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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An essential album for any music fan, 17 Dec 2001
By A Customer
Kid A, Radiohead`s 4th album and Amnesiac`s predecessor, took the music world by surprise with a completely different change of direction. Many consider it a mistake for a band who made an album as good as OK Computer to try something new, but in my opinion, Kid A is Radiohead`s best album to date. Amnesiac was recorded at the same time as Kid A, but has a more conventional feel about it, featuring more guitar and more audible vocals than Kid A. The album kicks off brilliantly with "Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box", a slight reminicant of Kid A highlight, "Idioteque", but nothing can quite prepare you for what follows. "Pyramid Song" is easily the most gorgeous, original single released this year, and is definately one of Amnesiac`s highlights. As it all quietens down after it`s stunning, euphoric climax, "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" takes you by surprise with it`s aggresive intro, and leads into Yorke`s incredibley distorted vocals describing different types of doors. It`s pretty hard work on first listen, but after listening to the whole album for about the third time, everything begins to make sense. After the angry, and slightly disturbing "Pulk", Anti-Blair rant "You And Whose Army" is perfect to lighten the mood. It builds from a beautifully serene beginning into a powerful, "Karma Police"-style climax. Third single "I Might Be Wrong" follows, opening with an impossibly catchy guitar loop, leading into Yorke`s (again) distorted vocals, before ending with a slightly quieter peice of music, which, apart from the fact that it also features guitar, seems somewhat unrelated to the song it follows. "Knives Out" comes next, opening with Jonny`s haunting guitar riff, before Yorke goes off on one, singing about dead mice and drowning dogs. Although this is pleasent enough, it is by no means one of the best songs here. It starts as it means to go on, and features no real musical development, unlike the track it is frequently compared with, the brilliant "Paranoid Android". This is followed by a remix of the Kid A classic, "Morning Bell", here retitled "Morning Bell/Amnesiac", and whilst being perfectly listenable is not a patch on the original. It is stripped of the drum rolls and keyboards, and the "round and round and round.." refrain is not nearly as effective here. Through the bass-lead "Dollars And Cents", and the brilliant (but frequently slated) intrumental "Hunting Bears", featuring mainly Jonny and/or Ed mucking about with a delay pedal, the album reaches it`s penultimate track, the stunning "Like Spinning Plates", probably the most experimental track here (apart from Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors). But no matter how good the album has been so far, the album finishes with the absolutely breath-taking finale, "Life In A Glasshouse". It features jazz veteran Humphrey Lyttleton and his band, and is without doubt the best song here, and maybe even the best track to come out of the Kid A/Amnesiac sessions. This undoubtedly brilliant album is absolutely essential for any Radiohead fan, or then again, any fan of decent music, music with a difference, a major rock band making music that demand, but greatly rewards a bit of patience from the listener. But no matter how good Amnesiac is, it still doesn`t meet the impossibly high standard set by Kid A, which is in my opinion the greatest album of all time. But, nevertheless, this is fantastic. Buy it now.
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