Radiohead

Radiohead’s fifth album Amnesiac, the follow-up to last year’s Kid A, was recorded at the same time. It reminds me of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon on Valium. It is only half successful. The first song "Packt Like Sardines in a Crushed Tin Box" is unsettling yet has a certain gothic beauty. "I Might Be Wrong" has a cool beat and electric guitar, but I couldn’t understand anything lead singer Thom Yorke was singing. My favorite song was "Life in a Glass House," a sad ballad that sounds like a New Orleans funeral procession, horns and all. "Dollars and Cents" sounds like a James Bond theme on acid. These are the standouts. Most of the other songs are cold and metallic, leaving you feeling lost and empty. If this is what they wanted, they got it. Too many mournful dirges. It could have been a cool album. But it left me cold.