Skip to main content

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

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Eye To The Telescope – KT Tunstall

Year Released: 2004 Label: Relentless Year Bought: No Idea I'm not sure why I have this record. I have no record of buying it. I've never listened to it. But then I do own two Dido albums so it's not exactly out of character of me to have it. I've always thought KT Tunstall was a pretty cool person. She's clearly talented. But this album, I just can't really connect with it. There's some good tunes on here. 'Black Horse and the Cherry Tree' is great, as is 'Suddenly I See'. 'Another Place To Fall' hints at some darker tones, and 'Under The Weather' builds nicely. But overall it's just all a bit safe. I vaguely remember reading an interview with Tunstall a few years after this came out in which she said the original mix was a lot more rough and bluesy, but the label wanted it more polished. You can definitely hear how this album could have been scuffed up. 'Stopping The Love' is a good example of that. It's a mi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand

Year Released: 2004 Label: Domino Year Bought: 2004 January 2004. I'd just quit uni. Was back at the family home in Bishop's Stortford. The place I'd been so desperate to get away from, and I was back and already bored.  And then things got a bit less boring. I remember this so clearly. I was having a shower and the radio was on, and on came 'Take Me Out'. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. At first I thought it must be an old tune that had passed me by, but no, it was announced as a new song by a band called Franz Ferdinand. It sounded glorious. It sounded interesting. After the staleness of the post-Britpop years, and beigeness of Coldplay, Travis et al, there was actually a British band doing something interesting. I loved it, and when the album came out the next month, I gobbled it up with glee. Listening back now, and I still love it. The hushed opening of 'Jacqueline', the sleaze of 'The Dark of the Matinee', the homoeroticism of 'M...
Post a Comment
Read more

NME Awards 2004 - Various Artists

  Released: 2004 Label: NME When I bought: 2004 In ye olde days before streaming, and even YouTube, it wasn't possible to hear within a matter of moments pretty much every song ever released. Therefore, compilations like this by the NME actually had a degree of value. Take 'Paperbag Writer' by Radiohead, a b-side from 'There There', the lead single from 2003's Hail to the Thief. I bought the album but not the single, so I'd never heard this tune. It's a brilliant track, with its electronic shuffle beat and muffled vocals making it sound like a left over from Kid A, or the starting point for Thom Yorke's debut solo album which would be released the following year. Likewise, 'See You Soon' by Coldplay. A true delight from a 1999 EP, with delicate guitar playing, scarce production, and honest vocal delivery. It's a reminder that once upon a time Chris Martin et al were able to operate with that oft-neglected trait: restraint. As a snapshot o...
Post a Comment
Read more