Rating: 5/5

Last year Radiohead seemed to throw their popularity away. Kid A was the dissonant racket of strops being firmly thrown. Out went melodies and discernible songs and in came clashing jazz, New World Order paranoia and the sound of voices in the dead of night. With Amnesiac coming from the same distraught sessions, it could only spell disaster.

Instead the band have managed to channel their wilful impulses and tortured souls into an album that is as dark and doom-laden as it is funky and, well, soulful.

Yorke's mental, on the edge lyrics are still dominate the tracks, from the MI5-are-watching-me freakery of 'Packt Like Sardines In A Crushed Tin Box' and the Blair-baiting 'You And Whose Army', but there are also moments of sublime elegance and emotion.

'Pyramid Song', with it's 'black-eyed angels' watching over Yorke and the chiming 'Morning Bell/Amnesiac' are flashes of the bruised, heart-shuddering beauty.

-RGB

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