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Rating: … the listener of Kid A had to wait 8 months by their player for those sounds from who knows where to flood back into their ears and continue to hypnotize the biological sensors responsible for processing auditory perceptions.
The Indian drums lead us to think for a moment that perhaps Kid A has grown and changed. But we're mistaken. The icy electronics are not long in coming. The strings and guitars of Johnny, and Thom's processed voice immediately return to recreate that sonic pathos we missed so much and sought endlessly in a worn-out 'Kid A'. We are soon “squeezed like sardines in a can of sounds”.
This 'Amnesiac', which as Yorke says is named “after those things you forget... and then remember again”, is more rough, more immediate, and above all more heterogeneous in its compositions. Just wait for “Pyramid Song”, the second track, to hear Thom's clear voice in one of his best vocal performances. The dreamy piano recalls an “Everything In Its Right Place” stripped of its electronics. The second part of the track is moving, and the sound of the horns leads us to Paradise on a small rowing boat, with nothing to fear and nothing to doubt.
“Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors” is a claustrophobic sequence of noises. Thom's performance is a sort of anti-rap with autotune. The sounds are those of doors capable of changing our lives: there are revolving doors, sliding doors, doors that open by themselves, doors that won't close, and there are trapdoors from which you can never return. The sound of a voice from the forties breaks the obsessive rhythm. This is how “You and whose army” opens; Yorke even searched for old microphones to get a retro sound.
It feels like listening to a radio during the Second World War. The tones are strongly political, and the target seems to be that Tony Blair for whom the artist has such admiration. “Come on, you and whose army?? You and your cronies”. The lack of trust in those who are supposed to represent him is evident. The jazz opening in the finale is splendid and encapsulates all the anger of the rebellion.
In “I Might Be Wrong” electronics are embroidered by an acoustic guitar and bring us back to the future to reflect on a singer in deep existential crisis. The rhythm contrasts reflective singing with restless percussion, emphasizing the artist's state of mind. The track pauses for a moment, but the cure comes from the woman in his life, Rachel Owen, to whom Thom finally says: “let's go down the waterfall, have some fun, it's nothing in the end”.
The central track of the album is a dive into sounds of the past. But “Knives Out” nonetheless maintains that hypnotic progression that characterizes the new works. Total disorientation contrasts with a sinuous wrap of jazzy guitars. The crazy and raw lyrics are sung in a captivating manner with the usual mastery. According to the band, the piece's gestation lasted around a year. We are surprised when the number 7 appears on the player. The morning bell, the same from 'Kid A', begins to chime again, becoming so much more ominous that it seems like the midnight toll of any horror fable.
New recording technologies facilitate endless reinterpretations of the same track. Art seems to have no boundaries. The invective of “Dollar and Cents” against the rulers of the world could not be missing. Thom sings “we are the dollars and cents, the pounds and pennies, and we will destroy your little souls”. This is how we are labeled: the die-hard consumers rebelling against the monsters of globalization. All packaged in a splendid and unusual jazz-orchestral rhythm with an over-the-top vocal performance as always. The cheering teddy bears on the covers of 'Kid A' and 'Amnesiac' are the protagonists of “Hunting Bears”, an interlude made of guitar and keyboard that prepares us for an end as unexpected as ever.
That the band was constantly seeking the new is, after all, not news. But thinking of recording a track that represents the reverse reproduction of another piece (I Will) borders on madness. However, it happens that during the banal rewinding of a tape, Yorke detects a hidden melody and can't ignore it. He can’t pretend it's not there. This is “Like Spinning Plates”. You have to be willing to adopt it. The rotating plates are those of show business. The fear is of returning among the market's lions. It’s Yorke's favorite track, probably because of its genesis. In my opinion, the content is also very dear to him.
The conclusion is called “Life In A Glasshouse”. The evocative title refers once more to the vulnerable life of stars. The band is criticized for lashing out against those same multinationals with whom they collaborated to create millions of dollars. The sad tone of the matter is skillfully rendered by the sound of an American band called to accompany a tragicomic event. It strongly evokes those films set in a 1920s America crushed by prohibition and the underworld.
What to say about an album that once again disorients and amazes everyone and everything. The post-Kid A promise of a return to old melodies was not kept. Was it perhaps an “amnesia”?? Well, I, and I don't know how many of you, hope that 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.
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 Moretto
The album does not give the impression of being a collection of 'leftovers'.
Amnesiac... strikes against the rhetoric of certain hackneyed rock through their continued and never self-serving desire for experimentation.
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.
