually has it’s own individual charm anyway) it could even be argued to be their finest work to date. Many others will completely disagree with me on this but it’s my two cents into the bargain anyway. You may be wondering where I got this album so early. Obviously it was Napster...but I bought it in the shops on Friday anyway.

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