If there was any ounce of doubt left that the world needed Kid A last year it’s quickly dispelled with a quick listen to Stereophonics’ latest opus. Oasis too are so content to rest on their laurels that anyone seeking a brave, meaningful gesture would have fallen over themselves to embrace Radiohead’s occasionally dizzying dalliance with the dark forces of experimental dub and lopsided electronic experimentation.

‘Pyramid Song’ is the first sample of what we can expect from Amnesiac, supposedly the forthcoming ‘proper’ new Radiohead album, whatever that’s meant to mean. If you’re expecting a return to the style of The Bends then forget it, ‘Pyramid Song’ is as fucked up as anything from Kid A, maybe more so. And it’s quite magnificent. It’s a warped, sprawling journey into darkness, a song dense enough to suck the light out of the room, snaking in a casually malevolent way across what sounds like the film score to an old Roman epic dissected and assimilated by the Borg.

As with much of Nick Cave’s magnificent new album, No More Shall We Part, ‘Pyramid Song’ uses a simple piano score to provide a doom-laden foundation to the eerie snowstorm that rages above it. Thom avoids Cave’s histrionics, preferring a detached, repressed howl, the whole, hypnotic music monolith bearing down on you like the blackest night, reinforcing Radiohead’s tour de force: making music that captures perfectly bleakness and futility without ever succumbing to self-pity.

“There’s nothing to fear“ intones Thom as the wind blows icily around him. Nothing to fear that is, unless you’re The Stereophonics. Thank Christ there are some things you can rely on.

-Sue Foreman

Nightshift
05.01
 

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from the same zine's 'hatlist' [their favourite music of the month] for May 2001:

Radiohead: 'Pyramid Song' - And just when you thought they couldn’t possibly surpass everything they’ve done so far. Spread the word: the best just got better.