Amok - Atoms for Peace

Track List:

1. Before Your Very Eyes...
2. Default
3. Ingenue
4. Dropped
5. Unless
6. Stuck Together Pieces
7. Judge, Jury and Executioner
8. Reverse Running
9. Amok

Running time: 44 minutes
Released: 2013

So after revisiting Radiohead, it is one of the things that Thom Yorke went on to do thereafter that follows. I do not recall really listening to this, picked up because it was Thom Yorke, at all. I have its genre recorded as "Odd" which suggests it was ripped without a straight face.

I have a feeling that Atoms for Peace includes some other famous musicians, but I cannot be bothered to look up whom they may be as their names did not stick once and they were not the cause of my purchase. Like Amnesiac this record is in the classic 40-45 minute range but the songs here are sightly longer since there are fewer of them. That could be a good thing or a bad thing... lets find out!

I am guilty in all my writing of overusing two things: ellipses and parentheses. The ellipsis on the end of the title of the opener feels similarly gratuitous. The song itself has a decent shuffle to it, and as Default starts I sense that a shuffling kind of rhythm is going to be a feature. I quite like that, not being averse to electronica... providing there is enough with it to provide structure and musical accompaniment. From the early numbers here there is probably just enough to keep things interesting. The beeps and clicks and whirring are offset by Yorke's ethereal vocal. All in all it evokes memories of Kid A and Yorke's solo album The Eraser but with a slightly more chilled edge - less urgent, more considered. Ingenue begins like it should be a Boards of Canada number, and continues much in that vein. This would make for a good sci-fi soundtrack, or maybe just the background music for a scene played out in a hipster hangout in a dystopian future. "This is how we get through the day."

Random imagery aside, I would not want to listen to this everyday, or in sequence. The effect will, I think, get too much by the end of Amok, which is not to say that I do not like it in small doses. I find the tracks to be well constructed, with just enough going on to maintain interest and a good contrast (though Dropped has too much of a hint of a Windows error message about it in places). However I worry that it all becomes a) much of a muchness, and b) overpowering after a while. There is definitely a groove here though, one to be enjoyed, but I am definitely erring on the side wishing each track was a touch shorter.

Unless seems to darken the tone, the drone seems to have taken on a sinister side, amplified by the vocal signalling disinterest - it commands to me an image of a violent crime just happened, ignored by all passers by; hopefully not the intention! I overcame the error chime thought to really like Dropped, but the tonal shift has me feeling really off about this track. I think there is more to it than a sudden click in of the prophesied boredom with the format, and it is unsettling enough a thought that I want to revisit the song later to check.  The darkness does not appear to pervade though, the overtone of threat is gone from the next track, but it is replaced with a distant uncaring air... a boredom. Me projecting, certainly; this is the prophesy kicking in, right?

I certainly feel there is now a disconnect between the music and me that goes beyond the coffee hit wearing off. I am not sure, but there seems to be less to later tracks - more space, less arrangement, more excuse for the mind to wander. It is really hard to tell whether that is my expectation of distance self-fulfilling or whether I am picking up on a genuine change in the construction of the tunes. Reverse Running reverses the slide a bit though, so I think there may be something to the thought. Incidentally, this is why this project is not about reviews; I am not putting it on my own head to listen again and again to be fair and accurate to what is there; it is going to take me long enough to listen to everything once just to capture the impressions it creates.

God, that sounded self-important given this a purely self-driven, self-rewarding activity. I am such an arse.

Oh, I liked that the last two tracks seemed to mix together. I am not sold by the opening of Amok, but the merge from the end of the previous tune was unexpected. It just needs to gain another layer or two to really get going but I am not convinced another layer is forthcoming. It hovers just under the threshold for full attention, which is really frustrating; as if there is a great tune there trying to come through but a layer of invisible blandness is actively stopping it from realising its potential.

That would be a really harsh note to end on, so here is another. Amok is a pretty good album, if a little indistinct to plough through in full. There was nothing unpleasant here but it only really hit high notes once. Nothing to be cut though, and not for sentimental reasons this time.

Amnesiac - Radiohead

Track List:

1. Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box
2. Pyramid Song
3. Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors
4. You and Whose Army?
5. I Might Be Wrong
6. Knives Out
7. Morning Bell/Amnesiac
8. Dollars and Cents
9. Hunting Bears
10. Like Spinning Plates
11. Life in a Glasshouse

Running time: 43 minutes
Released: 2001

I thought I had 2 copies of this album - a regular and limited edition. Turns out I am either mistaken or I gave away the regular version at some point, but I still have the limited edition that I received as a 21st birthday present, as I recall.

It has been an age since I listened intently to any of these songs and whilst I can still hear a number of them if I bring them to mind, others are complete blanks. Had you asked me whether I thought I would forget any of these songs in the year after it was released, I would have thought you were mad. Oh the foolishness of youth, and the sad realities of life, growing up and the passage of time. I really liked Kid A despite the change of direction that had lots of people doing a collective WTF? after OK Computer. This album, recorded at the same time as the former, is in a similar mould.

Packt... is all beeps clicks and thumps but unlike say, Animal Collective, the use of them here dovetails with a less cacophonous vocal and a considered backing. It makes it more listenable, but I am not a big fan of this opening. I remember loving Pyramid Song, though. Rich and full whilst being spaced and haunting.  There goes that dodgy memory again: haunting yes, but rich... not so much. The song does build a depth of sound over the course of its run though, structured around the vocal and keys which hold everything together. OK, rich maybe does fit, but not for the whole length of the song. The strings, when they arrive, lend a fullness to the piece and I think they could have been used to bring about a much more fitting ending. It's a fine song that has aged, but gracefully. Which is more than I can say for Pulk/Pull. The only thing that saves this tune from the cut is, well, that it is on this album. I am not averse to deleting tracks from albums, but I am reticent to do so for albums that I have had so long or that I might realistically listen to as albums again. OK, the chance is low, but it is there. Sometimes less palatable tracks are part of the milieu, part of the whole that needs to be considered together. Lets not fudge this: the fact it is on a treasured album from my (relative) youth saves it, even if I would no longer list this disc as a favourite.

You and Whose Army? is a sentiment that I would venture that most young people have rolled around their heads at some point, and I was certainly no different. I think Yorke's vocal really works on this track, and the backing is far better than you might think in passing. I do not recall the variety and the lines other than the sombre piano from 15 years back, but on this listen they stand out nicely. The twang of I Might Be Wrong is a welcome one though. There is something faintly dirty about it, grubby sounds for a grubby future (now past). I could fault it for repetition but the hook is so catchy and the rhythm is interesting enough that it just about manages to swerve me pinning it for that. It swells nicely - or is that me simply imagining the swell? I think it might be the latter. I have to say that where I have been harsh on denouements before now, I quite like the one here, if only for the lonesome sound in the lull before it kicks in. 

Ah, now that mournful refrain was always a favourite. Knives Out is darkly melodic and resonates with me now as it ever has. The echo effect amplifying the lonely air and the creepy lyric. Listening properly there is a bit of a sonic mess here and there in the backing which is interesting because it never overshadows the clear melody. The album has now peaked, I suspect. 

I was never a fan of this version of Morning Bell, a worse rendition of one of the weaker Kid A tracks, I felt. This impression sticks on revisiting it here, and again the song is saved from the cut simply by being on this album rather than another and on we go.

Dollars and Cents sounds virtually nothing like what I remember. The same sounds are there, but the relative levels and the structure are different than in my recollection; my memory had the bassline more prominent and the title more front and centre lyrically. I have to say I prefer the flawed memory version to the real thing, but the song does contain enough interest, bite and drive to still be enjoyable. The rest of the album really is downhill, right brain? Hunting Bears I could not place at all by title, but its lamentations are familiar when they kick in. It makes for an interesting interlude, but nothing more than that.

Wow, the intro to Like Spinning Plates is the first 1 minute 46 seconds, that had not registered at all previously. I recognised the low key pulsing but expected the vocal to kick in much sooner. I do not recall this track fondly, and frankly I find this dull now so thus far, 2 of 3, the memory has the downward slide right. I think I would like Life in a Glasshouse more if it was Tom Waits and not Thom Yorke singing it. The wandering vaudeville style arrangement is more a Waits trait and it would suit a gruff retelling. Humphrey Littleton's trumpet sings out over what otherwise is a tangled old composition. It is actually a much stronger end than I remember it being, and for that I am glad.

The limited edition book

Having listened to the album in full for what must be the first time in a decade at least, Amnesiac stands up reasonably well. Two songs are pretty bad, and two more are simply alright. However there are 11 tracks here, all over fairly quickly, which is another feature that surprises me in hindsight - the 2 minute interlude track aside, everything else is in the 3-5 minute range of the radio-friendly pop song - and most of it is perfectly accessible, even if it does contain elements that may not have been so in 2001. The other 7 range from good to great, sharing a mostly dark in tone which suits a November night.

It is not their best album, nor my favourite, but it is still a fine collection of tunes. I am not surprised to still approve.