I hate that amazon hounds you until you review your purchase. How hard is a CD transaction?

Radiohead
Amnesiac; 2001
Capitol Records

My Rating: 61/100

Radiohead's own ZOOROPA...

Here we have Radiohead's own ZOOROPA, wherein the band has already changed the game and convinced millions that they will, in fact, love the left turn that the band has taken. So where to next? More of the same with a few twists. And while AMNESIAC is not a bad record, it's not a great one either. I'll dispense with my gripes first. "Amnesiac/Morning Bell" is unnecessary. The b-sides associated with the album prove that the band had plenty more tricks up its sleeve, and "Fog" or even the as-yet-unreleased "Follow Me Around," might have fit nicely in its place. Also, "Hunting Bears" feels like a throwaway, experimental to a pretentious extreme. Lastly, the production on some tracks is a bit too muffled, although I suppose this was somewhat intentional, given the extreme claustrophobia that forms the thematic center of this record. So now that I've got that out of my system, let's talk about what's good and even great. Good: the straightforward "Knives Out", the darkly hilarious "Packt", the twisted Dixieland jazz on "Life in a Glass House." Great: the lucid dreamscapes of "Pyramid Song" (a definite career highlight), the hardcore electronica of "Pulk", the avant-psalm "Like Spinning Plates." Although AMNESIAC isn't Radiohead's best album by any means, it nonetheless makes for a fantastic experience every once in a while. Recommended for any and all fans of experimental sounds, and, for that matter, Radiohead.

Cohesion (4.5/5)
Concept (4/5)
Consequence (4/5)
Consistency (3/5)

Tracks:

1. Packt like sardines in a crushed tin box (4/5)
2. Pyramid Song (5/5)
3. Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors (5/5)
4. You and Whose Army (3.5/5)
5. I Might Be Wrong (4/5)
6. Knives Out (4/5)
7. Amnesiac/Morning Bell (2.5/5)
8. Dollars & Cents (4/5)
9. Hunting Bears (2/5)
10. Like Spinning Plates (5/5)
11. Life in a Glass House (4/5)

This album was made for the die-hard fans of Radiohead... very creative, original and well-made...

Amnesiac's limited Red Library Book edition is a treat. Larger prints of the fantastic artwork, with more pages not to be found elsewhere make this worth spending the extra money if you like unique and collectable packages as I do.
When I bought Kid A in the winter of 2000, I was curious as to where this band would choose to go afterward; Radiohead has shown more maturity and creative bravery with every release, and it would be difficult for a band to keep a fanbase that expects regurgitation of familiar formulas. It would also be difficult to recruit more musically diverse and critical fans that may dismiss Radiohead as a Brit-grunge rock band that just released Kid A as a one-time indulgence, soon to return to regurgitating familiar formulas. Amnesiac was a very wise choice - rather than releasing an EP and a series of single/B-sides, they chose to let these songs breathe on a release that, though recorded in the same sessions as Kid A and "related" to those songs, stands very much on it's own artistic merit. Though I am not a fan of anything Radiohead did afterward, Amnesiac is really a great and logical transition between Kid A and where they went with Hail to the Thief. It absolutely stands alone from Kid A but is respectfully symbiotic to it.

i mean, if you're not already into radiohead, forget it. start with ok computer or in rainbows. and even if you are a fan, you have to be totally detached from the rest of the world when you listen to this album. because everyone else will call you crazy and you'll realize that outside of being a fan, all your friends are right and this album is total garbage. you have to love radiohead or else the album makes no sense. but... if you do love radiohead its quite a wonderful experience.
its also really unfair that amnesiac has been given the ever illustrious title "kid b". because its just as good or better as kid a. true, its not that different. its the same sessions as kid a, but i think it can stand alone as a separate album. one of the reasons being that, in my opinion, its up to the standard of normal radiohead music, which, again in my opinon, is an excellent album as a whole as well as songs that can stand by themselves just as well as in the album.

so if you've never heard the name radiohead before in your life, please dont buy THIS album. i'd suggest the bends, ok computer, and/or in rainbows. then move onto hail to the thief (aka best radiohead ever!), and then if you're still breathing go for kid a and amnesiac.

It's funny that this should be the first to randomly pop up on my "Speed rating." I actually just finished up on a Radiohead Top 10 Songs list that I've been working on for over a month. Two Amnesiac tracks, "Pyramid Song" and "You and Whose Army" made the cut. I dislike the reviews of this album that shrugged it off as a thinly veiled Kid A b-side album. This album just recently threatened Kid A as my favorite Radiohead album.

Everyone's a critic.

www.mypoproks.com

This makes me wish I had no ears.

The Kid A/Amnesiac period was the most 'experimental' time for Radiohead. It also produced some of the best music they ever made. Listen to Pyramid Song.

THEY REALLY CAN'T PUT A FOOT WRONG, TRUELY AMAZING!

Another amazing album from a truely special band!

Radiohead has done it again with this breathtakingly beutiful soundscape! I found it to be a bit more "accessable" than "Kid A", that is I liked it a lot when I first listened to it, but perhaps I was more prepared this time around! Nevertheless, it still sounds better and better each subsequent time I listen to it. It contains some tracks that are just as jarring and unexpected (perhaps even moreso) as those on "Kid A" such as the Electronic gnashing and distorted spoken word on "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors", the techno/gamelan ambience of the opening track, "Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box", and the backwards musical and vocal tracks on "Like Spinning Plates". At the same time, "Amnesiac" offers slightly more conventional fare like the soothing and strangely optimistic (for Thom Yorke) piano ballad, "Pyramid Song, which boasts a hummable melody and Jonny Greenwood's skillfuly dramatic string arrangement. The songs "Knives Out" and "I Might Be Wrong" offer dancable beats and more rock-oriented arrangements, but still sound far from passe or typical. Radiohead even shows some jazz influence with "You And Whose Army" and the closing track "Life In A Glass House", a New Orlean's funeral march with wry, insightful lyrics. While not as thematically solid as "Kid A", Amnesiac is much more diverse and even more creative. I think that it's Radiohead's greatest album so far!