Radiohead’s most underrated album is one of my all-time favourite test records
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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.
A music system’s handling of dynamics and a sense of drama will also be pushed to the limit by the best that Amnesiac has to offer. You And Whose Army? is the record’s dramatic high point, building from gentle, mysterious piano keys akin to those found in Pyramid Song and then blossoming into a cataclysm of sound that the finest set-ups will express with fullness, resonance and a profound sense of drama. Need a track for assessing a big pair of room-filling floorstanding speakers? Here it is.
Others are pure test room fodder that will appeal far more to musos, sound engineers and forensically-eared detail hunters than they will to casual listeners. Like Spinning Plates’ fluttering, stuttering effects combined with Thom Yorke’s peculiar, alien vocal line creates an utterly disconcerting experience – not surprising considering the song was born of Yorke and co taking an electronic version of I Will and then recording most of it backwards. Dollars And Cents, too, is all about texture, this time seeing the harsh, repetitive clanking cymbal sounds that would return in 2007’s Reckoner take centre stage. Reckoner, by the way, is also one of our go-to test tracks for assessing a product's detail and clarity.
This is the fun of the album, in that you can bounce from big, bold numbers like You And Whose Army? to aforementioned oddities such as Like Spinning Plates and find utterly distinct elements to enjoy, all the while knowing that a new set of qualities is set to be revealed, or pitfalls illuminated, depending on which piece you pick. I’m an enormous fan of, say, Nirvana’s Bleach, but it’s a slightly ‘heard one, heard them all’ affair as far as using it for testing hi-fi kit or headphones goes. Before you set that torch ablaze and sharpen your angry pitchfork, let me reiterate once again: I love Bleach.
What Radiohead’s forgotten gem has is a distinct personality of its own, and that’s tough to pull off when the material housed within is as diverse and experimental as this. Whatever the case, it feels as though Amnesiac has often been lost amid Radiohead’s heaving discography – with nine full studio albums of densely-packed material, at least three of which appear consistently on lists and rundowns of the best albums ever, Amnesiac can often become lost or simply dismissed as nothing more than ‘Kid A-lite’.
A recent reissue/compilation titled Kid A Mnesia has blended Kid A and Amnesiac (plus even more bonus material) into a single record, hinting at last that the latter outing is finally being given its due, albeit with support from its bigger, more successful brother. However you experience it, dismiss Amnesiac at your peril – as is often the case in life, it’s the most valuable treasures that are hidden in the deepest caves. If you're hunting a test album that you might have skipped over in the past, this would be the one that I'd urge you to give its proper dues.
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