Please don’t forget about Amnesiac
Perhaps more than any other, Radiohead’s Amnesiac is an oddity. Originally recorded with the intention of being used to make Kid A into a double album, Amnesiac is essentially the offcuts that didn’t make the final cut of one of the Oxford quartet’s most acclaimed records. Released a year after its so-called “parent” album, Amnesiac has never quite managed to step out of Kid A’s looming shadow and stand, proud and two-footed, in the basking glory of mainstream acclaim. Many Radiohead fans love it, but general audiences? Not so much.
Reputations are, as we know, funny things. Amnesiac remains a cautionary tale on not judging an album by its cover, or else not making assumptions about a record because of its slightly unusual provenance. A record comprised of offcuts and oddities doesn’t sound appealing to most, especially considering that Kid A, the supposed ‘main’ release, is esoteric and strange enough as it is.
For use as a test album when we’re reviewing stereo speakers, integrated amplifiers, turntables and even wireless headphones, though, it’s a mini treasure trove of goodies seemingly designed to stretch and probe a decent system’s capabilities. Ditching the angsty rock of Pablo Honey and The Bends in favour of greater introspection and experimentation, Amnesiac often feels like the group at their most liberated, at last free to remove the shackles of convention and play around with an expanded toy box of kooky instrumentation and roomier, often haunting soundscapes. Amnesiac feels like a band doing their own thing, and the results are spectacular.
At times, you’re treated to songs of such pristine beauty that it makes you feel incredulous that they’ve been relegated to an album that struggled for its place in the limelight. The haunting, slow-build of Pyramid Song is the Radiohead sweet spot, in that it’s esoteric and interesting enough to be worthy of the group’s boundary-pushing inclinations without becoming so abstract and self-absorbed that it’s no longer accessible or enjoyable. A key inclusion in our rundown of the best Radiohead test tracks and a tune that I use constantly for testing the best headphones, the track’s resonant, echoey piano is the perfect test of whether your hi-fi system’s components can provide the requisite space for each keystroke to be expressed with the appropriate amount of weight and texture amid the surrounding silence.
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