Customer Reviews

Amnesiac (Vinyl)

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I like to think of myself as a pretty forgiving music fan-and a big Radiohead fan at that-but this sounds more like crap that should have been left on the cutting room floor. I quite liked 'Kid A' and it grew on me. But here I find only one or two (ahem...) 'songs' in any resonable sense of the word. The rest is just bizarre but apparently it needs to be said again: just because it's strange or different doesn't make it good! I'm all for moving forward, but if this is some sort of improvement in their musical progression I'm not seeing it.

'Pyramid Song' is great and one or two others. The rest is a major let down. Knowing Radiohead's supposed hatred of mass marketing and publicity, I would not put it past them to continue to release stuff like this just to see how long it takes for people to really criticize them. They've been media darlings since 97, but if they continue on this course they will destroy any fanbase they once had. People will just go back to playing the last 3 albums instead of bothering to buy the new stuff. If they don't do something better next time they're gonna lose my interest...

...Why oh Why did Radiohead have to put this out. I thought they could do no wrong, and they [messed] up and so very badly. While Kid A was IDM-lite, it had its charms and its masterpieces, like The National Anthem. Amnesiac is horrid, its so half-assed, that any Warp alum could duplicate it with minimal effort. "But its got layers dude, that you haven't explored," the hell with that. This album is twaddle, that goes nowhere and right when a song is about to get interesting it stops, so yes I would classify this as self-indulgent nonsense that deserves to be thrown away with the rest of the trash.

Radiohead obviously musically influenced by Pink Floyd from back in the day definetly has a knack for creative artistry. Here are the songs I liked off this CD

1.Pyramid Song: Love,love,love Thom Yorke's vocal on this song...it is hauntingly beautiful. One of the most recognizable voices in Brit Rock I think. This song is on one of my favorite playlists still and I think reaches an emotional chord with most Radiohead fans.

2.Pulk/Pull Revolving Door: Somehow I love the strange fragmented instrumentational arrangement of this song. Very creative. I think it should have been put on OK Computer as it has a robotic sound to the vocal delivery (more like words spoken) in this song. They definetly are experimenting with different instruments, sound engineering and avante garde vocal techniques. I have it on one of my playlists simply because of it's unique construction which definetly gets people talking when they hear it! You should have seen my cat's reaction when I played this one! Ha! Ha!

3.You & Who's Army: One of Radiohead's most remembered & reverred songs. There have been others that have done this song but none like Radiohead. The vocal is so mesmerizing and sung with such clarity. I like the addition of the bass in this song.

4.I Might Be Wrong: Wicked, wicked guitar work in this song and drumming! So sets the tone for the interesting vocals on this one. Softly directed; then love the way he draws out a couple of the words to make it even more poignant for the listener. This song is so good (and on my favorite playlist) oddly enough I could have seen this song on their CD "The Bends" which I still consider their best CD. Love the ending of this song, the change up is so cool and his voice is just sublime!

5.Knives Out: Guitar work is good & I love hearing the cymbols on it repetively. This is a teenage angst song for sure...better to sing it out than act it out right? Ha! Ha!

6.Morning Bell/Amnesiac: Another cool song.....what a beautiful use of his falsetto vocal ability in bit's & pieces that are lovely! I really like the instrumental arrangement of this song. Some strange lyrics that Radiohead is known to do. Sometimes I thought that was Radiohead's weakness but I think over time I found it to be a creative element because of their unpredictability whether intentional or not.

7.Hunting Bears: OMG>>>>>doesn't everyone just love the electric guitar riff on this...right down to hearing him change frets! So makes this song more intimate in nature. Plus I love it when they throw in a total instrumental just to keep us off guard! I like whatever instrument they used (maybe a washboard) that gave the effect of waves or surf splash.

8.Life In A Glass House: Liked the trumpet in this song...so well done. This vocal gave a darkness to it...seemed like a piece to hear in a "Dick Tracy" film...or a song you'd hear behind a funeral procession in New Orleans.

These are the songs that stood out to me from this CD. Some of which are on various playlists I have. Check it out if your into listening to something creatively unique!

There seem to be various and sundry reviews about Amnesiac: those that claim it to be the most astounding example of Radiohead's brilliance, and those that were less impressed by the collage of texture it presents. So, I offer more noise to the already confused clamor by examining the points of contention.
Well, I don't really see Amnesiac as a sequel to Kid A, but the two albums are obviously linked (hence, the revisted 'Morning Bell' as title cut). Many of the songs, such as 'I Might Be Wrong' and 'Knives Out,' first appeared during the Kid A tour and were probably penned around that album's production. Apples from the same tree, you could say.
While Kid A was a cohesive whole where each song led into the other, Amnesiac is more a complilation as each song exists in independent musical space. The crunchy bass textures of 'Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors' provides a claustrophobic backdrop to the processed vocals, while the thick piano chords of 'Pyramid Song' are adrift on ambient synth swoops and orchestral strings. 'Life in a Glasshouse' takes a trip to the swing era with a horn section, while 'Like Spinning Plates' plays the background backward while Yorke sing the melody foward but makes it sound backward with phrasing (confused yet?). One thing is for sure: there's a lot going on in every track!
I think Radiohead was trying to expand their creative boundaries here (if they have any :) by trying different approaches and techniques. The focus seems to be on the production methods and sound textures, as if they wanted to see what they could come up with. As a result, some songs are great (like 'Knives Out,' one of their most straight-foward melodies highlighted by clear arpeggios) and others fall short (like 'Hunting Bears,' a guitar instrumental which is just kind of "there," although it's very similar to the melody of 'I Might Be Wrong,' so maybe I'm missing the point).
All that being said, Amnesiac is a good CD that any Radiohead fan or fan of avant rock will want to pick up, and most will find it a satisfying 45 minutes; however, if you're looking for the conceptual and thematic sweep of OK Computer or Kid A, I'm afraid you won't find it.

I would agree with some others that "Amnesiac" is not as good Kid A. It's slightly below the level of the other records Radiohead has releasted in the past half decade. However, even if it's a lessor effort, it is still a very good album. As a whole, the album isn't as strong or profound as their other works, but it does have a few individual sounds that are quite amazing.

Rathern than go into a long-winded review of the album, and analyze every aspect of the album, I'll leave that to the other reviews here.

However, I must take the opportunity to defend the track "Hunting Bears." Reading many of these reviews, most of them unfairly criticize this song, condemning it as mere "filler" and "a boring two-minute repetitive guitar bit." It's much more than that. Yes, it's just an instrumental, it's bascially two minute-long guitar bits played back to back--what's wrong with that? I find it altogether enigmatic, atmospheric, and tranquil. I also like how they throw in a soft whooshing sound in the background to support the guitar.

There is also a short instrumental on Kid A, "Treefingers." That song is also often unfairly dismissed. Both "Treefingers" and "Hunting Bears" are astounding, trance-inducing instrumentals that hit inner strings inside me that few other songs can.

If you like Radiohead you will appreciatte this CD. There are quite a number of good songs on this album. Pact like Sardines.., Pyramid Song, You and whose Army, Knives Out, and Like Spinning Plates. However, it is not another OK Computer or Kid A. It lacks the composition of the latter and the track sequence is confusing at times. It is deffinetly worth the money you will spend on it though, but not recommended for new listeners.

Critics and fans alike haunt AMNESIAC, Radiohead's 2001 album, with accusations this record is little more than a KID B. Indeed, much of the controversy surrounding this album has to do with complex issues of album vs. single, and Radiohead's self-important reputation. It is rather funny how the actual music can get lost in all the shuffle.

In the early 1960s, rock music was a singles market, and people didn't think of albums as a piece of art. Through seminal releases from artists such as Dylan, The Beatles, The Who, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin and so on, albums became important mediums of art. Radiohead, with their three very self-contained albums (THE BENDS, OK COMPUTER, and KID A) fell in with this tradition.

When 2001 came around, Radiohead and their record company began promoting AMNESIAC as a whole new album, and all the heavy conceptual ideals that a new Radiohead album entails went along with this announcement. They also said that AMNESIAC would be the 'real' sequel to OK COMPUTER, and there would be more guitars this time around. What did they give us? An album that doesn't sound much different than KID A, though a little more conventional and streamlined than its predecessor. Because KID A was designed to be a radical album, some of the simpler and more conventional tracks were left off it. Where did they go?

Why, AMNESIAC. And when AMNESIAC hit the market, people were more puzzled than they were with KID A, because they had been explicitly promised a return to the more guitar oriented sound of their pre-millennial work. Not only that, AMNESIAC was promoted very heavily an actual album, not as an outtakes album that got slapped together from KID A's cutting room floor. The band wanted AMNESIAC to be treated as a regular release, and it simply isn't. Every record, sans AMNESIAC, operates as a complete reappraisal and an evolution of where Radiohead has been and where they are going. Their projects are very well differentiated. PABLO HONEY and its B-sides are very different than THE BENDS and its B-SIDES. The same goes for OK COMPUTER and its B-Sides. KID A continues this pattern of artistic reinvention on Radiohead's part for every new album. But not so with AMNESIAC. AMNESIAC sounds like just what it is - songs cut during the KID A session but not released on that album.

Putting all this aside, the actual music of AMNESIAC is just as good, though a little more streamlined and simpler (which is not a bad thing, don't get me wrong), than the music found on KID A. As it is, AMNESIAC as more misfires than KID A does. I don't care much for the dead weight instrumental "Treefingers," which I think breaks KID A's momentum, and "Motion Picture" is a decent track, it never really has done much for me. AMNESIAC, on the other hand, has the "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors," "Morning Bell/Amnesiac," the reptitive "Like Spinning Plates," and the slight should-have-been-a-b-side-instrumental "Hunting Bears." Why have two versions of "Morning Bell"? "Morning Bell" is one of the closing highlights of KID A, but we didn't need this one. Especially when you look at the B-Sides that were left off AMNESIAC, which would have made it just strong as KID A. The rest of the songs on AMNESIAC as just as good as KID A, and had these two records been consolidated into one album, we would have a much more balanced piece of work with the more experimental songs and the more conventional songs playing side-by-side..

All of these factors lead up both critics and fans slighting this album and calling it little more than a clone of KID A, which is ironic because KID A is named after the first human clone. But I digress. Because of the aforementioned politics, people's perception of AMNESIAC is shaped by the band, by rock history, and by the explicit promised made to them by the record company. People approach this record not as a self-contained unit, but the second part of KID A. And in truth, they are right. This is the second part of KID A.

In my opinion, which doesn't count for much, instead of releasing two albums and adding all this confusion to people's minds, they should have either opted for a longer single album and left the rest for B-sides, or they should have released a double album and incorporated AMNESIAC's B-sides into the running order. There's enough strong material here between KID A and AMNESIAC and the assorted B-Sides ("Cuttooth," "Fog," "Kinetic," and "Worrywort" especially) for a first-class single album. The best moments of these sessions rival Radiohead's best work, though perhaps this material cannot reach the grandiose claustrophobia and suffocating world view of OK COMPUTER.

I personally would prefer to have seen them release this as a double album. While some of the material is not strong enough to merit inclusion, had the full two hours (counting the b-sides) of these sessions been officially released as a double LP we would have had a grand, new entry into the dizzying world of indulgent records. On double LPs, even the misfires are welcome, because they add to the character and intent of the band in the creative throes of crafting new music. George Martin was right when he said THE WHITE ALBUM should have been condensed into a single album. It would have been a stronger album. But it's that wild, messy, chaotic, scattershot effect that makes THE WHITE ALBUM such an effective and gripping listen. The same would be true of Radiohead's double album.

P. S. Here's a list of AMNESIAC's B-Sides. KID A had no singles or tour so it doesn't have B-Sides. The ones with astericks (*) should have been on either album, especially Cuttooth.

1. Kinetic*
2. Trans-Atlantic Drawl
3. Fast Track (instrumental).
4. Amazing Sounds
5. Cuttooth*
6. Fog.*
7. Worrywort*
8. Life in a Glass House (Full version) (longer)

I started this review 3 times, and erased it every time. It's hard to explain something like Amnesiac without people actually hearing the album all the way through. (If you can, sometimes it's difficult.)

Most people hate this album and think it's garbage. Sure, it WAS on the cutting room floor of Radiohead's studio, but thats the beauty of it. They cut out most of the angrier songs of Kid A.

Think of this album as you looking down on something or someone with pure disgust. Making you want to spit on that person or object. Wait, don't. Listen for yourself and create your own image of what the album means.

I have this feeling that this album will someday have the same social identity as The Catcher in the Rye. Someone's going to kill someone else and their going to say that Radiohead's Amnesiac inspired them.

As the band says, "Kid A is like watching a fire from afar, Amnesiac is like being in that fire yourself." Or something to that effect.

5 stars.

Corey.

I think Capitol shorted themselves (and us) on this. For my ears, I really don't think they remastered this for vinyl. They simply took the compact disk mix and pressed it on wax. It's pretty pathetic when a company advertises something special and then fails at the most important point.

The sound is much the same as the digital version, plus the added noise of pops and click (and possible dullness) that comes with wax. On a good vinyl master there is a good deal more detail; with a noise floor that lets your ears peruse into the murky fuzz that only clouds an even higher resolution.

But on this pressing what you have is that murky fuzz minimally clouding off what you can already hear clearly on the digital version. For those of us that like the sound of vinyl, we can be somewhat happy. But for those of you that like respectable sound quality in regards to what is advertised... don't buy this.

I'm really quite disappointed in this, as I would love a proper pressing of this album along with KidA.

Radiohead have pretty much run the gamut of rock music (from alternative to uncategorizable), and nearly all of their albums have been fantastic. Following the unsettling and fascinating sonic landscape of OK Computer (my favorite description of it was that it "sounds like what the future will look like" or something to that effect), the band emerged with the bizarre Kid A, which has its great and not-so-great moments. Amnesiac was released shortly thereafter, with what appeared to be much less fanfare- and thus far less subsequent attention. However, it is the one Radiohead album I return to more than any other...even though I enjoy HTTT very much (and feel that it was their most cohesive record since OKC), both it and In Rainbows, as lovely as it is, do not match the spirit that lies within Amnesiac. At times sparse, at others emotionally complex, the songs that comprise this album are truly distinct and carry a weight which transcends melody or lyrics; they seem to have an urgency and depth about them, a sense of impending...well, inevitabllity- as though events are transpiring rapidly or coming up from all sides (both within and without) and we must navigate them with care lest we become caught within the labyrinth (as some of the artwork also seems to suggest). With the much-heralded release of IR, and the well-deserved accolades of OKC, Amnesiac should not be overlooked or dismissed as merely the happenstance sibling of Kid A, but observed perhaps as an artifact of some of our innermost (labyrinthine?) desires and often unspoken concerns...and cherished as such.