Radiohead - Amnesiac (Album Review)

 

Radiohead - Amnesiac

(2001)

My copy: 10” reissue by Parlophone.

After years of comfortable rock music, Radiohead began to vary their approach with Kid A: an album that sought to trade guitars for keyboards. While Kid A is a solid contender, it is clearly the more marketable material over Amnesiac, with flashier choruses and obvious riffs. Where Kid A basks in bright production and safer instrumentation, Amnesiac is stripped down to the marrow with darker vignettes that broadcast a side of Radiohead that should never quite resurfaced. 

Immediately Amnesiac steps off into the dark minimalist carnival ride of “Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box” which rejects the on the nose payoffs of its sibling opener “Everything In Its Right Place.” The music on Amnesiac churns and hums dissonance around more subtle vocal melodies, instantly distinguishing itself. “Pyramid Song” spotlights Thom Yorke’s voice with a piano ballad that expands into an orchestral movement from the underworld before dropping into the psychedelic electronica of “Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors”; typical vocals are rejected altogether here, allowing the programmed beat and ambiance to lead the dynamics of the track. 

With two of their best electronic songs behind us, “You And Whose Army” picks the guitar back up for another ballad: this time the payoff is more obvious and fit for a car commercial (though it is still more satisfying than most of their back catalog). The ambient melodies at the start of “I Might Be Wrong” would have made for a more interesting song then the repetitive classic rock riff that threatens to ruin the well-curated atmosphere of Yorke’s voice. Fortunately “Knives Out” is one of the band’s all time best rock songs; a gentle lullaby of guitar with haunting vocals and progressions that threaten to rip you out of a daydream. 

“Morning Bell/Amnesiac” re-works the song of the same title from Kid A. The Amnesiac version turns the song acoustic from electronic, and creates sharper juxtapositions between the minor and major chords. The Kid A version boasts it’s fun 5/4 drum pattern, but the Amnesiac rendition is more outwardly jolting and succinct, like a dark fairy tale. “Dollars And Cents” is subtle and bleak, making use of Orchestral instrumentation to dramaticize the pre-choruses. 

“Hunting Bears” is a paranoid interlude for guitar that precedes the malicious zen of “Like Spinning Plates” which engages in only one chorus before dissipating. The closer is “Life In A Glasshouse,” a jaunty piece of jazz fusion made compelling by Yorke’s distrustful crooning. What’s particularly odd is that Amnesiac has its own b-side collection, featuring some bonus tracks that eclipse a few standard album songs in quality (“Kinetic,” “Fast Track” etc.).

It feels as though Radiohead (or perhaps some force working at the behest of Radiohead) were too fearful to delve further into the unique sounds of Amnesiac, releasing the album almost strictly on the pretense that they were Kid A b-sides. Funny how the b-sides dwarf the core material in both composition and personality. Yes, Amnesiac is the best Radiohead album: for its evocative sense of mystery and desire to actually experiment. On how a milquetoast snore of an album like In Rainbows is viewed more positively than Amnesiac, the jury is still out.