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| Artist: Radiohead
Label: Parlophone
Category: Music
List Price: £13.99
Buy New: £6.58
You Save: £7.41 (53%)
New (60) Used (14) from £3.23
Rating:  148 reviews
Sales Rank: 4970
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.3 x 5 x 0.4
MPN: 32764
UPC: 724353276423
EAN: 0724353276423
ASIN: B00005B4GU
Release Date: June 4, 2001
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 as above, so below October 8, 2007
Meaning that this is the twin album to Kid A, and is just as good. More of the jazz/rock/electronica hybrid that made the previous record great. No standout tracks really, the album works best as a whole, although 'Sardines', 'I might be Wrong' and 'Knives Out' are probably the more accessible tracks.
Buy Kid A first though, as it's slightly easier to digest and leads into this album quite nicely.
Play this with Kid A August 23, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I always thought it was a shame that Radiohead didn't release Kid A / Amnesiac as a double album. It could have been the White Album of the new millenium.
In its own right though, Amnesiac still has its highpoints, notably the stirring Pyramid Song (classic track, totally inappropriate single) and Knives Out. It's probably not as consistent as Kid A but there are some hidden classics in there. You And Whose Army is great and Like Spinning Plates is a real grower.
Definitely worth purchasing and playing alongside Kid A.
9/10. Kid B? June 17, 2007
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
Apparently largely recorded during the same sessions as Kid A, and released only a year later, it has always been hard to divorce Amesiac from its predecessor and look at it on its own terms. It was suggested at the time - and repeated in the Amazon review - that this was slightly more commercial sounding than Kid A, but not to my ears. Listening to it now, it is a less consistent but more challenging album - funereal and dirge-like, 'fat and dark' as the band coined it. The pure synths of 'Everything in its right place' and 'Kid A' have been replaced by jittery, glitchy textures, jazzy rythmns, and lots of spidery, nervous guitar. Its a haunted, paranoid album, if anything less immediate than 'Kid A' and more demanding.
'Packt Like Sardines In A Crushed Tin Box' is an inauspicious opener, with Thom Yorke singing "I'm a reasonable man get off my case" like an automaton over gloomy electro. The inertia and resignation of this beginning sets an Orwellian tone, while the ethereal 'Pyramid Song' explores the more sublime and apocalyptic. One of their greatest songs, the shiver-inducing lyrics are rich with imagery: "Jumped in the river and what did I see? Black-eyed angels swam with me ... All my lovers were there with me. All my past and futures, And we all went to heaven in a little row boat, There was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt". A companion piece to 'How to Disappear Completely' and, later, 'Sail to Moon', no-one else write songs quite this singular in mood, and as strikingly visual. The power of this song is slightly offset by the jarring abstraction of 'Pulk/pull Revolving Doors', which glitches and flutters like a butterfly caught in a typewriter, but feels emotionally frigid.
'You And Whose Army' redresses the balance slighty with its anthemic piano ballad and dizzying crescendo. The Blair-baiting lyrics, "Come on if you think. You can take us all on ... you and your chronies", recall that of the not-dissimilar 'Karma Police'. It's possibly the album's most conventional track, but still one of its best. 'I Might Be Wrong' is a totally new direction for Radiohead, based around a propulsive (even danceable), angular guitar loop, with Thom's lyrics pushed to the back of the mix. It is a surprisingly effective maneouver, giving Yorke's lyrics a nostalgic, less-histrionic feel: "Let's go down the waterfall, Have ourselves a good time, It's nothing at all ...Nothing at all". Moreover, the little breakdown at the end is superb.
I have heard 'Knives Out' compared to The Smiths, but there is none of Johnny Marr's jaunty playing on this oppressive single. Its a gloom-laden affair that Yorke referred to as "about cannibalism", but more prosaically about a father walking out on a family. 'Morning Bell/Amnesiac' is an unnecessary remix (of sorts) of the superior track of the same name from 'Kid A'. When I originally bought 'Amnesiac' I felt that this superfluous inclusion disrupted the flow of the album and gave it the nasty aftertaste of a 'Kid A' outtakes compilation. While I know longer feel this, the inclusion still irks. 'Dollars And Cents' is monolithic in its foreboding - dark, cavernous and opaque; while 'Hunting Bears' is two minutes of black, spidery guitar that serves as a reprise for 'I might be Wrong'. 'Like Spinning Plates' is all IDM and backwards effects, borrowing heavily (but successfully) from the Warp roster, while 'Life In A Glasshouse' is like a drunken mariachi funeral, Tom Waits-meets-Malcome Lowry. The final effect is one of unease and malaise, 'fat and dark' indeed, but still lightyears ahead of most contemporary bands.
An interesting album December 28, 2006
0 out of 9 found this review helpful
I currently have 'OK computer', 'Hail to the Thief' and now amnesiac. I'm the sort of person who tends to linger through the more under estimated albums. Amnesiac has an interesting sound within it. The opening track is impressive, and then kept me hooked! Here is a short rating of ech song:
Packt like Sardines in a crushd rin box - 9/10 It has an infectious rhythm!
Pyramid Song - 8/10 very atmospheric, and a decent enough single.
Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors - 6.5/10 I am into all sorts of heavy electronica, but this kinda gave me a headache...
You and Whose Army? - 9/10 What a creepy, yet elegant song. It makes me shiver!
I Might be Wrong - 9/10 Typical Radiohead. Amazing.
Knives Out - 7/10 A little bit boring, but still quite a cool track.
Morning Bell/Amnesiac - 9/10 I have heard the original on 'Kid A', but I still think of this song to be a stand out one in the album. I'm obsessed with it!
Dollars and Cents - 8/10 It has a great build up. Another fav.
Hunting Bears - 8.5/10 A strange one, it doesnt have any lyrics, but its great as a chill out track.
Like Spinning Plates - 9/10 This has alot of texture and layers, it's very beautiful.
Life in a Glasshouse - 9/10 A very emotional jazz finale. It sounds very lonely, and it's also pretty miserable. That doesnt mean it can't be good though, can it?
I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for 'the bends' and 'Kid A', but this is one album that you'll continue to listen to. It sounds quite packed for eleven tracks.
Fantastic follow-up to KID A December 14, 2006
4 out of 9 found this review helpful
Amnesiac sees Radiohead continuing their Kid-A sessions. Both albums were recorded at the same time, but despite this, they have achieved a different sound for "round 2".
Amnesiac is a dark, fat album, delivering vicious and often bitter lyrics. The band use more guitars this time around, whilst piano and sequencers seem to take centre stage. Thom's vocals are once again on top form, at their dreary best.
The songs are brilliantly ordered, as smoothly flowing as a river full of black eyed angels (you'll get it when you hear it). Song topics vary from thom's rising awareness of global warming, to canabilism. The stand out track would have to be the album's closer, 'Life in a glass house', which uses a variety of wind instruments over a jazz piano. It sounds like something that you may have heard in one of The Godfather films.
Amnesiac takes a few listens to get into (not as many as Kid-A did), but once there, you will find yourself returning to this record time after time.
I know some fans consider it to be Radiohead's best work to date... This i'm not sure of, choosing the best work is always a matter of personal taste.
Amnesiac is not The Bends, Ok Computer or anything near Hail to the thief. It's the KID-A leftovers, wonderfully presented in a justifiable and interesting format.
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