Amnesiac - Radiohead

 

Released: 2001

Label: Parlophone

When I bought: 2001

If you needed proof that Radiohead really were ploughing a lonely furrow for alternative music in the early 00s, you only have to look at the singles chart for the week ending June 2 2001.

Number 1 that week was 'Do You Really Like It?' by DJ Pied Piper, while number 2 was 'Don't Stop Movin'' by S Club 7. Other acts in the top ten included Dido, Blue, Geri Halliwell, and Nelly ft City Spud.

And there at number 5, in what was the band's first single release since 'No Surprises' three years earlier, was 'Pyramid Song' by Radiohead.

That must have been a hell of a gear change on the Chart Show that week when they went from the R&B pop sounds of 'No More (Baby I'ma Do Right)' by 3LW (yeah I had no recollection of this group either) to a mournful, suspenseful, on-beat-to-off-beat piano led art-rock tune.

Coming a year after 'Kid A', 'Amnesiac' represents the leftovers from those sessions, with the band deciding not to release a double album at the time.

Opening track 'Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box' still sounds incredible, and - much like 'Kid A' opener 'Everything In Its Right Place' - leaves you completely unsure of how the rest of the album is going to sound. 

The two singles - 'Pyramid Song' and 'Knives Out' - are as close to conventional as Radiohead allowed themselves to be, although they punish themselves for daring to have such traditional things as melody and choruses on these tunes with noise collages 'Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors' and 'Like Spinning Plates'.

The narrative around this period of Radiohead was that they had burnt their guitars in a fit of rejection of the conventionalities of being in a rock band, but the low-slung riff that runs through 'I Might Be Wrong' and the instrumental 'Hunting Bears' shows that was never quite true (never mind the fact that there's a fair bit of guitar on 'Kid A').

Proof that this is a collection of songs instead of an album is evidenced by the fact 'You and Whose Army?' comes after 'Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors', with its low vocal harmonies creating a sort of eerie Isley Brothers, before the track ends with a glorious cacophony.

An alternative version of Morning Bell is presented - sounds good but the Kid A version is better - and 'Dollars and Cents' has some incredible string work, although is slightly one of those Radiohead songs people who don't like Radiohead think Radiohead sound like.

The record ends with 'Life In A Glasshouse', and I remember hearing this for the first time and being dumbstruck. At the end of this art-rock record is a tune with a New Orleans jazz band - with the trumpet played by Humphrey Lyttelton. Even now, more than 20 years on, it still catches you by surprise. The warmth and looseness of the track a contrast to the deliberate alienation and electronic precision that was so associated with Radiohead in this period.

The back cover says: "Store away from direct sunlight, preferably in a dark drawer with your secrets". To an overly sensitive 16-year-old this was exactly how I wanted my music presented. Indeed the whole inlay booklet is peppered with slogans, snatches of song lyrics, weird art, doodles. I remember pouring over this while listening, trying to squeeze every bit of meaning and influence from the pages. I even recognised some of the lyrics on this album from the inlay booklet of 'Kid A' - that's how obsessed I was.

A brilliant record. The stuff Radiohead threw away while making 'Kid A' is better than what most bands can put on their best ofs.

9/10