Amnesiac - Radiohead > Reviews > In a world of its of own

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	Mixed
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money

Advantages:	Some instant classics that everyone can enjoy .
Disadvantages:	The second half of the album leaves much to be desired

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I'm a big believer in good production value. If the production suffers, the album suffers because of it. I'm also a big believer in effects, pedals and keyboards. Sometimes, a song needs that extra bit of trickery to make it brilliant. On the other hand, sometimes that extra bit of trickery is used to try and cover up a mediocre song that shouldn't really have been recorded in the first place.

Radiohead have been riding a tidal wave of grandeur since their experimental album Kid A topped the charts worldwide (and most important commercially - America). It seems you can't pick up a magazine without seeing lines like "Radiohead: Best band in the world". If you thought expectations for Kid A were high, get ready for Amnesiac, an album to be released less than a year after its predecessor (completely uncommon for modern rock artists), with the all-but-understood promise that things will sound a bit more normal - yes, a bit more like the rocking guitar driven Radiohead that we knew in ye olden days of The Bends and Ok Computer. Different members of the band have gone out and said that the album will sound a lot more like The Bends than anything else they've done recently. Well I happen to have Amnesiac in my possession, and let me tell you - they're lying.

How I got the album is simple, it seems that either the band itself or someone entrusted, posted it in MP3 form on the Internet. The rest is history, and here it sits in my CD player - spinning for the umpteenth time. I'm a very big Radiohead fan. I really wanted to like Amnesiac, and I do - to a point.

You see, this group that I love so much has done an incredible job of manipulating the press into jumping on their bandwagon. After a tumultuous three years of infighting, Radiohead decided they'd either break up or throw down conventional instruments and create something entirely new. With no singles, no videos and without concerts they perpetuated their own myth and saw their "experimental" album debut higher than any of their conventional albums ever had. They recorded all the tracks for both Kid A and Amnesiac at once, and decided to split them into two different albums - they insist that Amnesiac isn't a B-sides effort, but that's hard to believe since most of the material included is even stranger than what we heard on Kid A.

If you bought into the hype and plunked down hard earned cash for Kid A and wondered what the Hell you were listening to, Amnesiac is absolutely not for you. Taking many of the same themes from the previous effort - and relying mostly on effects and obtuse musical ideas, this album sounds more like Kid A's dirty old uncle - the one that everyone knows is related to you, you just wish they didn't.

Packt Like Sardines in a Crushed Tin Box kicks the album off in a big way. Synth dance beats and a heavy bass line make this a song that could do well both on the radio or in dance clubs across the world. Lead singer Thom Yorke chimes in with "After years of waiting / nothing came / I'm a reasonable man get off my case.", and you feel like he's talking directly to you - as if to say "you don't like it? Get off my case. This is my music."

When members of the band claimed Amnesiac was somewhat like The Bends, they hinted that there'd be a lot more organic music. This part is true, as piano drifts in from silence and a powerful tune called Pyramid Song unfolds. Lyrically, this tune is somewhat like the incredibly layered Nice Dream from The Bends. Angels, astral cars and lovers cover the canvas, and as Phil Selway's expertly understated drumming comes from nowhere you know you've found a keeper. Pyramid Song is supposed to be one of the first singles in Britain, but not the United States. I suppose Capitol Records doesn't think it will hold the attention of American listeners. Sadly, that may be true.

Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors starts out with an industrial beat that sounds like it belongs on the new Nine Inch Nails remix album. Yorke disguises his voice with layers of effects and gives us another monotone voice-over narrative imparting wisdom such as "There are doors that let you in / and out / but never open". The music is impressive, but Yorke's preoccupation with disguising his voice is getting a bit annoying.

There should be no argument that Yorke has an incredible God-given voice, but for "art's sake" he's gotten addicted to making it sound unnatural - computerized. This takes away from a song like Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors, a song that could have been incredible with a bit more work. The next song, You and Whose Army? is also plagued with intentionally lackluster vocals. Some simple guitar strumming, a dramatic breath, and then we get Yorke sounding like he's got a really stuffed up head - and a belly full of medication. Like an actor, he tries to get into his sedate role - but I can't help wondering how much better this song might've been with an all-out balls to the wall vocal performance. We experience a taste of that when the band kicks in near the end, and Yorke comes out of his shell and begins to shine.

Finally, after three years of waiting we get a catchy guitar lick from Ed O'Brien. I Might Be Wrong, which will undoubtedly be the first U.S. Single roars to life as a few spacey effects give way to a guitar and drum line that bring a thousand country rock anthems to mind. The lick is simple and repetitive, and it's everything Radiohead will need to sell this album to rock enthusiasts praying for a throwback to the group's old music. Yorke's vocals don't seem to matter much in all this reverie of guitar magic, but he lets a few good lines sway through the microphone. "I might be wrong / I could have sworn / I saw a light coming on…" "…I Used to think / There is no future left at all / I used to think…"

Radiohead is well known for their unnerving minor chords and off-putting notes. Knives Out (a song that is reputed to be about cannibalism) is yet another tune that will find its way onto the radio. Yorke disguised violent lyrics with a wistful earnestness, and the music itself admittedly sounds like something from Bends era Radiohead. "I want you to know / he's not coming back / he's bloated and frozen / still there's no point in letting it go to waste" "So knives out / cook him up / don't look down / shove it in your mouth". Next is a redone (albeit creepier) version of Morning Bell from Kid A. The song isn't improved upon and this perpetuates the feeling that Amnesiac is in fact a collection of B-Side material.

Dollars and Cents is intricate and impressive. Strings, a neat guitar and bass part - a very interesting drum pattern - this makes for an exciting song. Yorke's vocals once again sound inhibited though, and I'll just have to shake my head and move on. Hunting Bears is an elementary guitar instrumental exercise that does nothing to keep the flow of the album moving. You almost wonder if it's included solely to appease all the fans that have been begging for more guitars. On the other end of the spectrum, we get Like Spinning Plates, another tune that just doesn't feel right among these other good tunes. There's nothing revolutionary about playing your music backwards and creating loops from it. The song is promising until Yorke's voice is - you guessed it - backwards.

The album closer is called Life in a Glass House. It's jazzy - it's got that free form Charles Mingus feel that The National Anthem degenerated into on Kid A. Yorke's voice is clear for the first time, but it seems like he's intentionally trying not to sound that good. The lyrics delve into relationships and politics, two things that have been quite important to Yorke over the past few years. "Once again packed like frozen food and battery hens / think of all the starving millions / don't talk politics and don't throw stones / your royal highness".

I just can't shake the feeling that Amnesiac is made up of tunes that didn't make the cut for Kid A. I can't forgive Radiohead for making us chomp at the bit for tunes that sound more like their old work, and then delivering more of the same. I can't help but wonder what it would've been like if the first six tunes on Amnesiac had been included on Kid A, and the rest had been the B-sides of singles. What an incredible album that would have been.

Instead friends, we're given an album that is completely hit and miss. There are some instant classics on Amnesiac such as Packt Like Sardines in a Crushed Tin Box, Pyramid Song, You and Whose Army?, I Might Be Wrong and Knives Out. But there are too many tunes near the end that should've either been scrapped or released later on EP's or as B-Sides. As I've said, effects are great to enhance a song. But a song must be good to begin with before it can be enhanced.

When Amnesiac is finally released in June, it will be a real test of how long Radiohead's reputation and popularity can last. Hopefully, fans and music lovers alike will accept it as a nice little album - nothing too spectacular - and await their next offering. Some of these singles will be spectacular, and Radiohead fans get ready for some truly spellbinding tracks, just don't expect an album full of them.