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Here is the second Radiohead album in less than a year, the
followup to last Autumn's release of the stunning Kid A.
Is it as good? Absolutely. Does it break new sonic ground
the way that both Ok Computer and Kid A did?
No. You see, Amnesiac was recorded at the same sessions
that produced Kid A. So it is in many ways the companion,
rather than the successor to, that album. This is the first
time since Computer that Radiohead hasn't completely
changed the aural landscape from that of its previous record,
but it doesn't make the new record less challenging.
It took several listens for Kid A to
really sink in--it was just too dense and completely unexpected
to make complete sense the first time around. You would think
that Yorke & Co. had prepared us to assimilate the new
album in one listen, but it doesn't really work. Sure, we
take it on faith that this disc all fits together somehow,
but the first time I heard it I thought it distinctly underwhelming.
After listening to it three times in a row, I thought it was
at least as good as Kid A. Two more listens and I thought
it might be better. Now I just think it is the new Radiohead
album and I will listen to it pretty constantly for the rest
of the year just as I have been Kid A and OK Computer.
It will likely be one of the better albums released this year.
That's good enough for me.
A couple more things: While listening to Radiohead
at the same time as I'm working on my computer, I inevitably,
at some point in the album, hear a sound that convinces me
my cordless phone is ringing. Anyone else get this?
A friend of mine, whose opinions on music I
genuinely respect told me last year that Kid A = Tales
From Topographic Oceans by Yes. I don't really think so.
At no time did Yes approach the kind of sonic experimentation
or threaten to rewrite the rules of post-millenial (or post-60s
in the case of Yes) rock music the way that Radiohead has
done. But their CD inserts booklets, with endless pages of
sytlized drawings, mostly of bleak landscapes that are either
post-industrial, industrial, or completely uninhabited, could
be reminiscent of Yes' use of stylized sci-fi futuristic drawings
by Roger Dean. I guess. By the way, I did download a complete
copy of Topographic Oceans from Napster when it existed,
and it was a somewhat better album than I remembered it. But
nothing like Radiohead.
Radiohead is the first band since (am I really
going to say this?) The Beatles that has pushed in drastically
new directions with each release or couple of releases--and
that only applies to the Beatles from about Revolver
on. Radiohead's "early" career was seriously compacted
into two albums that are quite good, but pretty much pale
in comparison to what they've done since. How long can Radiohead
continue to capture the zeitgeist of our times and turn it
into music that is as groundbreaking as the early electronic
work of Miles Davis, the sonic whirlwind of Sgt. Pepper,
the diminished expectations of London Calling?
I don't know. Stay tuned. <<End transmission>>
