Track Listing

1. Packt like sardines in a crushd tin box
2. Pyramid song
3. Pulk/pull revolving doors
4. You and whose army?
5. I might be wrong
6. Knives out
7. Amnesiac/Morning bell
8. Dollars & cents
9. Hunting bears
10. Like spinning plates
11. Life in a glass house

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1048 in Music
• Published on: 2001
• Released on: 2001-06-05
• Number of discs: 1

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Radiohead Photos

More from Radiohead

OK Computer	The Bends	Kid A
Pablo Honey	Hail To The Thief	The Astoria London Live

Amazon.com's Best of 2001
More song-driven and acoustic than Kid A, Radiohead's Amnesiac isn't quite "Kid B," but it is unquestionably cut from the same far-out cloth, as the band revels in fascinating quirks and abject nihilism. It's also the first time in Radiohead's career that a new record hasn't meant a complete shift in artistic priorities. Surely, however, regardless of which was released first, they both deserve recognition; after all, Amnesiac, like Kid A, is an amazing piece of work.

Only lightly augmented with electronics, songs like "You and Whose Army?" and "I Might Be Wrong" almost sound like they came from a typical five-piece rock band. You may even believe the band still employs a guitarist after hearing Jonny Greenwood's wistful surf-guitar lead on "Knives Out" or his subtle but noticeable contributions to the anticapitalist rant "Dollars and Cents." But inevitably, the band continually shifts gears, moving into Boards of Canada territory on "Like Spinning Plates" and delivering dark, bass-laden oddities like "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors," a fuzzed-out piece of avant-garde techno that could just as easily be on an Autechre or Aphex Twin record. The song's half-sung, half-spoken vocal was laid down by either a heavily distorted Thom Yorke or, just perhaps, a loquacious microwave oven. Either way, the music always has momentum, regardless of whether propelled by man or appliance. Radiohead as a band understand how to make rock interesting again, and in the end, that's all they set out to do when they recorded Amnesiac, as well as Kid A. It's more than can be said for the bad frat-punk, teen-pop and soulless techno that currently rules the charts, and for that alone, Radiohead's astonishing exploration of 21st-century anguish deserves credit. --Matthew Cooke

Customer Reviews

Get off "Amnesiac"'s case.
A lot of people hate this record and its predecessor, "Kid A". I mean, they really HATE them. I know Radiohead fans who threw them out after a week. That's understandable, if rather drastic. In the '90s, Radiohead were dependable for a great alternative rock anthem. They were good at it -- maybe too good. "Pablo Honey" is a good (not great) record and "The Bends" is better still. But when "OK Computer" hit, everyone went crazy. It got saddled with "Best Album of the Decade" tags. It mixed Radiohead's established strengths with considerably better lyrics and just enough experimentation to please those who were bored with the more conventional formulas of the band's previous two albums. No doubt about it, "OK Computer" is a master piece of an album. It's rare that a record can have twelve songs that are all memorable, potential singles even, and still retain as much artistic merit as "OK Computer" did. But with a pedigree like that, who can blame Radiohead for maybe freaking out a little when it came time to do a follow-up?

So they retreated into the studio and came out in 2000 with "Kid A", embraced by critics as another masterpiece and dividing the fan base straight down the middle. On one side: the people who liked Radiohead as they were, and wanted more standard Brit rock-pop. On the other: the people who recognized the merit of the first two Radiohead records but felt that the experimental flourishes of "OK Computer" were a step in the right direction. Given that "Kid A" eschewed traditional rock structure and instrumentation in favor of dense electronics, atonal horns, and eerie, filtered falsetto vocal work, you can guess which side love dit and which despised it. Personally, I fall into the second camp, those who embraced it. It's my favorite Radiohead record -- not as immediately awesome as "OK Computer", but over time revealing its beauty, intricacy, and poignancy.

Which brings us here, to the much-maligned "Amnesiac". I get the hating on "Kid A", but to be honest, I'm surprised that this record hasn't gotten more love. It's pretty much a compromise for everyone -- still very experimental, but bringing back the elements many missed most on "Kid A": more conventional song structure and, um, you know, guitar. Opener "Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box" sets this tone well, as Radiohead openers tend to do, composed mainly of electronics but following traditional structure (and featuring an addicitve refrain of "I'm a reasonable man, get off my case"). The strings-n'-piano number "Pyramid Song" is beautiful enough to mesmerize the less adventurous Radiohead lover, but the real fun lies in its weirder side, especially the way the piano swaggers drunkenly around, trying and failing to find a steady beat until the drums come in and help it out. The rest of "Amnesiac" mostly follows these songs' lead. "You and Whose Army?" is a lovely cut that expands from paino ballad to full-band rocker. "I Might Be Wrong" is the closest Radiohead has come to a dance song, and is very accessible, and "Knives Out" is a standard rock number that plays like a direct bid to regain fans lost as a result of "Kid A". All of these songs find middle ground between the divided fan base, applying the electronics found on "Kid A" to more accessible song structures.

But there are other songs that inspire as much division as anything on "Kid A", suggesting that Radiohead, while recognizing that some fans wanted easier-to-digest alt-rock, intended to keep moving forward with their experimentation. "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" is one of these, and although it might seem forbidding to some, it's actually a pretty awesome song, blending elements of techno and industrial music to a great drum-and-bass combo line, and featuring weird but not grating treated vocals reminscent of "OK Computer"'s most experimental track, "Fitter Happier". Closer "Life in a Glasshouse" is a piano ballad tricked out with a very drunken horn section, furthering the forays into jazz begun on "Kid A" songs like "The National Anthem". It's a great song, unexpected but not out of place.

Then there's "Hunting Bears" and "Morning Bell/Amnesiac". I really like this record a lot. It's pretty great in my opinion, up there with "Kid A" and "OK Computer". I like rock music as much as the next guy, and as much as I love "Kid A" is still appreciate the effort Radiohead put into making these songs more accessible. But these two tracks are serious detriments. "Amnesiac" is comprised of tracks from the "Kid A" sessions, but these are the only two moments where you'd know it. It's a solid record but for them. "Hunting Bears" is a reprise of "I Might Be Wrong", except that it's just Jonny Greenwood on the guitar and nothing else. It's given grating production treatment and doesn't do anything "I Might Be Wrong" doesn't do. In fact, it does a lot less and is no fun to listen to. "Kid A" had an interlude called "Treefingers", and I get the impression that this song is trying to do the same thing, but where that track was beautiful and a great segue, this one is annoying, dull, and doesn't connect the songs bookending it. "Morning Bell/Amnesiac" is just a new version of "Morning Bell" from "Kid A" with a short intrumental appended to the outro, but the production is messy and lacks the grace of the earlier version. This cut and "Hunting Bears" cause "Amnesiac", an otherwise excellent batch of Radiohead tunes that show them blending their experimental tendencies and their songwriting skill, to feel a bit like a "Kid A" B-sides collection when it deserves to be heard as a beautiful, complex, and just plain awesome piece of music in its own right.

WOW! AMAZINGAMAZINGAMAZING.
I rarely give ANY product this kind of review - but Amnesiac is one of those rare CD's that can be listened to in entirity. Moody, extremely layered, sad, whistful.

Listen to it once and you will be hooked.

INCREDIBLE!
THIS IS AN INCREDIBLE CD AND THESE GUYS ARE AWESOME LIVE!
LIKE SPINNING PLATES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!