Another Radiohead album, asks the casual music fan? Didn't they just put one out last year? And this is another? Big deal...

Advance word on Amnesiac had the tongues of all those Radioheaders confused, befuddled and irritated by Kid A lollygagging eagerly. The pre-publicity had it down as an altogether less impenetrable affair, at least for those who continue to holler "Creep" at Radiohead's live shows and will doubtless continue to do so until someone has the wherewithal to smack them in the mouth.

Truth is, though, that Amnesiac's a perfect companion piece to Kid A, similar in terms of its adventurousness and scope, in the way it's as much about sound as song. It's just that listeners softened up by Kid A now expect something a little more challenging from the Oxford quintet, and so Amnesiac perhaps sounds a little less out there. A few critics have already tagged it Kid B. A little flip, perhaps, but a handy precis of what to expect.

Although, as precis go, "another blindingly great Radiohead record" will do just as well. Amnesiac is compelling, from the opening percussive clatter of "Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box" to the final, dementedly funereal strains of "Life In A Glasshouse". It holds its shape better than Kid A, hangs together a little tidier. "I Might Be Wrong" finds Jonny Greenwood at last picking up a guitar again; "Dollars & Cents" rumbles along urgently and with no little verve; and "Knives Out" almost jangles, despite Yorke's gutty lyrics. But the highlights are three very different but equally marvellous ballads: single "Pyramid Song", the almost choral "You And Whose Army?" and "The Morning Bell Amnesiac".

If you didn't get Kid A, you may not get this. It took most of us who did a few listens; not so much because it was desperately weird, but more because This Is Radiohead And They're Not Meant To Sound Like This. Well, that and the fact that Thom Yorke's lyrics were more abstruse than ever. But for those of us who did get it, or who are prepared to give it time, or who want to still be musically excited and intellectually stimulated and emotionally moved by rock music, Amnesiac'll be one of the records of the year. In other words, a very big deal indeed.

The Wiseacre Music
03.06.01