I would have to say that while Kid A has its highlights, as whole it didn't startle like me in the same way as OK Computer. Fortunately, Amnesiac does exactly I hoped it would do, strengthening its companion album by completing the picture, whilst supplying plenty more great moments, all the while sucking you in into another world, a trick Kid A didn't quite pull off. And curiously, it also reminds me a bit of Midnight Oil's Redneck Wonderland in the way they're both rock bands messing about machines, occasionally resulting in a gloriously chaotic mess, though the Oils' album is more confrontational.
To compare the two volumes, as I think of them: Kid A felt like you were spending a cold winters day in an unfriendly village, with the only relief with the sun coming out just as you're setting off for home. Amnesiac, though equally as dystopian, encapsulates the feeling that you've moved into that village for whatever bizarre reason, become a regular at the pub, and starting to make sense of the local rumour mill, where you're the target all too often. There's a moment in "You And Whose Army", when Thom Yorke's singing the opening refrain way up front when you think the song is going to collapse into mediocrity. And then that piano kicks in, and he throws out that statement of defiance. Wow.
Obviously, since the two albums were recorded concurrently, it doesn't make sense to treat one as a progression from the other, but it seems that the band has mastered the Warp label aesthetic on tracks like "Packt Like Sardines ..." and "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" that seemed slightly underbaked on volume one. At the same time, Radiohead again remind us that they're still essentially a rock band with gems like "I Might Be Wrong" and "Dollars and Cents". In short, I like Amnesiac, but I reckon you'll have to listen to the whole thing in sequence to get the full effect.
After a few days of listening to Amnesiac, I'm a little disappointed. Despite the inclusion of some stand-out tracks ('The Pyramid Song', 'Like Spinning Plates') and a few other good ones ('Knives Out', 'Dollars and Cents'), it doesn't have the impact of Kid A. I read an interview the other day where one of the band said they hadn't wanted to do a double album or a 70-minute CD, but this is one case where this listener would have preferred such an approach. The best half or two thirds of Amnesiac and the best three quarters of Kid A would have made an unassailable peak towering above the popular music of the past decade. As it is, this feels like an afterthought to Kid A's eureka.
I think they would have been better off releasing Pyramid Song as a single back when Kid A was released, and chosen the best of these 'new' tracks as b-sides for this single/ep. Like they did with 'AIRBAG/HOW AM I DRIVING?'.
The songs from the 'KID A' session, in my opinion, haven't been that strong. However, 'KID A' worked as an album simply because they thought about how to make it a cohesive whole (i.e. track order, segues). With 'Amnesiac' we have the left-overs, so we were never going to get an album-that-works-as-an-album, and the sub-parness of the tracks shines though this time.
Best stuff on the CD is Thom Yourke on his own is presume. The rest of the band doesn't seem to be able/want to follow him in these new creative endevours, as such trad. band tracks lie 'knives out' sound aimless and derivitave of their old work.
2/5.
Blasphemer! Heh. I actually listened to Kid A and Amnesiac end to end last night and it works really well. Amnesiac is definately a better album than Kid A.
I recant. A bit. I've now found the perfect context for listening to Amnesiac: immediately after Kid A, while driving south on the Hume Highway after dark. Nothing but darkness, white lines on the road, and the red lights of the car ahead of you all the way through Kid A, and then halfway through Amnesiac the glow of Melbourne approaches, with the album finishing as you plunge into its outer streets... spectacular.
But it would still be better as one album, without 'Idioteque' on Kid A and without 'Morning Bell' (Kid A's version is better), 'Hunting Bears' and 'Living in a Glasshouse' on Amnesiac, along with a minor resequencing to put the last couple of Kid A tracks at the very end.
I recant. A bit. I've now found the perfect context for listening to Amnesiac: immediately after Kid A, while driving south on the Hume Highway after dark. Nothing but darkness, white lines on the road, and the red lights of the car ahead of you all the way through Kid A, and then halfway through Amnesiac the glow of Melbourne approaches, with the album finishing as you plunge into its outer streets... spectacular.
But it would still be better as one album, without 'Idioteque' on Kid A and without 'Morning Bell' (Kid A's version is better), 'Hunting Bears' and 'Living in a Glasshouse' on Amnesiac, along with a minor resequencing to put the last couple of Kid A tracks at the very end.
(Oops. I probably posted that twice, didn't I. Curse you, proxy cache.)