So... Amnesiac

Other thing: I could swear that a few months ago, Radiohead were Tom E's betes noirs - he hated them about as much as he loves Britney Spears. And now he likes them - doesn't he? What's going on? This seems like a total volte-face - has it ever been remarked upon?

i mean that i suddenly forgot radiohead were shit. pyramid song did the same for me. maybe i'll buy the tape and put it up next to my cassette of the bends.

As for the songs themselves, there's a quite a bit of nice work on display. I never really distinguished between the use of the guitars and non-guitars, so I tend to judge on the basis of the sound of the music, which at times is really full and enveloping ("Pakt Like Sardines..." and "Morning Bell/Amnesiac" particularly) while at others is a bit thin and reedy - which doesn't hinder the perception of this as a bit of an outtakes album. Whatever, dunno what I'll eventually think of the whole thing a week or so.

I do find it interesting how the criticisms of the album often seem to use opposing arguments - on one hand saying "you promised us a rock song album and we *need* another one" while on the other saying "we don't *need* more stuff with a Warp/Mille Plateux bent"... As if there's an endless glut of IDM-rock in the world and a sorrowful dearth of guitar rock.

Certainly I reckon that the current place Radiohead are at is more singular and almost "necessary" (as in if they weren't working in this area than someone else would have to) than either their Bends or OK Computer incarnations, despite the ease with which we can point to their current influences. I can to that to any artist, and if it was all that was necessary to discredit them then Tanya's job would be too easy. If nothing else, Radiohead get my vote because there's a certain fan I know who's smug anticipation of a Travis-like return will have been replaced by a look of decidedly un-smug consternation.

1) It still doesn't flow, it still doesn't have that sense of continuity. OK Computer had flow, that was part of what made it a great album for me. What this album sounds like, in fact what it probably *is* is a B-sides compilation. Any other band, when they record too many songs for a single album, usually throw the less strong but still releaseable material onto B-sides of singles. (IIRC, many of the OK Computer B-sides made it onto the startlingly brilliant "Airbag EP" in the States.) Radiohead didn't do singles for Kid A, yet they still wanted to release the extra material, hence Amnesiac.

2) Have spent a lot of time in the past few months thinking that Kid A was a less than stellar, rather average and ordinary album. This weekend, while waiting for soundcheck, the engineer was testing the sound system by playing some records. She put on something which slowly grabbed me, and had me thinking "wow, this is a really interesting record, I wonder what it is, some neat stuff going on here..." for a few songs before realising that it was Kid A. Heard out of the expected context of "we're going to listen to the Radiohead album now", and heard through a really good professional sound system, it suddenly seemed magical

3) I still think the new Appliance album is fantastic. Funny, because everyone has been telling me that it's not as good as the old one. Dug the old one out, and it was fairly average post-rock with bits of electronic bits added on almost as afterthought. The new album is much more cohesively mixed, guitar-and-electonics-based dronerock/post-rock rather than a band adopting an "IDM" (whee, I learn a new phrase every week on ILM) sound as an added gimmick. So there.

It flows better on CD, that is for certain. (I blame 10" vinyl for my initial complaints.) I think it is some of Thom's best vocal work for ages... I don't care if I can't make out the lyrics, as I said in that there other thread, it's the *tone* and expressiveness of his voice that intrigues me. Kid A's vocals were buried, treated and half hearted. These are fully out there, even if it does sometimes come across as whinging.

And oh, the textures. I've even grown to like Pyramid Song for the way those strings appear. I can't even tell you which song is which, or which is my favourite, because the album has become one long song. My only complaint is still the cod jazz at the end, that has *not* grown on me.

This is better than Kid A. Their B-sides are usually better than the singles anyway... "Meeting In The Aisle", "Palo Alto", "How Can You Be Sure", etc.

Contrary to Kate, the songs seem really distinct to me. Perhaps the middle 3 get a little blended together, but for the most part I had them sorted apart in my head pretty well right off.

Dear Radiohead fans: time's up, please bring your copies of Amnesiac back to the library today or face a fine.

http://sleevage.com/radiohead-amnesiac/

(If only they'd been able to see into the future to realise that National Library Day was at the weekend, not today.)

Oh I have that one!

It's alright, no-one put down that they wanted it next.

It's similar to the one for "Piper at the gates of Dawn" which had a copy of "Fart Enjoy" by Syd enclosed.

I have a completely different one! It says 30th May on it but I think that's the radio embargo date. Oddly I was just listening to this yesterday. It's the one I listen to the least, for deeply personal reasons. It's always better than I remember it bcuz of that.

The only one I 'love' is KidA.

The rest, I 'like' or even (sigh) Respect...

But K, I hear that opening arpegio and go "yes....!"

(K being short for "KidA" obviously, that reads somewhat unclear there)

Some albums become so entangled with the memories of yr life that listening to them again is like opening a snapshot of a scenario from yr own life. It's strange, I never think of RH as one of my "favourite" bands at all, but it's that way that specific albums became so entwined with certain periods of my life (bcuz that album was maybe the go-to comfort food while in that trauma or transitional period) that they've become entwined with the tentacles of mine own memory. It's not a question of love or even like, as, this thing has become a part of me.

Wish I'd picked a better band to be that collective subconscious thing, but oh well.

Well, is it like how the 'Beatles' were ever-present during the 60s?

For all that there were loads of bands and 'listeners' that did not like them, everything was based on the deviation from that 'normality'..

Massive generalisation, of course, but.

Funny, I just saw the entry for "Treefingers" on Wiki:

The ambient track "Treefingers" contains no melody and is completely instrumental. Ed O'Brien pointed out in an interview that no synthesizers were used to make the song, and that it was all recorded on a guitar, after which it was cut and paste onto a sampler.

.. which was pretty much how I recorded the track I supplied for the ILX one-minute compilation, which was recorded about 10 years before KidA.

Listening to this for the first time in probably a decade. What a killer album! Still far and away my favorite by them. "Knives Out" is the best kind of cloudy dour British anti-surf rock. Really looking forward to the last two tracks.

My least favourite between Ok Computer and In Rainbows, though I haven't given it as much attention as some of the others. Pyramid Song is incredible obviously, as is Dollars and Cents.

I love Kid A and all their guitar albums (minus Pablo Honey), so why did it take me over a decade to like this?.. Why am I such a jerk?

I forgot all about this album.

I see what you did there.