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Rating: Only eight months after their last effort, Radiohead release the rest of the tracks recorded during the long preparation for Kid A. But once again, Thom Yorke's band surprises everyone.
First of all, the album does not give the impression of being a collection of "leftovers". Some of these tracks are true compositional gems, like the wonderful "Pyramid Song", which features an unparalleled piano riff. Other notable tracks include "I Might Be Wrong", the album's blues piece, "Knives Out", which recalls their old days, and "Like Spinning Plates", which evokes certain experimentalism of early Pink Floyd.
The CD overall is less dark than the previous one, winning back the few old fans who hadn't fully digested the radical shift to electronics in Kid A. However, it's also true that along with more "melodic" tracks, closer in sound to the album The Bends, even more "futuristic" songs than the previous work burst onto the scene. The entire album, like Kid A, is permeated by the obsession of humans being deformed by the monster of globalization, genetic manipulation. These are their themes, emphasized by Thom Yorke's unmistakable and suffering voice. Themes that in Amnesiac seem to be addressed, compared to the recent past, with an extra dose of lightness, in a more direct manner.
Unlike its almost twin predecessor, Amnesiac is undoubtedly a less compact, more fragmented album, but, just like Kid A, it strikes against the rhetoric of certain hackneyed rock, through their continued and never self-serving desire for experimentation. The result is yet another masterpiece.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box (04:00)
After years of waiting
Nothing came
As your life flashed before your eyes, you realise
I'm a reasonable man, get off, get off my case, get off my case
I'm a reasonable man, get off my case, get off my case, get off my case
After years of waiting
After years of waiting
Nothing came
And you realize you're looking in, looking in the wrong place
I'm a reasonable man, get off my case, get off my case, get off my case
I'm a reasonable man, get off my case, get off my case, get off my case
I'm a reasonable man, get off my case, get off my case, get off my case
Get off my case
After years of waiting
I'm a reasonable man, get off my case, get off my case, get off my case
I'm a reasonable man, get off my case, get off my case, get off my case
I'm a reasonable man, get off my case, get off my case, get off my case
I'm a reasonable man, get off my case, get off my case, get off my case
02 Pyramid Song (04:48)
I jumped in the river, what did I see?
Black-eyed angels swam with me
A moon full of stars and astral cars
And all the figures I used to see
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, nothing to doubt
I jumped into the river
Black-eyed angels swam with me
A moon full of stars and astral cars
And all the figures I used to see
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, nothing to doubt
There was nothing to fear, nothing to doubt
There was nothing to fear, nothing to doubt
04 You and Whose Army? (03:11)
Come on, come on
You think you drive me crazy
Come on, come on
You and whose army?
You and your cronies
Come on, come on
Holy Roman empire
Come on if you think
Come on if you think
You can take us on
You can take us on
You and whose army?
You and your cronies
You forget so easy
We ride tonight
Ghost Horses
05 I Might Be Wrong (04:53)
I might be wrong
I might be wrong
I could've sworn I saw a light coming on
I used to think
I used to think
There was no future left at all
I used to think
Open up, begin again
Lets go down the waterfall
Think about the good times and never look back
Never look back
What would I do?
What would I do?
If I did not have you
Open up, let me in
Lets go down the waterfall
Have ourselves a good time, it's nothing at all
It's nothing at all
Nothing at all
Never look back
Never look back
06 Knives Out (04:14)
I want you to know
He's not coming back
Look into my eyes
I'm not coming back
So knives out
Catch the mouse
Don't look down
Shove it in your mouth
If you'd been a dog
They would've drowned you at birth
Look into my eyes
It's the only way you'll know I'm telling the truth
So knives out
Cook him up
Squash his head
Put him in the pot
I want you to know
He's not coming back
He's bloated and frozen
Still there's no point in letting it go to waste
So knives out
Catch the mouse
Squash his head
Put him in the pot
08 Dollars and Cents (04:51)
There are better things
To talk about
Be constructive
There are weapons
We can use
Be constructive
With your blues
Even when it turn the water blue / Even when they tore the wall down
Even when it turn the water blue / Even when they tore the wall down
Why don't you quiet down?
Why don't you quiet down?
(Everyone has promised me!)
Why don't you quiet down?
(I want a piece of the promised land!)
Why don't you quiet down?
(I want to hear you promise me!)
(Man you always promise me)
Quiet down!
(Man I want to be free!)
You doing living in a fantasy / You don't live in a business world
You never go out and you never stay / He never calls and you never stay
With our cause and our liberal wills / We'll have goals in a liberal world
Living in times when I can't stand the beg
All over the neighborhoods
All over and maybe I could see out of here
All over the promised land / All over the clovers
All over the promise and let me out of here / All over the clovers and let me out of here
All over all over all over all over...
[Simultaneously on the background: ]
Why don't you quiet down?
Why don't you quiet down?
Why don't you quiet down?
Why don't you quiet down?
Quiet down!
We are the dollars and cents
And the pounds and pence
And the mark and the yen
In the end, we are going to crack your little souls
We are going to crack your little souls
We are the dollars and cents
And the pounds and pence
And the pounds and pence
In the end, we are going to crack your little souls
We are going to crack your little souls
We are the dollars and cents
10 Like Spinning Plates (03:57)
While you make pretty speeches
I'm being cut to shreds
You feed me to the lions
A delicate balance
And this just feels like spinning plates
I'm living in cloud cuckoo land
And this feels like spinning plates
My body's floating down a muddy river
11 Life in a Glasshouse (04:34)
Once Again I'm In Trouble With My Only Friend
She Is Papering The Window Panes
She Is Putting On A Smile
Living In A Glass House
Once Again Packed Like Frozen Food And Battery Hens
Think Of All The Starving Millions
Don't Talk Politics And Don't Throw Stones
Your Royal Highnesses
Well Of Course I'd Like To Sit Around And Chat
Well Of Course I'd Like To Stay And Chew The Fat
Well Of Course I'd Like To Sit Around And Chat
But Someone's Listening In
Once Again We Are Hungry For A Lynching
That's A Strange Mistake To Make
You Should Turn The Other Cheek
Living In A Glass House
Well Of Course I'd Like To Sit Around And Chat
Well Of Course I'd Like To Stay And Chew The Fat
Well Of Course I'd Like To Sit Around And Chat
Only Only Only Only Only Only Only Only Only Only
There's Someone Listening In
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Other reviews
By Sallu
This album is the greatest blend of masterpieces and nonsense put together.
Radiohead experimented so much they ended up being strangled by these innovations or got too caught up in '70s jazz.
By Solomon
I drift in an ocean of sounds that swim straight to the heart of my perceptions, flooding them with sublime melancholy.
To be listened to alone, sad, drunk and tremendously alive.
By myork
We are soon “squeezed like sardines in a can of sounds.”
If these are the things that, as Thom says, “you forget and then remember again,” then they will remain forever clouded in the minds of our beloved Radiohead.
By FregaUnCazzo
Radiohead offers us a break with ‘Knives Out,’ a simple melody filled with emotions; another excellent example of alt-pop.
‘Amnesiac’ thus proves to be more than a step forward compared to ‘Kid A’; there are more ideas, more confidence in their means.
