Oh, dear friends. I won’t say what or who enabled me to acquire this fine, fine recording, but if I’m to burn in hell for it, at least I’ll have a good soundtrack. I’m a lucky duck. This powerhouse of a team haven’t yet released this brilliant follow up to their somewhat aloof Kid A, but I doubt they’re too bothered with impressing anyone too much. Which may be why they consistently do just that. While a bit of a difficult child, Kid was a bold and skillful foray into new territory for Oxford’s finest. Whereas Kid A was erratic and tense, Amnesiac has a more relaxed and lush sound. Though Yorke and friends are still pushing the electronica envelope, they have opted to include some more organic sounds here, such as those ancient instruments, the guitar and the piano. And Thom is singing quite a bit more here, which is naturally a decadent and enticing thing. Look for this in another few months, and then buy it, you fiends.
But enough of my blabbing. Here’s a rundown of the songs, as I found them…
1. Packt Like Sardines In A Crushed Tin Box
Opens with the tin box crushing, lots of off-kilter bongo/metallic clanking in convergent rhythms. Then a smooth bass line and synth combination, followed by Thom’s introduction of spooky yet eerily comforting vocals. Goes on from there. They’re back, ladies and germs.
2. Pyramid Song
Yikes. Slow and creepy piano with lots of scary synth vocals (ala “Exit Music”) and other buzzings and bleeps. Thom is singing again, something about swimming in a river with angels and every lover from his past and future. Indeed. This song is extremely good, and you may or may not have heard it on tour last fall. Surely then, on Napster.
3. Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors
Okay, enter weird song. This is very electronic, with strange noisy rhythms and lots of background sounds rummaging about, creating a subtle and (intentional, I should think) irritating mix of white noises. Then Thom is playing with the vocal effects again (that Thom), making a spoken word piece, of sorts, which makes you think of “Fitter Happier” only with Thom. It’s about doors; I almost forgot.
4. You and Whose Army?
Very cool. Thom is taunting someone, and he’s doing it in the vein of an early jazz recording, complete with muffled vocals, reduced bass, and spare background music playing. It eventually kicks in to become a full on modern song, but only after Thom’s ranting has expanded to include references to the Holy Roman Empire, which was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire. Discuss, talk amongst yourselves.
5. I Might Be Wrong
The resident “rock” song. Very distorted and blues reminiscent guitar work here, with a driving beat. It’s got a very simple but solid feel to it, and the guitar gets very jammy, in a Radiohead kind of way. Not sure what it’s about yet, though. Like the music a lot.
6. Knives Out
You can hear guitars on this one too, hurrah! Another driving song, sounds like music from a chase scene, no pun intended. Okay, pun intended. Seriously, someone is out to get Thom this time, or so he’d have us believe, and he’s at his wit’s end (surprise!) and ready to bare knives with these people. Thom on the attack. Could be in a Kafka story.
7. Amnesiac / Morning Bell
Yeah, it’s “Morning Bell” again. But this version has a fuller sound, not as stripped as the Kid A version. There are some ominous bells being rung in this, plus a very rough and acoustic sounding guitar instead of the sparse drumming and piano of the previous version. Sounds like it was recorded with Tom Waits. Very rough around the edges.
8. Dollars and Cents
This one’s kind of a mess. I don’t really have much to report on it, except it’s busy, sometimes, and Thom is wailing along with the clatter the whole time. Not a standout track, really.
9.
Hunting Bears
It’s those bears again. What’s with them? This is a quick two minute or so instrumental, with some very cool guitar playing and very low fi feeling background noises of the guitar. Also has a strange noise sample running throughout it. Don’t know what it’s got to do with bears, though.
10. Like Spinning Plates
Weird noises from the outset. Reminds me of Aphex Twin a little. Very quick and biting static noize over a larger beat, with sporadic rhythm. Pretty neat, actually. Thom does some weird vocal tricks again, playing himself backwards and then merging that with his real voice, without a noticeable changeover, and he maintains the melody of the backwards singing. Oh, he’s a clever one, our Thom.
11. Life in a Glass House
One of the best Radiohead songs ever, in my opinion. Another jazzy number. Somber and static piano playing, with a slow, meandering beat in the background. Thom sounds absolutely manic, which is how we like him. There is a superbly played trumpet running throughout the whole song, which really makes the whole thing work. This is a fantastic song.
Well, kids, I hope you all get the chance to hear this album at some point, and that this little guide has enticed you further. This is a great album, and I think audiences everywhere are going to love it. But the band won’t care, you can count on that. Those brilliant bastards.
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