Radiohead - Amnesiac
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Free Music Notes for Amnesiac
Free Music Review: Haunting, mesmerizing, and always addictive.
Hit: 5 Stars
After a mere eight monthes, Amnesiac is finally released. It's easy to compare the album to Kid A in that the two albums were recorded in the same session. The main difference, however, between these two unbelievable albums is that Amnesiac is a whole lot more varied than Kid A. Kid A seemed to focus a lot more an electronica and subtle beats. That electronica is still present on Amnesiac, yet their are hints of jazz and (yes!) their old roots of rock."Packt Like Sardines in a Crushed Tin Box" opens the album with a beat that seems to be the calmer sibling of Idioteque. Yorke repeats "I'm a resonable man, get off my case" while idiosyncratic noises buzz throughout the song. One of my favorite noises is the maddening circus one.
"Pyramid Song" is a piano number filled with melancholy. It slowly crescendos into drums while Yorke pours his heart out.
"Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" is probably one of the most radical things Radiohead has ever done. In the same spirit of the title track of Kid A, in this song Yorke's voice is completely unintelligible.
"You and Whose Army" recalls the days of OK Computer. This time however, jazz is incorporated, and the results are beautiful as well as miserable.
"I Might be Wrong" is another step forward for Radiohead, with a delta-bluesish guitar playing in the background. The guitar is complemented with Yorke's blurred vocals. Fantastic track.
"Knives Out" is unbelievable. This one proves Radiohead has not completely shunned their instruments. The minor chord changes again bring back the days of OK Computer. One of my favorites.
If one track could be considered a little negligible on the album, its the "Morning Bell/ Amnesiac" track. Though the song is good, it pales in comparison to the Kid A "Morning Bell". Plus, I wish a new track replaced it, but this is Radiohead's vision, so I can't really tamper with it.
"Dollars and Cents" is another bass-geared track, with echoing drums and a majestic string arrangement. Yorke's repeating of the line "Why don't you quiet down..." really strikes a chord in the listener.
"Hunting Bears" has a somewhat Sgt. Pepperrs kind of guitar that just improvises for basically two minutes. Just like "Treefingers" was an ambient instrumental, "Hunting Bears" is a bluesy, rocking one.
"Like Spinning Plates" is exactly what its name implies. Yorke rambles the title with a swirling backwards-looping track.
"Life in a Glasshouse" is another bold new move for the band. More jazz is explored here, with a full guest jazz group on the track. Its very loose, very improvised, but that's what creates such a wonderful effect. Its a very solid closing number.
Amnesiac is an album that certainly grows on you. Why I think its better than Kid A is that explores a lot of new musical styles and genres. It's a fantastic album, and even though it was created in the same sessions as Kid A, somehow its another bold move for Radiohead.
Free Music Review: It Took me A While to fully get into This.....
Hit: 5 Stars
Amnesiac began life as an album born out of the "Kid A" sessions, whereby it was seemingly completed alongside those difficult sessions. And as Radiohead have always been a band that is Always looking to push the Boundaries of Experimentalism, Radiohead were faced with a tough decision for their creation of the albums born from these sessions: "Do they stick to the avant-garde emotive guitar-riffs that has characterised Radiohead throughout the 90's???" or "break away completely...from their established sound, and re-invented their music???"
Thus having decided to turn their backs on everyone's expectations and go with Re-inventing their music "Kid A" & "Amnesiac" were born.
More than anything else this an Electronic album....with the band having to "Re-Learn" how to play their instruments (or indeed, learn to play completely different instruments,)....whether it's the superbly disconcerting haunting beauty of "Pyramid Song", or the skittery styled almost drum N Bass of "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors", or how about taking Thom's vocal on "You and whose army?", electronically modifying it, and pushing it into a completely different direction, and pushing the instrumentation to the forefront, whereby the vocal is largely in the background. "I might be wrong" has the tension of something closer to the Alternative-rock sound that they originally started out as, in the bands early days. "Knives Out " is arguably the best known track on here, and a stable of the bands live performances, and most notably one of the more conventional sounding tracks on here, but strangely one of the most memorable, due to it's more accessible immediacy. Amnesiac is a album where the tone is set for morbid reflection, dredging up your deepest anxieties from where you thought they'd lain at peace, this is most definitely an album to doesn't initially pay off after the first listen...and requires multiple listen to enjoy it's intricacies, gradually unfolding and revelling previously unrecognised depth and subtleties. In fact there's a high chance that you'll be highly disappointed with it (unless you frequently listen to Electronica/IDM and are used to incredibly layered music, that unearths new sounds & instrumental sound on repeated listens)...but perseverance and a willingness to engage the music, will revel that with each listen generates something new, that was missed upon the first few listens, something gradually magical in it's structure, something resembling misinterpreted genius.....listen to the second track "Pyramid Song", a truly slight song, and poignant mood..that for me, makes not only one of the finest tracks on the album, but possibly one of my all-time favourite Radiohead songs. Amnesiac wont convince everyone of its merits, and some it find its glacial mood and brooding insular sounds distracting, and there will undoubtedly be those that find this all incredibly pretentious. But those willing to accept the bands shift away from their conventional rock-based sound, for this largely electronic direction, will find one of 2001's most astonishing releases.
Free Music Review: Misconceptions about Radiohead
Hit: 5 Stars
I recently watched Grant Gee's stunning experimental documentary about Radiohead entitled, "Meeting People Is Easy," which provides a fascinating glimpse of Thom Yorke as a musician (and I don't use this term lightly) desperately trying to cling to his very real notions of artistic integrity. Yorke is clearly a man who does not feel comfortable with all of the trappings of fame and who is tortured by the increasingly formidable barriers that his band's popularity has erected between himself and his vision of where Radiohead's music should go. Critics and fans like to easily categorize each of Radiohead's very distinct albums as merely being their attempt to throw people off and see what new things they can do as a band. However, Yorke himself has stated that their musical shifts have come more from a desperate need to keep the band together than from any whimsical desire to laugh in the face of expectations. What it comes down to is that Radiohead is a band that continues to make music because of their own essential need to do so, and not as some shallow, artificial reaction or answer to popular and critical success.
Amnesiac, the band's fifth album, is strewn with Yorke's increasingly numb, pained voice and ambiguous lyrics as he delves into issues such as midlife crisis (Packt like sardines in a crushd tin box), suicide (Pyramid song), divorce (Amnesiac/Morning bell), and avarice (Dollars & cents). As typical of Radiohead, they tackle these heady issues with raw emotional honesty, subtlety and grace, and in a very undidactic manner.
It is obvious to anyone who listens carefully to each of their five albums that Yorke's voice progressively changes with the sound of the band; the clarity of the lyrics and statements in Pablo Honey sound nothing like the barely coherent, faintly comprehensible crooning that we get in Amnesiac. In a recent interview, Yorke hinted that the changes in the band's music have been a reflection of his gradual disinterest in the sounds afforded by standard guitars and drums. Getting the rest of the band to agree to the new "electronic" direction that Radiohead has been taking was no small feat for Yorke, but once everything fell into place, the end result was nothing less than brilliance. Critical reviews of Kid A and Amnesiac have placed far too much emphasis on lyrics. Sure, Radiohead has something to say, but it is becoming more and more clear that they want to say it through their elaborately constructed soundscapes rather than through words. They are not content with simply telling a story; they want to create a whole new world, a world that their listeners can immerse themselves in and allow themselves to dissolve into. Indeed, as quite evident in Amnesiac, Yorke's voice has all but disintegrated into these vast and gloomy musical vistas; essentially, his voice has become another instrument -- another invention borne from the genius of Radiohead.
Free Music Review: Music with purpose
Hit: 5 Stars
I've always maintained that music is subjective, and there can be no absolute scale for rating it, as it will mean different things to different people. Having said that, I give my highest accolades to Amnesiac as I have with other Radiohead works. I will not attempt to "rate" the songs per se, but merely give a bit of objective info about them.The album kicks off with the unconventional "Packt..." which sees the vocalist insisting "Get off my case" through a catchy, percussive, organ backed dance beat. This flows into "Pyramid Song", the infamous odd-metered, piano driven opus which seems to have quite many references to ancient Egyptian culture (yes aside from the title). Then comes "Pull/Pulk Revolving Doors". The symbolic nature of doors is echoed through Thom's distorted, broken voice in this drum-dominated song. Next is "You and Whose Army", a song that starts with a slow, piano backed, sofly sung intro, but erupts as the full band/orchestra kicks in for a powerful ending. There is a reference to the Holy Roman Empire (as is there one on the packaging to the LE). Then comes "I Might Be Wrong", a somewhat conventional, guitar driven tune with a sinister undertone. "Knives Out" follows with undeniably Radiohead chord progressions voiced distinctly through acoustic and electric guitars. "Amnesiac/Morning Bell" is a completely redone version of the Kid A track. It has a much slower, less methodical, more sonically thick tone backed by warm organ tones. In "Dollars and Cents", a song that paints a bleak image of capitalism, the early rhythm is provided by the bass and a cowbell, but this song gradually builds and the drums come in near the end with Thom screaming "We are the dollars & cents and the Pounds and Pence". Next comes "Hunting Bears", the beginning of the end. This instrumental features a single harsh guitar riffed against a dissonant bass line. In "Like Spinning Plates", a sound blip sounding like a plate or disc spinning very fast plays in the background as Thom sings backwards at the beginning. More conventional instruments enter as he cries "And this just feels like spinning plates." To close is "Life in a Glass House" which has been heavily redone from earlier versions and turned into a tragic quasi-jazz number. This powerful piece features many wind instrumentalists, including a veteran jazz trumpeter. The chorus, in which Thom wails, "Well of course I'd like to sit around and chat... but someone's listening in" is packed with riffs from the various parts and the song ultimately ends on a sad tone.
If you're willing to put in a few listens on this album, you will find that it is some incredible music and will never leave your soul (not to mention CD wallet).
Free Music Review: Radiohead's seemingly endless talent carries on
Hit: 5 Stars
...In their 5th studio album, "Amnesiac". Some other reviewers have called it "leftovers from 'Kid A'. (Their 4th album, recorded at the same time. I disagree strongly - I thought this one was just as good, if not better than Kid A. It isn't a "Kid B", either - the songs get deeper and more complex in this album. It starts off with the electronic "Packt like sardines in a crushd tin box", which brings Autechre and Aphex Twin-like sounds to the plate. "Idioteque" on "Kid A" is very similar to this one. Next it moves on to the beautiful piano track "Pyramid Song", and the dirty beat-laden "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" which features Thom Yorke's altered voice to a mixture of dance (if you want to call it that) beats. Both of these have the same whistling, almost screechy sound at the end. "You and Whose Army?" is the first song with any hint of a guitar, and it starts as a slow taunt - then picks up. This is followed by "I might be wrong", which features a very catchy and funky guitar riff over a perfect drum beat. Next on the dinner table is "Knives Out", a song which hints at cannibalism. Don't worry, it is one of the better tracks. "Morning Bell/Amnesiac" is a slower version of Kid A's "Morning Bell". "Dollars & Cents" is a simply amazing song. "Hunting Bears" is a bunch of guitarry goodness. "Like Spinning Plates" is the most bizarre track on the album, with Yorke's backwards voice over a swishy sound - It's like spinning plates indeed. Last is the jazzy death march "Life in a Glasshouse", with roaring trumpet solos. Track by track review you say? Oh, you're a naughty one:Packt like sardines in a crushd tin box - Very catchy, and therefore very good. This one gets an A.
Pyramid Song - The most beautiful track on the album, but not the best. This gets an A, also.
Pull/Pulk Revolving Doors - The dirty beat throws off a lot of people, but I do like it. This gets a B+.
You and whose army? - Seems a little too slow, but improves just enough. This one gets an A-.
I might be wrong - Now, we could go for this! Gets an A+ in my book.
Knives Out - Sounds a lot like "Paranoid Android", but who am I to complain? An A for you, sir.
Morning Bell/Amnesiac - I didn't like this too much. C+
Dollars and Cents - Very cool. It gets a very cool rating too - An A+.
Hunting Bears - Not the worst track (I do not prefer Morning Bell/Amnesiac to this one), but it's just an instrumental, and nothing special. B-
Like Spinning Plates - VERY musical, VERY good. A+
Life in a Glasshouse - The jazzers wail in this one, amongst Yorke's wailing. It's great. A+
So, I enjoyed this album save for a few tracks. It's still a good Radiohead album, and I reccomend that you give it a try.