Radiohead are one of the few good British bands of recent times to get really popular outside of the UK. People generally put too much stress on how depressing they are, how they bring you down. But really it's because they're uplifting that they're popular; there are not really all that many bands who quite plumb the emotional depths in the way Radiohead do, but who're also able to climb so high.

Though they've only made two real classic  records, in many people's minds Radiohead are already up there with the Stones and the Beatles; 'The Bends' is continually voted as one of the best albums of all time. The successor, 'OK Computer' is more ambitious, and  just as good. 'The Bends'  was the first album I bought, and I think I chose well.
 

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Amnesiac (2001, Parlophone)
Thom Yorke's mental. Everyone knows that. He has all these strange ideas where he reckons, like, that each of his records should sound totally different! That's crazy, man. Give me the Stereophonics any day. At least they don't mess with any of this new-fangled electronica shit. That's for poofs.

It's a mistake to think of this record as the off-cuts from 'Kid A'; equally it's wrong to think of it as the follow up to their last record. Really 'Kid A' and 'Amnesiac' are a double album, both of which make sense better together and not so well apart. There are simply so many different ideas that on one record they don't come together. But with the release of 'Amnesiac' Radiohead have completed a worthy follow up to 'OK Computer'.

Musically this record is more cohesive than 'Kid A', but more importantly the lyrics are on par with 'OK Computer' and often better and more subtle than 'The Bends'. Opening track 'Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box' is an obvious homage to electronica, Autechure in particular, but rather than being a carbon copy it really sounds like a Radiohead song. The expert song structuring and lyrics that mark out a Radiohead song has come together with the 'experimental' side of things.

It's true overall this album is more conservative than 'Kid A'. 'Pyramid Song' could have easily come off 'The Bends' were it not for the atmospheric Nigel Godrich production. But it is deliberately followed by 'Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors' which is the album's equivalent of 'Idioteque'. 'Knives Out' is supposedly the most guitary track on the ablum; but the slightly dissonant melody and lyrics don't make it stand out or seem incogrous.

The version of 'Morning Bell/Amnesiac' isn't really as good as that on 'Kid A' but it is followed by the best track on the album, 'Dollars and Cents', a spine-tingling track which expertly blends the new Radiohead with the old. The guitar instrumental 'Hunting Bears' is a little B-sidey but short and sweet. The final track 'Life In A Glasshouse' annoyed me when I first heard it, or rather saw it on TV, because I thought Radiohead were making something to impress the session players. Yet on the album, situated after 'Like Spinning Plates', it makes sense. It's the most overtly politcal song on the album and its conventional jazz sounds are probably a deliberate desire to get something political played on Radio 2. Still, that's no excuse for using trumpets.

While in 'Kid A' Thom Yorke was a backseat driver, directing the proceedings by not taking part a great deal, on this record the lyrics really do match up with the music. Only many repeated listens will say whether it's as good as either 'The Bends' or 'OK Computer', but it definitely has the potential. So, then. Radiohead. Poofs.
 

Kid A (2000, Parlophone)
It only really recently occurred to me exactly how big Radiohead are; all of the other bands I listen to (with the exception of maybe Nirvana) are very rarely even considered when the wankers at 'Q' magazine are making their stupid charts of the 'best' (i.e.. most overrated) albums of all time. But it's true that despite being one of 'my' bands, Radiohead are, like, massive, innit.

So, with the weight of the world on his poor little shoulders, it's pretty inevitable Thom Yorke would go crazy. True, they couldn't have released this album at a worse time; with the music press suddenly becoming very conservative and supporting hideous thinly veiled cock-rock like Limp Biscuit (unlike them, I can SPELL), not to mention to resurgence of arch-shitheads AC-fucking-DC. Meanwhile underground 'dance' music (which is usually impossible to dance to, that's how you can tell it's 'underground') is as vibrant as ever, so it's pretty inevitable that Thom Yorke would find his solace there; and make no mistake, Thom Yorke really is running the show here.

But the other surprise about this album is that it's good in the way the last two Radiohead albums, and parts of the first one, were good; not really original, except in a cosmetic sense, but still held firmly within the sphere of genius by the quality of the music.

Not that 'Kid A' doesn't have it's bad points, but then 'OK Computer' did have the eminently pointless 'Fitter Happier'. But nothing can detract from this being a really good album; true, my taste in music does veer a bit to the leftfield, and therefore there's nothing here which I find particularly odd or out of place. It's true it doesn't prostrate itself at the altar of the holy guitar, which appears to be the main criticism the music press have for it, but do we really need more bloody bands who sound like Radiohead, even if it is the masters themselves doing the self-parodying? The answer is no, incidentally.

It's a bit weird, yeah. But pretty much all of the tracks on this album have a definite purpose, and there're even a couple of tracks which have obvious guitar bits on them.

But there are some major criticisms; the lyrics, which were always Radiohead's most unique feature, haven't exactly got more sophisticated, as it appears Thom Yorke has fallen into the trap of thinking he can get away with repeating 'Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon' a few times rather than thinking up anything interesting to say. And it's really here that the album falls down when compared to 'OK...' or 'The Bends'- the music's there, but the words just aren't, not to the same degree; there's nothing as lyrically brilliant as 'Paranoid Android', 'Subterranean Homesick Alien' or 'Let Down' (or the rest of their albums, for that matter), and it's that, and NOT the lack of guitars which makes this not as good as what has come before.

Thom Yorke is probably the best single lyricist of his generation. Perhaps he's been told this too many times, and he's had enough of vacuous praise. Which is a shame.
#LINKS#
Radiohead Official
this is a great site, although not exactly designed for ease of access. persevere and you'll find diaries by the band, and some links to anti-capitalist and direct action sites and everything else
Follow Me Around
my personal favourite fan sitem because it's the most comprehensive and the most regularly updated i've found. also faster than a fast thing on most pages
ShopRadiohead.com
Buy things to feed your pathetic consumerist soul. Just about everything you could want, even if it is all in bloody US dollars.
 

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