In some quarters, there seems to be an air of impatience with Radiohead digging in its avant-garde heels with the follow-up to the experimental Kid A. Don't listen to the philistines. By resolutely forgetting formula, Radiohead proves itself all the more relevant with Amnesiac. There are no conventional rock radio singles here - not even anything in the way of the cathartic "Optimistic" from Kid A - but pace many critics, there are "tunes" galore, particularly with the tracks that make up the wounded heart of the record - the anti-hymn "You and Whose Army?," abstract-blues single "I Might Be Wrong," elegiac cautionary tale "Knives Out," Kid A redux "The Morning Bell Amnesiac," and "Dollars & Cents," a sublime summation of leader Thom Yorke's disdain for the philosophical currency of the not-so New World Order. That rarest of things, Radiohead is a rock band with something meaningful to say, saying it in a truly contemporary, utterly individual language.

-BB

Billboard
16.06.01