Customer Reviews
WOW! AMAZINGAMAZINGAMAZING. 
2008-06-18
I rarely give ANY product this kind of review - but Amnesiac is one of those rare CD's that can be listened to in entirity. Moody, extremely layered, sad, whistful.
Listen to it once and you will be hooked.
INCREDIBLE! 2008-06-13
THIS IS AN INCREDIBLE CD AND THESE GUYS ARE AWESOME LIVE!
LIKE SPINNING PLATES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Art of Despair 2008-06-08
Rock music does a lot of things extremely well, but one emotion that it seems to have difficulty capturing is despair. I'm not talking about the blues. The blues involves reveling, often in a kind of self-satisfied way, about one's awareness of how badly one's life is going. There's nothing smug or self-satisfied about despair: it is a prelude to the death of hope, the reaching of a point from which one can't "come back." "Amnesiac" captures despair better than just about any rock album I can think of (another great entry in this abject sweeptakes would be Fleetwood Mac's masterpiece "Then Play On").
"Amnesiac" is to most music dealing with misery as opening up a bottle of whiskey in a darkened room with a loaded gun on the table, alone and with the phone disconnected, is to a bragging drunkalogue delivered to a crowded AA meeting. If you don't understand what I'm talking about consider yourself fortunate. If you do, get "Amnesiac." It does perfectly what it sets out to do, with no compromises or gratuitous bows to commercial acceptance or normal rock and roll conventions. It couldn't be the high art that it is if it had been done in any other way.
Maybe not for blasting out your car stereo... 2008-05-31
I remember listening to this album while reading at the library on cold winter days somewhere in upstate New York when the sun did not shine (which was often). These songs have a haunted feel that perhaps matched my surroundings and my mood. I agree that this album is maybe not right for every single occasion, but I feel I have to defend some songs on this album that have been pounded on by others. In my opinion, this is one of the best albums in terms of interesting music that you can actually enjoy listening to. I have listened to this album (as well as all of the other Radiohead albums) from start to finish many times, and for some reason, Amnesiac is the most fun. As for the disjointed sound, who is bothered by this now? How many people have not gotten used to listening to a wide range of music on iPod shuffle mode? I am not one of those guys who defends avant-garde art because it's daring or clever. I actually like these songs for what they are. In terms of favorites...
1.Life in a glass house--like being drunk in an old French wine bar on a wet night walking home with your crumpled hat and clinging to a telephone pole for support. I was shocked to see other people don't like this song. It gives me chills every time I hear it. But hey different strokes.
2.Pyramid song--driving through an unknown mountain town on a cold still night alone. I like how this song builds into that dreamy, melodic nowhereness.
3.You and whose army--I like how weak his voice sounds in contrast to his big words--overall it gives me the feel of a weak person reminding someone who is tormenting him that we are all weak and there is strength in numbers. Do not mess with us!
4.Hunting bears--as a post-apocalyptic source of nutrition, bears will be hunted. It will be a sad time. This song will make it sadder.
5.Spinning plates--probably not good enough to listen to on repeat, or maybe not ever, what the hell, skip this one.
6.Knives out--sounds more like a Radiohead song than anything else on this album, and it's good, but not as good as some of the other songs on Amnesiac.
Anyhoo, if you don't like this album I can't help you. It's not worth trying to change someone's opinion regarding music anyway. (Have you ever tried to recommend something you are super excited about to someone and they are like, eh..) I feel that way about this album. I'm just glad I have it and can listen to it on my headphones so as to not annoy those around me.
What a Load of Pretentious Crap! 
2008-05-27
I have to admit that Radiohead's first three outings, culminating in OK Computer, were spectacular. With songs like Creep, The Bends, Fake Plastic Trees, Let Down and Electioneering, they had become the buzz band of the '90's. Then came Kid A and it's companion Amnesiac. Disgusting! Thom Yorke adopts a high, nasally, whiney voice and the critics call it avante garde. The band starts to play unmusical, atonal mood poems and the critics exclaim that Radiohead have made rock music interesting again. Au contraire. This entire album is pretentious crap. It's only place is to be played in Soho with the band wearing all black, including turtlenecks and berets. Real Rock'n'Roll has a soul, which this does not. Radiohead had a soul up until OK Computer. It's shown it's head in spurts on Hail to the Thief and In Rainbows, but is still hiding behind all this pretentious BS. Let's hope they snap out of it, stop investigating their own navels and return to producing music for the real world, not a bunch of godforsaken critics.
Dreadful 2008-04-09
Radiohead Photos
More from Radiohead
OK Computer | 
The Bends | 
Kid A |
Pablo Honey | 
Hail To The Thief | 
The Astoria London Live |
..this record is just not that good! 
2008-02-26
I must preface this by saying that I am a huge Radiohead fan. I'm also a fan of all types of music and always open to hearing new sounds. The one thing I require is a semblance of a melody. You are not going to convince me that noise (although well put together) is a substitue for tunefulness. Some of the songs on this album are interesting as a peek at some very intelligent musical experimentation, but should not, under any circumstance, be confused with anything remotely enjoyable. The "emperor's new clothes" tag that some Radiohead fans get is dead on. Not only in the case of this album, but also in that other lovely invisible coat of the emperor's, Kid A. The flipside to all that reverence is the (undeserved) disdain towards Pablo Honey.
My two cents on Radiohead's records:
"The Bends" is a masterpiece. Beautifuly crafted music, soulful lyrics, all masterfuly executed. Every single song works. If you don't own this already, please do yourself a favor and go out and get it.
"OK computer" is a great, innovative album. The first five songs are truly without reproach. "Fitter Happier" is an annoyance and I'm not really thrilled with the back end of the album ("Lucky" is a good song), but at least, all the songs are interesting and at the very least melodic. The two records that followed were not.
Kid A has two good songs. "The National Anthem" and "Idiotheque".
Amnesiac has two great songs in "I Might be Wrong" and "Knives Out" and a very good one in "Pyramid Song".
The rest of these two albums is the result of brilliant minds searching for the next musical evolutionary step. Unfortunately they come up with dense, sometimes interesting, but never quite enjoyable noise instead.
"Hail to the Thief" has "2+2+5", and "A Wolf at the Door", which are excellent songs and book end a mediocre record.
"In Rainbows" is a much more accesible effort form the band and a hell of a lot more enjoyable than "Kid A" and "Amnesiac". "15 Step" and "Bodynatchers" are very good songs, and "Weird Fishes", "Faust Arp", "Reckoner", "House of Cards" and "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" are all solid songs. The kind of Radiohead songs that burrow their way in.
Finally, "Pablo Honey". In my opinion an excellent album. Dismissed by Radiohead snobs because of its accessibility and straightfowardness. It contains their most popular song and nary an experimental noise track, which puts off the pretentious bunch that like listening to music that is above the masses. Truth is that "Blow Out", "Lurgee", "Anyone Can Play Guitar", "Ripcord" and "How Do You Do?" are great rock songs. The fact of the matter is that most people want something they can jam to and not some repetitive bullcrap chanting to a techno loop (unless they are really, really stoned).
Call it what it is. Amnesiac is a self indulgent experimental record by a band bored with conventional rock and roll. I however, am not bored with rock and roll. I am bored by Amnesiac.
Dollars & Cents ? 
2008-02-11
This LP should have been called Hit or Miss.Maybe even Dollars & Cents.It looks as if the band cashed in here,left off some tracks from Kid A and released them here.Kid A is a very,very good album.But it has two flaws.Treefingers and the title track.Awful tunes.Dont tell me bout the band being artistic.Please.Those 2 tracks left Kid A short of being a masterpiece.Now,this LP has tracks that were ready for release on the Kid A disc.How do I know this? I was at a show,Warrington ,England,10/02/00,when the band played Dollars & Cents,Pyramid Song(called Egyption Song)I also own a bootleg from Holland,09/16/00.The band performed You And Whose Army? and Knives Out.So whats the big deal you say? Picture those four tracks if they were on Kid A.Now,thats a great disc.This disc is like very good one moment,and very bad the next.Its uneven and never flows.Now,Iam a huge fan.As I have stated,I live in New York City and traveled to see them in England.So,fellow fans dont kill me here.Ok.Packt Like Sardines is a below average track.Live it is a solid rocker.A burst of guitars jump at you during the live version.Thick buzz sounding music ,like The Beatles,circa Rubber Soul.This version is weak and bland.Someone,I guess Phil is hitting a cow bell or something.Where are the guitars? I wish it could have been recorded with the same fire as the live version.Pulk,what the hell is that??????This is not music.Its noise.I dont care what anyone says,this is hands down,the worst track I have heard by Radiohead.In my opinion, not even worthy of being released .Period.You and Whose Army?,Im sorry,this version,unlike the live version,is so annoying.God,when Thom wants to sound bad,he can.Pyramid Song sounds very good,as does Knives Out,Dollars & Cents and I Might Be Wrong.These tracks are why I give this even 3 stars.Maybe an EP would have been better? Whats with Morning Bell/Amnesiac.Is this version better than the one from Kid A? No.So, why do we have it? Hunting Bears?Brutal.Like Spinning Plates is all cloudy and muddled sounding. The live version ,is so much better.Thom ,alone at the piano.Its a haunting version performed live.Here,they messed it up with Thoms laptop effects.Life In A Glass House.I cant tell you how I dread this tune.Please, someone tell me that how or why this is good,or even music.This disc should not have been released like this.The tracks that were not ready for Kid A, should have been left for Hail To The Thief or released as independent singles. Maybe even added to I Might Be Wrong,since that disc had only 8 tracks.Some live,then a couple of new studio tracks? A wishful thought.
Great Album 2008-01-22
It's a very nice album. I still like listening to it after all these years. In many ways it's absolutely beautiful, stunning music. Lovely.
Amnesiac should not be forgotten (its not just "Kid B") 2008-01-12
Radiohead have pretty much run the gamut of rock music (from alternative to uncategorizable), and nearly all of their albums have been fantastic. Following the unsettling and fascinating sonic landscape of OK Computer (my favorite description of it was that it "sounds like what the future will look like" or something to that effect), the band emerged with the bizarre Kid A, which has its great and not-so-great moments. Amnesiac was released shortly thereafter, with what appeared to be much less fanfare- and thus far less subsequent attention. However, it is the one Radiohead album I return to more than any other...even though I enjoy HTTT very much (and feel that it was their most cohesive record since OKC), both it and In Rainbows, as lovely as it is, do not match the spirit that lies within Amnesiac. At times sparse, at others emotionally complex, the songs that comprise this album are truly distinct and carry a weight which transcends melody or lyrics; they seem to have an urgency and depth about them, a sense of impending...well, inevitabllity- as though events are transpiring rapidly or coming up from all sides (both within and without) and we must navigate them with care lest we become caught within the labyrinth (as some of the artwork also seems to suggest). With the much-heralded release of IR, and the well-deserved accolades of OKC, Amnesiac should not be overlooked or dismissed as merely the happenstance sibling of Kid A, but observed perhaps as an artifact of some of our innermost (labyrinthine?) desires and often unspoken concerns...and cherished as such.
