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Radiohead Ladies
and gentlemen, Brent DiCrescenzo has left the building. Which
is a shame, because I count myself among those who admired his much-discussed
Kid A review. Brent put his gift for linguistic dexterity in the service of
something he cared about, and I caught a buzz from his enthusiasm and memorable
imagery. If his writing was "over the top," it was because that's how
he felt about the record. But
in the interest of context, we should get a few things straight at the outset. I
like Radiohead a lot. I think they are an excellent band, and I thought enough
of Kid A to call it my favorite record last year. But I don't think they are the
best band in the world (that honor goes to the Boredoms, followed closely by
Mouse on Mars), and I have little interest in what happens in the
well-publicized lives of the individual members. But while I've no stake in the
cult of Radiohead, they are a talented band that shares my lust for sound, and
so my attraction to their music is natural. So
here we have Amnesiac, the follow-up to the big follow-up. It's a very diverse
album, which makes sense considering its source. I'm sure you know by now that
this material was recorded at the same time as Kid A, but these songs didn't
quite fit and were held back for a second record. The buzz at the time of Kid A
was that this would be where the band drop the mice and pick up guitars again. It's
my understanding that a certain breed of Radiohead fan was looking forward to
this return to rock, but I am not among them. You see, the title track was my
favorite song on Kid A. The band's present aesthetic, from the packaging on up,
is about the tension between humans and machines, among other things. One
message over the course of these records is that technology represents an idea
of perfection ultimately doomed by its association with mortals. So Radiohead
needs loops, beats, distortion and mistakes -- the sounds of technology -- to
make it all hang together. As
usual, these blokes have a knack for picking a great opening track. "Packt
Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box" is very much of a piece with Kid A, and
it immediately snuffs the "take back the rock" rallying cry. The song
announces itself with bells and barely-there, micro-thin electro beats and then
offers one of the best melodies in the album, with Yorke in his under-utilized
laidback vocal mode. Like
Bjork, Radiohead are also trying to find new ways to make conventional
orchestral devices work alongside electronic textures. "Pyramid Song"
starts out as a piano ballad and then builds to a grand, Wagnerian close, with
dense clouds of swirling strings. It's pretty enough, but one gets the feeling
that "Pyramid Song" could have been a killer with a better melody. I
have to admit that Yorke's melodramatic singing gets to be a bit much for me on
this one, but it's still an affecting finish. Speaking of Yorke, his familiar voice is the only constant through nearly every Radiohead tune, and on an album as diverse as Amnesiac, this means the songs are defined by the relationship of the music to his vocalizing. And to me, Radiohead best convey their message when they fuck with it. That's exactly what happens on the brilliant "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors." Over a distorted hip-hop beat and some random, Thursday-Afternoon-style keyboard plinking, Yorke's voice is Warped beyond recognition, and it truly reflects the doom and paranoia reflected in Stanley Donwood's sleeve design. I find the sound of this voice fascinating, and tragic somehow, like the voice on Kid A. Whatever message this robot boy might have for the world is known to him alone. In
addition to being Amnesiac's finest track in my opinion, "Pulk/Pull
Revolving Doors" puts to rest the idea that Radiohead can't hang with the
IDM elite. The notion that they were just doing warmed-over Aphex Twin on Kid A
was always absurd, but "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" reveals them as
masters of digital sound manipulation. The other similarly "out" track
is "Like Spinning Plates," but it's not quite up to the same standard.
The backward effects and rich synthesizer drones are intriguing, but the band
seems unsure what to do with the vocals. Yorke begins outside comprehensibility,
but moves toward his high-pitched, epic mode about halfway through, robbing the
shy instrumental backing of its mystery. The
inverse of this track is "I Might Be Wrong," where Radiohead play a
sweet guitar hook against Yorke's cryptic, processed melody. It reminds me a bit
of something off the Stone Roses' "Second Coming," in that it pays
homage to the blues-inspired riffing of the classic rock 60s, but Radiohead
twist things a bit by using these signifiers in an intentionally mechanical way.
It rocks, but in lock-step fashion, which seems right in this context and makes
the track the most successful of its kind here. Also
guitar-driven is "Knives Out," by far the most traditional rock song
on Amnesiac. It is trademark Radiohead, with warm, ringing chords, lovely
melancholy singing and a full sound. On such a diverse album, it only makes
sense that a song like "Knives Out," should be on here somewhere. What
could have been left out is the guitar instrumental "Hunting Bears,"
which seems a bit like a Cliff's Notes version of "Maggot Brain"
played by a bored guitar student. In
its favor, "Hunting Bears" does serve fairly well as a segue into one
of the album's most interesting songs, the closing Dixieland jazz of "Life
In A Glass House." It's a bit absurd at first to hear Yorke's Anglo art
school phrasing next to clarinets, trumpets and trombones, but the idea becomes
more charming as the song proceeds to its hard blowing finish. In the media and the music, Kid A was Radiohead's big left turn, so Amnesiac inevitably suffers a bit in comparison. But part of the disappointment comes from the fact that the quality isn't quite up to the standard of the previous two records. Any time an album has an "alternate version" on it (as with "Morning Bell/ Amnesiac," which puts a Wilsonian orchestral spin on the stripped down Kid A track) it’s a sign that you could be dealing with leftovers. And in truth, the hodgepodge feel of Amnesiac does suggest that the songs didn't fit into another project. Still, it's a pleasure to hear further documentation of this highly creative phase of an excellent band. When you consider that Kid A and Amnesiac were recorded during the same period, it's safe to say that Radiohead are hitting on all cylinders. They are taking the "studio as instrument" concept as far as anybody these days, underground or not, and I can't wait to hear what they come up with next. Mark
Richardson (Back) |