Radiohead
Amnesiac
(EMI Music Canada)

Rating: 3,5/5

If you combined this with Kid A and filtered out the self-indulgence, you'd have one amazing record.

Remember that the two were recorded during the same sessions and released in two stages, seemingly without benefit of an editor.

Those who considered Radiohead's last psychedelic opus a necessary head-clearing exercise to prepare for a triumphant return to the intense songcraft of old might be disappointed by Amnesiac (in stores Tuesday). From the first, er, note - echoey percussion loop, enter cheap drum machine and sine-wave synth - it's clear where the band is coming from, even if the substance of the songs is unclear. You guessed it: It's another anti-rock statement.

Thom Yorke warbles in his haunting way about "black-eyed angels" and "astral cars" in the piano-driven "Pyramid Song". What's he on about? Let the discussion commence.

With dense, moody, confounding music that makes Side 2 of Dark Side of the Moon sound like Def Leppard, except without the energy, the U.K.'s band of the century appears to have forgotten how to rock out. I guess there's nothing wrong with that. Rock's become pretty stale lately. So if you're looking for something different to space out to while wearing headphones, well... here it is. Again.

Nothing so mundane as an electric guitar riff and a simple drumbeat shows up until "I Might Be Wrong". "Knives Out", too, is relatively accessible - musically speaking. Yorke seems to be using yet another cryptic metaphor, this one about mouse abuse - deservedly so, since the little bugger seems to have chewed the tape of "Like Spinning Plates" into a mess of fluttering, backwards-sounding nonsense.

After 40 minutes of such alienating experimentation, Amnesiac ends with "Life in a Glasshouse", Radiohead's take on a New Orleans funeral march. Yorke sings, "Once again, packed like frozen food and battery hens, think of all the starving millions, don't talk politics and don't throw stones," hovering just on the edge of reason. Not unlike this entire CD.

Those who hailed Kid A as a masterpiece even if they didn't understand it might be asking themselves a disturbing question: "Am I going to fall for it a second time?"

-Mike Ross

Edmonton Sun
02.06.01