Radiohead - Amnesiac
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Free Music Notes for Amnesiac
Free Music Review: I forgot music could be this good.
Hit: 5 Stars
As someone who hands out five star ratings too often (then again I usually only rate things I'm really excited about) I think giving this album five stars loses its weight. But after having the album before release, hearing them on tour playing many of the songs live, and listening to it constantly afterwards, I feel that the band is only getting better. Hearing them live and getting more and more familiar with the work has revealed the intricasies of the music more than I imagined. What astounds me the most is that Radiohead find ways to stylistically represent what they are playing/singing about. In "Pulk/Pull" Thom speaks of doors that you can't come back from and when he says "trap doors" it sounds like the floor gives way and you're falling into something, I don't know, something dark that you can't come back from. "You and Whose Army" is sung with an ironic soft and vulnerable voice. "Swinging Plates" (an intensely amazing track) sounds like things are spinning, forwards and backwards. "I Might be Wrong" stops abruptly towards the end, as though Thom Yorke is really wondering if he's wrong, then picks up, and sort of says either "no, I'm not wrong," or "I'm still thinking."Moreover, I like Amensiac's story/theme. Like OK Computer, and Kid A, Amnesiac follows a storyline, and the three have similarities and differences. Thom Yorke has said that "Packt Like Sardines" is about another car crash, which "Airbag" is about, and "Everything in its right place," like the other first tracks is about being disoriented. Track 2. Where Radiohead likes to place their thesis, I believe. Pablo Honey (Creep) The Bends (The Bends) OK Computer (Paranoid Android), Kid A (Kid A), and Amnesiac (Pyramid Song). It always sings of the overriding feeling of the album, and/or tries to be the most epic. Blah, blah, blah. I could go on forever, but that would be counterproductive, even fewer people would read it then. I'd like to say though that you should look for Yorke's obsession with death, (Morning (Mourning) Bell, Hunting Bears, You and Whose Army, Motion Picture Soundtrack, How to Disappear Completely, In Limbo, and his incredible use of irony and humor. His songs about birth or beginnings tend to be in the beginning of the albums. I'm a huge fan of this band. And I apparently enjoy overanalyzing things, (which creates, as you can imagine, nothing but bowls of cheerios in my life)but that's because their is so much in this music, and I love to think about how ingenius their composition is. I'm really glad they're around.
Free Music Review: Great record, even better live
Hit: 5 Stars
I'd like to start by saying this is now my favorite Radiohead album. That's a sincere, considered opinion; doesn't mean I'm a "lemming" with his head up his posterior.Everything works here, as a highly listenable (!), wonderfully flowing suite of songs. Yes, songs. Not random noises, or repetitive squeaks, these are songs through and through; structured, thoughtful, full of emotion. Give it a chance. If you're disappointed, give it another listen. Turn the lights out, and just let it flow. If you still don't like it, oh well. It's a shame it doesn't work for you.
Now, the real reason for this review is to say that I saw this band live this summer and my opinion of them has only soared. I've seen many bands, famous and not, over the last 20 years. I've racked my brain trying to remember a better concert, and I'm hard pressed.
The only ones that come close are Springsteen, who I saw in '81 and '84, and Neil Young and Crazy Horse ('91, '96), both of whom are rightly considered outstanding live performers even by some people who don't care for their music. REM on three occasions expertly showed me three different sides (punkers, artsies, and arena-rock gods), but they can't beat Radiohead for live thrills. Even Prince, who I saw give a great show just a couple of weeks before Radiohead, was a letdown by comparison. Many lesser acts have thrilled me and sent me home very happy; not one of them can touch Radiohead. (Though of course there are many acts I'd love to see but haven't.)
The reason I make these comparisons is this: in the summer of 2001, Radiohead puts on a show that seamlessly incorporates material from the last four albums. The new songs don't seem out of place at all next to songs from OK Computer or the Bends. (Which makes sense, considering that many of the "new" songs were written some time ago and only recently recorded.) Songs that you'd think simply wouldn't work live, like Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors, become exhilerating, larger-than-life pieces. Radiohead, wonderful though the records are, prove themselves made for a huge live sound.
The live show makes it plain, if there was any doubt, that Amnesiac and Kid A are not mere diversions or experiments. They are Radiohead through and through, just as much as the other three albums.
What's truly remarkable is that this is serious music from thoughtful, highly trained musicians...and it still rocks.
I'm sorry if you don't like it. In my opinion, you're missing out on something truly great. If your disappointment with this album led you to take a pass on seeing them live, then you've missed something very special.
Free Music Review: a mind warp of greatness
Hit: 5 Stars
To really be a skeptic of radio head they first have to put out bad music, but since they never really have, then there shouldn't be any haters to "Amnesiac", the similar sounding follow up to "Kid A".
It'd almost make sense to package both the albums together as I believe most of the songs were written around the same time and knowing "Amnesiac" was released just a year after "Kid A", but this is what we got.
"Packt Like Sardines in a Tin Can" gives you the image that someone really is in a sardine can w/ the pulsating popping of metal and that reverberating beat box and synthesizer. A nice beginning to the album.
I'd put "Pyramid Song" as one of the best songs on the album with the non-rock, non-guitar, but haunting ehcos, forceful piano/keyboards and Thom's soothing vocals puts you in a trance unlike no other.
Perhaps a nuisance rather than a song comes with "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors". Entirely electronics of syblimanal messages relives something of "Fitter Happier" on LSD in a long 4min adventure.
Meloncholy "You and Whose Army" brings us a taste for "Hail to the Thief" for its rich and lush vocals and tropical soft riffs with a jazzy flare of drums and piano."
Guitar roots still found in "I Might Be Wrong." Memories of "The Bends" but with a trippy beat.
"Knives Out", another single I believe, is my favorite song with a gutsy wave of acoustic guitar and some great electric and bass guitars. Matched by some great sounding vocals.
"Morning Bell/Amnesiac" is slower, more forceful, and tripier than that on "Kid A". This version in my opinion is not better, and perhaps could be left off, but still nice to hear another version.
Another great is "Dollars and Cents" which is my 2nd fav. The pace is somewhat moderate, with a sort of string/synthesizer, bass guitar, and drum mix plays nicely to the tempo.
2minutes of a Hindrix type guitar and soft keyboards comes with "Hunting Bears" with no vocals. A great song to think to if nothing else.
"Like Spinning Plates" starts like some spacey alien abuduction reverb sound wigh Thom finally settling down some studio mixed vocals almost halfway in the song. Not bad though.
Finishing with "Life in a Glass House" pleases your earlobes w/ some a great jazzy blues song of horns, woodwinds, drums, and piano that only radiohead could pull off.
Slightly less in quality of songs compared to "Kid A" and not commercially successful as "OK Computer" but still a great lineup of genuinely unique songs.
Free Music Review: Probably the most Underrated Radiohead album
Hit: 5 Stars
I have a hard time creating an ordered "best album" list for Radiohead. Practically everything they've done (minus Pablo Honey) is absolutely brilliant, and Amnesiac is right up there with Kid A and OK Computer. I don't agree with the appraisals that call it expiramental or challenging in comparison to Kid A. Then again, I wouldn't think of either album as being particularly "difficult" to get. Perhaps the most elusive aspect of Amnesiac is due to the wide variety of musical styles it tackles (all the while retaining the band's signature and unique sound).
On the contrary, I find it difficult to understand how songs like "Life in a Glass House" and "You and Whose Army?" could fail to immediately grab the listener. They're infectiously evocative and beautiful. The single "Pyramid Song" is one of the most visual and atmospheric songs I've ever heard. True, there is a harshness and an intentionally cold/lonely sound to some of the songs, but Amnesiac also features some of the band's most tongue-in-cheek tracks; such as the driving and quirky "Pakt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box."
This album is also possibly their greatest achievment electronically. "Pulk Pull Revolving Doors" may not be radio friendly, but it's a brilliantly atmospheric and harsh instrumental (almost IDM) track; paying a somewhat large tribute to Tri Repatae era Autechre. "Like Spinning Plates" may also not fit so well into a radio playlist, but it's blatantly pretty and moody in a way that fits perfectly into the album. The guitar atmosphere of "Hunting Bears" may not blow you out of your seat, but it's a short and essential movement in the album.
There are a few low points on the album for me, but that would only be from the context in which they were framed. In particular, I thought "Knives Out" and "Dollars and Cents" are fairly unremarkable by comparison. It could almost be said that Amnesiac does not have the same epic cohesiveness of Kid A, but I don't think that matters. It may be a companion piece of sorts, but it's more of a standard "collection of songs" album, while Kid A could almost be seen as a story or fully symphony. This is not to say that the album is disjointed or meandering in any way, I just think it needs to be understood differently when it is viewed as a complete album.
In the end, Amnesiac is an amazing album, and I think that the future of music owes more to it's brilliance than people realize. This should be understood as a seminal album by what is probably the greatest band out there today, and to overlook it would be a grave mistake.
Free Music Review: Kid A(mnesiac) ---> Amnesiac
Hit: 5 Stars
It is widely known that Amnesiac and Kid A are products of the same recording sessions, and that they may have been considered material for a double album. However, Amnesiac is a distinct and interesting album, and is not a remake of Kid A. The basic effect on Kid A is one of confusion, isolation, and dispair, whereas the crisp Amnesiac feels more like an exercise in self-awareness, a witness to one's complicated, yet integral position in the universe. Kid A is a newborn, or a fetus, locked in an oblivious alternate world. Amnesiac is a toddler, running around and dreaming about the future. (Kid A = Kid Amnesiac? Could it be a prototype for the real thing?) It is much more comfortable with the concept of reality than Kid A. When does Thom's voice finally appear in Kid A? It is compromised in both "Everything in its Right Place" and "Kid A." It is wet with effects in "The National Anthem." It seems to show itself in "How to Disappear Completely," but it is struggling with its position in the spotlight. It then "disappears completely" in "Treefingers," and then finally begins to make its mark in "Optimistic." In Amnesiac, it comes through with bravado in "Pyramid Song," and is much more forceful in general throughout the album. This demonstrates a higher level of courage than in Kid A, as well as a certain tolerance for one's own humanity. The music in general is more humanified than in Kid A, with more live instruments and a bit less electronics.
Structurally, I don't like Amnesiac as much as Kid A or OK Computer. There are great songs on this album, but they don't tie together quite as well as on previous efforts. I think OK Computer and Kid A are so strong thematically that there is an aesthetic consistency that binds it all together. There is certainly some of that on Amnesiac, but it is not as prevelant.
Amnesiac is probably the least revolutionary of the last four albums, in the world of Radiohead. Certainly it would be considered iconoclastic in the music world at large, but the change from Kid A to Amnesiac is the slightest since at least the Bends. (This probably has something to do with why people have criticized Amnesiac for being too much like Kid A.) Still, it is a valiant effort, and an album that belongs in every intellegent listener's collection. The next album, if it ever happens, is going to arrive amid great anticipation. Will it live up to the hype? Can they reinvent music yet again?