Amnesiac

I'm going to say it...Radiohead is overrated and this album is not their best effort.

I think I'm just tired of his whiny voice.

As the title suggests; completely forgettable.

You ever notice that when Radiohead puts out a new album, everyone and their mother talks about it for a week or two and then you don’t really hear anyone talk about Radiohead again until the next album cycle? Kind of weird, right? Following the trio of Ok Computer, Kid A and Amnesiac, Radiohead earned a mythological status: Every record was destined to be a game changer before it even hit the shelves…they were the greatest band in the world, constantly inventing, revolutionizing modern rock…blah, blah, blah. Just look at the reviews on this site for Radiohead records: There’s so much superfluous verbiage and hyperbole about this band that you’d think I was the one writing all the reviews. (Look at that, I’m being self-effacing…it’s truly the dawn of a new year and, more importantly, a new me.) The hype train gets revved up hard before every Radiohead release and a lot of the time, the final product doesn’t live up to the hype. Don’t believe me? Go dust off your Hail to the Thief and King of Limbs CD’s and reminisce about how great you anticipated those records would be. I’m told In Rainbows is an exception, I’ll have to wait until the generator recommends it to really find out. …but you know what? Maybe the hype was earned at one point. Amnesiac, essentially a collection of cast-offs from the Kid A sessions, is better than an album of leftovers has any right to be. It’s sort of an alternate reality Kid A, just a bit more scattershot, weird and less memorable. The problem for Radiohead is that the unbearable weight of hype eventually comes crashing down, as we saw with Hail to the Thief and King of Limbs. You build up enough hype, eventually people are going to be let down. Both of those records, I feel it’s worth pointing out, were follow-ups to critically lauded albums (Kid A/Amnesiac and In Rainbows, respectively) and were considered disappointing. So Radiohead ended up kind of stuck in this cycle, where every record was expected to be a revolutionary, forward-thinking game changer and a massive amount of anticipation accompanies each release. From an artistic standpoint, it’s got to be an immense pressure: trying to create something that exceeds not only your previous attempts, but also the expectations of the world. I guess my point in all this is that Radiohead, as good as they can be, aren’t infallible and its necessary to separate the actual finished product from what hype dictates. Is Amnesiac a ‘greatest of all time’ record based off its songs, production and experimentation or is it getting more credit than it deserves because the seed has been planted (by fans, the press, PR teams) that Radiohead is the greatest, most innovative band in the world and anything they do is important? Amnesiac is a very solid record, but can you die without having heard it? I think so. St. Peter’s not going to ding you one at the pearly gates because you never heard “Dollars & Cents”. Most of what you hear on Amnesiac is not that far off from Kid A, stylistically speaking. There are some great songs on Amnesiac. Several classics for Radiohead fans, I’m sure, but a lot of the album sounds a little same-y, like they had an idea of what they wanted Kid A to sound like and these songs are the experiments on the way to getting there.

After years of waiting, I jumped in the river and what did I see? Barn doors, revolving doors, sliding doors, secret doors and trap doors. Come on, come on Holy Roman Empire! Have yourself a good time, there's nothing at all. If you'd been a dog, they would have drowned you at birth. Cut the kids in half, be constructive with your blues. This just feels like spinning plates, that's a strange mistake to make.

It's not just Radiohead. On Life in a Glasshouse it's Radiohead and jazz/comedy legend Humphrey Lyttleton. Which is enough that I want to give it five stars regardless! People often see this album as the poorer sibling of Kid A, but I suspect that had they been released in the opposite order people would feel the opposite way.

I cannot stand the pitiful wailing of Yorke.

Kid B. I have a hard time separating Kid A from Amnesiac since they are almost siblings, but it's another classic Radiohead album for sure. Like Kid A, this one took me longer to get into but eventually I came around. I would have loved to be a Radiohead fan when this came out, alas it was before my time.

I didn’t hate this but it does kind of seem like “when geniuses faff around”. Most of the instrumental innovation struck me as merely electronic noodling. Only the last track really stood out as striking new ground.

If 45 minutes of incoherent gibberish, and garbled Melodie’s is you’re forte you’re in luck. The only people who’d find joy in this album are pseudo musical intellectuals, who enjoy the concept of the album because it’s “edgy and experimental.”

Listens,: 1 Enjoyed: no I feel l Ike I've been had of this week. Endless mix of poor depressing music

Every bit as good as Kid A and perhaps more enjoyable. Amnesiac doesn't have the same dense overarching structure to wade through, but still maintains a richly textured atmosphere. Almost like something between OK Computer and Kid A. Best of both worlds if you ask me.

The OK stuff is OK. Merely OK. Not great. The terrible stuff is absolutely awful. This is one of those albums that the britpop music ponces cream themselves over. To them, this album is genius. If you don't like the awful, talentless thrashing of the bad stuff it's simply that you're too stupid to appreciate the craftmanship and the beauty of the Emperor's new clothes. I have briefly considered giving this two stars, given that there genuinely are a few listen-toable tracks in here. Unfortunate that the overwhelming wankiness totally obviates that.

For virtually any other band, Amnesiac would be the definitive magnum opus. With Radiohead, you can make a somewhat reasonable claim that it doesn't even belong in a list of their top 5 albums. I won't make such a claim. 'You and Whose Army', 'I Might Be Wrong' and 'Knives Out' is a strong contender for the best 3 track-stretch in their entire discography.

This was an experimental album with our money as target.

Kinda pretentious, but not awful. 3 stars.

I really want to like Radiohead, I really do... But holy shit, this is depressing. I know it is unique and important for musical development. Problem is that music developed into a bicycle without brakes rolling down a really steap hill.

Ok, I think 4 Radiohead albums on this list is more than enough. I feel like Radiohead are overrated. I personally can't stand them. The fact that they have such a showing on this list, but other more deserving acts aren't even on the list is rediculous. I suspect it is because they are British, and this list is so heavily weighted to obscure English acts for some fucking reason. Thom Yorke should cheer the fuck up and stop moaning. This "music" is garbage. Nothing about this album is enjoyable to me. A truly painful listening experience. I pray that this is the last of their records that I have to endure, but I have a sneaky suspicion that Pablo Honey is probably on here too if this utter garbage is... Fuck Radiohead. Favourite song: Hunting Bears, simply because Thom shut the fuck up, and the song is only 2 mins long Least favourite songs: Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors, along with the rest of this insufferable garbage. 1/5

Perfect for wallowing in the impotent melancholy of the digital age.

Meh. It’s ok. There is a pretentiousness to this whole era of Radiohead.

Saw them on this tour, playing in Jersey City's Liberty State Park w Beta Band ("Dry The Rain") opening and Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan as a backdrop. Beautiful late summer night and truly a magical show, and as it happens, just a couple of weeks before 9/11. My mind has rearranged events, to where this show was the night before that absolutely gorgeous late summer Tuesday morning I was walking to work across downtown Jersey City and turned the corner onto Montgomery St, giving me a direct view of World Trade what must have been moments after the first plane hit, staring at the fireball atop the World Trade Center just across the Hudson river and rationalizing that it must be some kind of extreme window cleaning before noticing that everyone was stopped in their tracks, staring at it in bewilderment, too. Post 9/11 NYC was a weird place to be and this album made it feel more normal because it preceded the tragedy but still had a lot of emotional relevance. In its own way it helped me believe that what we were going through was not unprecedented and therefore survivable and surmountable. To be sure, I was superimposing my own trauma on it but it worked. Definitely better on headphones, where it feels like a very personal soundtrack through a surreal, isolated landscape. Listening to "Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box" on a subway crowded with other quietly traumatized commuters. "You And Whose Army?" with the sound off on a TV showcasing our "commander in thief" (to borrow from the title of the next album Radiohead made after this) making a tragically obsessive, nonsensical case for invading a country that had nothing to do with our situation and would solve no problems. The dreamy anxiety sleep sequence of "Knives Out" immediately followed by "Morning Bell/Amnesiac" immediately followed by "Dollars and Cents" and so on, eventually ending with a bizarre jazz funeral of "Glass Houses" - felt like the perfect soundtrack to my and the entire region's (nation's?) sleepless shuffle through the following spring. So no, I can't listen to this and review it with any pretense of objectivity. I gave this record a lot more meaning than probably even Radiohead did. In fact, I think I read somewhere the lyrics were somewhat randomly generated. But sometimes only nonsense makes sense. That is the genius of surrealism and dadaism in my view, and so it's no surprise that it was a an artistic movement birthed by war. Twenty years later, I was making small talk at a conference cocktail party with a woman from Iowa who unprompted told me a long story about her 9/11 trauma as she raced across Des Moines to get her kids from a daycare center located near the interchange of two nationally significant interstate highways, I-35 and I-80, convinced that intersection would be the next place the terrorists would hit. As I was listening to her I realized that here are no tiers of trauma. And I found myself laughing, I think mainly at myself, and it was very long overdue.

I do remember a time when there was no Amnesiac and only Kid A. Whit the passing of the time, there seems to be a conception of the two albums being tied, but at the time it was a complete different experience. It was more cryptic but in a way more interesting than its predecessor. I remember countless hours listening to this on my Sony discman. I remember once going to the rooftop and seeing the moon rise behind the clouds while listening to Pyramid Song. I guess I was at a melancholic stage of my teenage years, but I got something out of this record that did not get from Kid A or OK Computer. You and Whose Army? Still gets me every damn time (we ride tonight ghost horses!) same with Life In a Glass House, of which just the other day a listened to the extended version which I had not heard in a few years, what a delight! Many tend to think of Amnesiac as a lesser work than other Radiohead records but I can’t see why, it is one of the greatest records I have ever had the pleasure to listen, I love songs like Hunting Bears or Like Spinning Plates (of course I like the live version better but who doesn’t?) I love that half-forgotten / half remembered sound in Knives Out and Morning bell. Do you remember that amazing video clip they did for Pyramid Song? Damn that ending with the diver staying underwater and cutting the oxygen line will haunt me forever. There was nothing to fear, nothing to doubt…

This album is literally trash there was not a single song that was good T didn't like it neither did B it's literally the real life version of the guy from fresh meats dream album it screams I have a soul patch and play the bongos ... One of the worst albums I've heard.

First time with this album and I can see it growing on me even more. It's got a more chill vibe and the jazz influence on a few track adds a nice little extra.

Indie rock. Un poco tostón. Ni fu ni fa.

This is such a great album, and probably my favorite from them. Pyramid Song takes the cake.

I was a big Radiohead fan in highschool. A couple of years ago, I tried to do a Radiohead discography run for nostalgia's sake and gave up during Kid A. It was summer and the vibe wasn't right. I haven't really listened to them since, except for having "Hail to the Thief" come up on the generator a few weeks ago. (outside of this project, I'm in a bit of a disco/Funk era). All that to say, I didn't know how I was going to feel about this album after having not listened to it in about 15 years. I put it on for my drive in to work and by the opening notes of "Pyramid Song" I was in love again. There's a lot of variety on this album, glitchy Electronica, piano ballads, guitar moments that are heavy and menacing and light and jangly, oh and some jazz trumpet. Somehow, it all flows together. It has a groggier version of the same heady psychological effect for me that "loveless" had. Here, the dense production and desultory tracklisting gives the feeling of just waking up and trying to remember a dream (nightmare) that is fading or coming up from anesthesia - a very heavy high.

Weird yet accessible.

Nice sibbling of Kid A and equally brilliant. Thom Yorke's voice cuts through your soul and variety in music styles is fascinating. Only reason Kid A is bit better is How.To Disappear Completely, but easily 5 stars for Amnesiac too. The 3 times I saw them life are moments to cherish.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wonderful, almost perfect, one of my favourite bands ever, and was always going to score well. Listening to it again, I was reminded why I loved it first time around, and it has to be five stars (at least!) Pyramid song and you and whose army are stand outs, even in an album so flawless

Just beautiful

Epic!

It’s clear to me how impactful this album was to so many modern albums based on how familiar it sounded despite never listening to it fully before.

A classic I already loved

Gets overshadowed by Kid A I suppose, but perhaps just as good. Love this album. The songs hang together despite being very different from one another. They each take you to a different wonderful and mysterious place.

I feel like this is one of Radiohead's more digestible albums. Pyramid Songs, Dollars and Cents and I Might Be Wrong are standouts for me.

Very versatile and cinematic

Very Radiohead many wow

I like radiohead, but this felt like the dregs of Kid A - fine for background listening :)

Radiohead is also that band for me that has a bunch of cool songs then a bunch of gobbledygook. This is one of the better albums imo.

Kinda boring

Nr. 44/1001 Packt Like Sardines In a Crushed Tin Box 4/5 Pyramid Song 4/5 Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors 2/5 You and Whose Army? 3/5 I Might Be Wrong 3/5 Knives Out 3/5 Morning Bell/Amnesiac 3/5 Dollars and Cents 3/5 Hunting Bears 3/5 Like Spinning Plates 3/5 Life In a Glasshouse 4/5 Average: 3,18 Super interesting listen, especially the sound-scapes that are greated here. But I still can't enjoy Radiohead as much as others

Radiohead feels like a prank band to me, I do not understand them.

That's not my taste in musik.

2nd radiohead album I got. I wanted to hate first one, but I didn't. I do hate this one. I do appreciate the effort, but not the music. I don't have the patience. Favorite song: dollars and cents.

Ok, I’ve heard enough Radiohead now. This exercise has made Radiohead tumble down the rankings. My favourite part of listening to this album was when the last song came on, because it was almost not Radiohead, it was mostly a different band. I wouldn’t have felt that way one year ago, before I was asked to suspend disbelief and entertain the idea that Radiohead has produced four (and counting, probably) of the world’s best one thousand and one records. I would have been like “Oh yeah, decent record, that song at the end was especially cool, I kinda like Radiohead,” like a normal person

Someone just needs to say it, Radiohead are pretty shit.

Whiny garbage

There's talent behind it somewhere, but the end result comes off as uninspired, pseudo-intellectual, and instantly forgettable. Pyramid Song is one of the more listenable tracks, but even then the stair stepping major chords are simple and repetitive while the unusual rhythm just feels contrived.

Was I already depressed. Not quite sure

Radiohead - but Jazzy?

Still cannot understand why these guys are so famous

I still just can’t get Radiohead

ASSSS

I could nearly get through this. It’s so messy and uninspiring. 2/5 Not a fan

I mean, yeah, fine. Radiohead has never been my bag.

Overall didn’t really enjoy the album. The style wasn’t for me and Thom’s voice felt particularly whiny. Liked some songs such as You And Whose Army and Life In A Glasshouse. Much prefer The Bends and OK Computer.

No thanks.

Day88 - i think radiohead is one of those bands that you love or hate. i don’t love them

I don't understand the obsession with radiohead. They have a few good songs, sure, but I don't think any of them are on this album.

Fine if I wanted to fall asleep

I hate his voice

This is theoretically interesting, but not great. I just don't get peoples' infatuation and fascination with Radiohead. They are over-estimated - the ultimate navel-gazers. Who listens to this? why? I am not a fan.

As if I didn't think Radiohead were bad enough before I heard this, Jesus Christ, what is this shit!?

2 A collection of songs recorded during the same sessions as the group’s previous album, Kid A, that they felt warranted a full, separate release. Well, I think this definitely feels like a collection of outtakes from a superior album, and anyone who calls this “Kid B” is right on the money. There’s no cohesion or connective tissue between anything here, and while there’s at least a unique sound to each song, it really just comes off feeling pretentious most of the time. At least we got a pretty good murder mystery movie out of the track Knives Out, which also happens to be probably the best song here as well - though likely because it’s the only one where it doesn’t sound like Thom Yorke’s head is fully up his own ass. One of the most overrated groups out there, and it frustrates me when their fans try to assert this kind of thing as a masterpiece. Yes, Radiohead has some great tunes, some innovative, some just bangers, but there’s so much pretentious, annoying bullshit in their catalog you have to sift through to find those. Will die on the hill that this band is not as great as music nerds made out to be.

Right ok so i know radiohead is meant to be the shit but I just couldn’t get into this album…

NOT a fan

Bit full of itself without the content to back itself up. Mopey. Keep waiting for it to improve and it just never does. Only decent track is Knives Out and even then I'm in no rush to revisit

ngl, always found them a little dull.

2/5 Not really my jam at all.

Nicht meins

No. Just no. I hate this and all Radiohead art-rock whiney drivel. Too clever by half.

Don’t rlly like 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩 💩

Today I am so happy because this is the last Radiohead album I ever have to listen to for the rest of my life. There are 6 albums on the generator (two of them have been removed from the book). While I clearly don't like Radiohead I can agree that they should have one or two albums on here but six feels over-represented. Whiny and pretentious. 1.27

This started off okay but I can't stand Thom Yorke's voice after a while. There are some interesting ideas here, especially their incorporation of elements of electronica, but the overall effect was too dour for me and I was in need of of some light with all that shade by about halfway through.

NO MORE RADIOHEAD!!! I don’t care how much these listmakers fawn over this dreary nerd music, I don’t like it and I never will. I truly hope this is the last of this crap.

Someone in their review compared Radiohead's critical lauding to the Emperor's New Clothes and I think that sums up my feelings perfectly. Doesn't work for me. Also this is my fifth Radiohead album. Please make it stop.

This is a very dreary and bleak album. Not a fan.

Just don't get it

I just don't get it. I know lots of people are just crazy about this stuff, but I just don't get it. I hate everything about it.

Langweilig... Britpop mit experimentellem Ansatz

2/10. Not for me

Before listening: I don't want to do this at all. I'm tired of Radiohead and yes, I am one of those classless people who enjoyed The Bends and OK Computer. In fact, those two albums are some of my favourites all time. After that, well I don't know what the fuck happened. I'm almost certain I won't enjoy this album. There won't be a hook or a chorus anywhere and yet, I'm the asshole for not "getting it". I'm sick of Radiohead and I don't feel bad saying that. After listening: I was right. This was boring and I didn't get it at all. There was zero enjoyment for me and I'd rather listen to Yoko Ono wail into a hat than listen to this again. I hope I get a good album tomorrow and not this experimental trash.

Hard to believe this is the same band who released Pablo Honey and The Bends. Terrible.

A lot of this album felt like an intro to a song that never happened

didnt like it much at all wasnt my style and honestly didnt think it was very good.

Well after listening to these guys, I'm beginning to think I was a little hard on Frank. Good gawd, I've heard of Radiohead and I've heard they have some good music. Apparently, I heard wrong or this album was some type of experiment on whining like a lil bitch. I listened once and have no desire to listen again. About song #3, Pulk or something like that, I had flashbacks to some of the worst albums I have heard off this list. Suicide (the band, not the act itself) popped into my head. Yea...this was not good at all. My 1 is for the worst of the worst. These guys were close. I'll give 1.5 and that's being kind. Scoreboard will show 1 1.5

Rumore. Prog sì, così tanto non so veramente quale possa essere l'appeal

I didn't think it was possible to make 44 minutes sound like 4 hours, but this managed it. What a crock of shit.

Electronic Radiohead

This is not my favourite Radiohead album, but even Pablo Honey would get at least 4 stars. Pyramid Song and Morning Bell/Amnesiac are absolutely sublime, and the rest is really good.

a very cool bridge between their earlier rock/alt sound and what evolved into the masterpiece of Kid A

I know this one well

Holds up.

Amazing, maybe Kid A best, but this is 4.5 stars. I may be biased becayse I listen to this on my 20s (not two decades later). Still holds.

*5*

A more mellow album even for them. Still great.

Bomb

say less....