Eddy never really dived fully into the Radiohead waters after being left slightly underwhelmed by the fabled Ok Computer album which unfortunately heralded in a personal moratorium on most of the band's subsequent output. However after catching footage of the band's groundbreaking Glastonbury set last year Eddy had to concede that his indifference had been proved both premature and over extended. In particular the twin follow ups to Ok Computer - Kid A and Amnesiac - represented both innovative and surprising developments in not only the specific Radiohead sound but in rock music generally.
Here guest reviewer Raphael Gouin Loubert plugs that important gap in Eddy's listening and revisits the second of these albums with a piece by piece critique of Amnesiac.
Radiohead would never plunge as deeply into electronic music again.
The follow up to the album of the decade Kid A (2000), Radiohead's Amnesiac was in fact recorded at the same time but not released until June 2001. With its eerie guitar and deep bass sounds the album has a dark soundscape and heavy atmosphere making it one of Radiohead's most powerful statements.
Packt Like Sardines In A Crshd Tin Box (spells this way)
Heavy bass, Can like electronic beats, and omnipresent guitar feedback define the album opener.
Pyramid Song
This is a beautiful piano piece with, again, lots of feedback and out of this world sounds near the half way point. Guitarist Johnny Greenwood uses a violin bow in this song in live performances.
Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors
My favourite of the album and one of my favourite all time Radiohead songs with huge amounts of bass and electronic sounds. Thom Yorke’s vocoded voice speaks of different kinds of doors as a metaphor for the state of mind. This complex song was probably too hard to reproduce on stage and has never been played live.
You And Whose Army?
A slow and soft song with a nice chord progression. The piano half way through adds a lot of emotion to the song. It is perhaps the closest the band, and especially singer Thom Yorke, come to sounding like their OK Computer days.
I Might Be Wrong
This one is a dark but beautiful song, with Thom Yorke’s distant vocals and repetitive distorted guitar and bass rhythms. Simple but efficient.
Knives Out
A catchy rhythm with intriguing guitar but not the most memorable song. The track lacks a little something, which is why this is probably the weakest song of the album.
Morning Bell/Amnesiac
A slower version of Morning Bell from the Kid A album. This song references materialism and divorce, with the powerful lyrical ending "cut the kids in half ".
Dollars and Cents
Again a repetitive modulated guitar rhythm but this time with some synthesizer and eerie electronic sounds. There is a nice crescendo near the end where the drums go a little wild, which adds intensity to the song.
Hunting Bears
This instrumental is a sort of continuity of I Might Be Wrong. It doesn’t add much to the album but still offers a nice conclusion to the previous song.
Like Spinning Plates
The soundscape of this song is amazing. Short but very deep lyrics on war and politics. Again, the band never played this electronic track live, but they did perform a piano version on the live album I Might Be Wrong. Another of my favourite songs from Radiohead.
Life In A Glass House
The conclusion of the album has a slow piano rhythm with a lot of, probably improvised, jazzy wind instrumentals, much like The National Anthem from Kid A. I think Like Spinning Plates would have been a better choice to close the album, but still a good song.
Overall, an excellent and timeless album, Radiohead really pushed the boundaries of rock/indie music at the beginning of the millennium. It sounds like it could have been composed yesterday, while it’s actually been 18 years since the release.
After Amnesiac, Radiohead never plunged as deeply into electronic music again as they did with this album and Kid A. Faithful only to themselves, these guys still impress to this day and are, for me, one of the greatest band alive!
Raphael Gouin Loubert
Our guest writer this week is Raphael. A huge fan of Krautrock and 60-70’s rock Raphael also enjoys more contemporary artists like Radiohead, Godspeed You Black Emperor, White Stripes, and Half Moon Run. He hangs out at the Krautrock Facebook Group and his reviews can be found on www.progarchives.com .