Life in a Glasshouse

''Amnesiac'' is the fifth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 30 May 2001 by EMI subsidiaries Parlophone and Capitol Records. It was recorded with the producer Nigel Godrich in the same sessions as Radiohead's previous album ''Kid A'' (2000); Radiohead split the work in two as they felt it was too dense for a double album. As with ''Kid A, Amnesiac'' incorporates influences from electronic music, 20th-century classical music, jazz and krautrock. The final track, "Life in a Glasshouse", is a collaboration with the jazz trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton and his band.

After having released no singles for ''Kid A'', Radiohead promoted ''Amnesiac'' with the singles "Pyramid Song" and "Knives Out", accompanied by music videos. Videos were also made for "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" and "Like Spinning Plates", and "I Might Be Wrong", which was released as a promotional single. In June 2001, Radiohead began the ''Amnesiac'' tour, incorporating their first North American tour in three years.

''Amnesiac'' debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and number two on the US ''Billboard'' 200. By October 2008, it had sold over 900,000 copies worldwide. It is certified platinum in the UK, the US and Canada, and gold in Japan. Though some critics felt it was too experimental or less cohesive than ''Kid A'', or saw it as a collection of outtakes, it received positive reviews; it was named one of the year's best albums by numerous publications.

''Amnesiac'' was nominated for the Mercury Prize and several Grammy Awards, winning for Best Recording Package for the special edition. "Pyramid Song" was named one of the best tracks of the decade by ''Rolling Stone'', ''NME'' and ''Pitchfork'', and ''Rolling Stone'' ranked ''Amnesiac'' number 320 in their 2012 " 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list. ''Kid A Mnesia'', an anniversary reissue compiling ''Kid A'', ''Amnesiac'' and previously unreleased material, was released in 2021.

Recording

Radiohead and producer Nigel Godrich recorded ''Amnesiac'' during the same sessions as its predecessor, ''Kid A'', released in October 2000. The sessions took place from January 1999 to mid-2000 in Paris, Copenhagen and Radiohead's Oxfordshire studio. The drummer, Philip Selway, said the sessions had "two frames of mind ... a tension between our old approach of all being in a room playing together and the other extreme of manufacturing music in the studio. I think ''Amnesiac'' comes out stronger in the band-arrangement way."

The sessions drew influence from electronic music, 20th-century classical music, jazz and krautrock, using synthesisers, ondes Martenot, drum machines, strings and brass. The strings, arranged by the guitarist Jonny Greenwood, were performed by the Orchestra of St John's and recorded in Dorchester Abbey, a 12th-century church close to Radiohead's studio.

Radiohead considered releasing the work as a double album, but felt it was too dense. The singer, Thom Yorke, said Radiohead split it into two albums because "they cancel each other out as overall finished things. They come from two different places, I think ... In some weird way I think ''Amnesiac'' gives another take on ''Kid A'', a form of explanation." The band stressed that they saw ''Amnesiac'' not as a collection of ''Kid A'' B-sides or outtakes but an album in its own right.

Tracks

"Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" began as an attempt to record another song, " True Love Waits". It features keyboard loops recorded during the ''OK Computer'' sessions; Radiohead disabled the erase heads on the tape recorders so that the tape repeatedly recorded over itself, creating a "ghostly" tape loop, and manipulated the results in Pro Tools. Deciding that the arrangement did not fit "True Love Waits", Radiohead used it to create a new track. Yorke added a spoken vocal and used the pitch-correcting software Auto-Tune to process it into melody. According to Yorke, Auto-Tune "desperately tries to search for the music in your speech, and produces notes at random. If you've assigned it a key, you've got music." The "True Love Waits" version of "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" was eventually released on the 2021 compilation ''Kid A Mnesia''. Auto-Tune was also used to process Yorke's vocals on "Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box", to create a "nasal, depersonalised sound".

For "You And Whose Army?", Radiohead attempted to capture the "soft, warm, proto- doowop sound" of the 1940s harmony group the Ink Spots. They muffled microphones with egg boxes and used the ondes Martenot's resonating ''palme diffuseur'' loudspeaker to treat the vocals. Unlike many tracks from the sessions, the band recorded it live; the guitarist Ed O'Brien said, "We rehearsed it a bit, not too much, then just went in and did it. It's just us doing our thing as a band."

According to a diary kept by O'Brien, "Knives Out" took over a year to complete. He said it was "the most straight-ahead thing we've done in years", and that the band been tempted to over-embellish it. It was influenced by the guitar work of Johnny Marr of the Smiths. "Dollars and Cents" was edited down from an eleven-minute jam, using an editing approach inspired by krautrock band Can. The bassist, Colin Greenwood, played a jazz record by Alice Coltrane over the recording, inspiring his brother Jonny to write a "Coltrane-style" string arrangement.

"Like Spinning Plates" was the result of Radiohead's attempt to record another song, "I Will", on synthesiser. Dismissing the recording as "dodgy Kraftwerk", Radiohead reversed it and created a new song. Yorke said: "I was in another room, heard the vocal melody coming backwards, and thought, 'That's miles better than the right way round', then spent the rest of the night trying to learn the melody." Yorke sang the lyrics backwards; this recording was in turn reversed, creating vocals with lyrics that sound reversed. Radiohead recorded "I Will" in a new arrangement for their next album, '' Hail to the Thief'' (2003).

For the final track, "Life in a Glasshouse", Jonny Greenwood wrote to the jazz trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton, explaining that Radiohead were "a bit stuck". Lyttelton agreed to perform on the song with his band after his daughter showed him Radiohead's 1997 album '' OK Computer''. According to Lyttelton, Radiohead "didn't want it to sound like a slick studio production but a slightly exploratory thing of people playing as if they didn't have it all planned out in advance". The song was recorded over seven hours, and left Lyttelton exhausted. "I detected some sort of eye-rolling at the start of the session, as if to say we were miles apart," he said. "They went through quite a few nervous breakdowns during the course of it all, just through trying to explain to us all what they wanted."

Music and lyrics

''Amnesiac'' incorporates elements of experimental rock, electronica, alternative rock and jazz. Colin Greenwood said it contained "traditional Radiohead-type songs" alongside more experimental work. ''The Atlantic'' contrasted it with "the surgical glint" of ''Kid A'', with "swampy and foggy" arrangements and "uneasy" chords and rhythms.

The first track, "Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box", is an electronic song with synthesisers and metallic percussion. "Pyramid Song", a swung ballad with piano and strings, was inspired by the Charles Mingus song "Freedom". Its lyrics were inspired by an exhibition of ancient Egyptian underworld art Yorke attended while the band was recording in Copenhagen and ideas of cyclical time discussed by Stephen Hawking and Buddhism.

Yorke said "You and Whose Army?" was "about someone who is elected into power by people and who then blatantly betrays them – just like Blair did". The song builds slowly on piano, before reaching a climax in the final minute. According to O'Brien, "In the Radiohead of old, on ''OK Computer'', that break would have lasted four minutes. We would have carried on ' Hey Jude'-style."

"I Might Be Wrong" combines a "venomous" guitar riff with a "trance-like metallic beat". Colin Greenwood's bassline was inspired by the Chic bassist Bernard Edwards. The lyrics were influenced by advice given to Yorke by his partner, Rachel Owen: "Be proud of what you've done. Don't look back and just carry on like nothing's happened. Just let the bad stuff go." "Knives Out", described as the album's most conventional song, features "drifting" guitar lines, "driving" percussion, a "wandering" bassline, "haunting" vocals and "eerie" lyrics.

"Morning Bell/Amnesiac" is an alternative version of "Morning Bell" from ''Kid A''; ''The Atlantic'' described it as a blend of "cosiness and nausea". O'Brien said that Radiohead often record and abandon different versions of songs, but that this version was "strong enough to bear hearing again". Yorke wrote that it was included "because it came from such a different place ... Because we only found it again by accident after having forgotten about it. Because it sounds like a recurring dream. It felt right." He said the lyrics for "Dollars and Cents" were "gibberish", but were inspired by the notion that "people are basically just pixels on a screen, unknowingly serving this higher power which is manipulative and destructive".

"Hunting Bears" is a short instrumental on electric guitar and synthesiser. "Life in a Glasshouse" features the Humphrey Lyttelton Band playing in the style of a New Orleans jazz funeral. According to Lyttelton, the song starts with "ad-libbed, bluesy, minor-key meandering, then it gradually gets so that we're sort of playing real wild, primitive, New Orleans blues stuff". The lyrics were inspired by a news story Yorke read of a celebrity's wife so harassed by paparazzi that she papered her windows with their photographs.

Artwork and packaging

The ''Amnesiac'' artwork was created by Yorke and the longtime Radiohead collaborator Stanley Donwood. For inspiration, Donwood explored London taking notes, likening the city to the labyrinth of Greek mythology. He scanned blank pages of old books and superimposed onto them photos of fireworks and Tokyo tower blocks, copies of Piranesi's ''Imaginary'' ''Prisons'' drawings, and lyrics and phrases printed by Yorke on a broken typewriter.

The cover depicts a book cover with a weeping minotaur. The minotaur, a motif of the ''Amnesiac'' artwork, represents the "maze" Yorke felt he had become lost in during his depression after ''OK Computer;'' Donwood described it as a "tragic figure". Other figures depicted in the artwork include faceless terrorists, self-serving politicians and corporate executives. Yorke said they represented "the abstracted, semi-comical, stupidly dark, false voices that battled us as we tried to work".

For the special edition, Donwood designed a package with a hardback CD case in the style of a mislaid library book. He imagined that "someone made these pages in a book and it went into drawer in a desk and was forgotten about in the attic ... And visually and musically the album is about finding the book and opening the pages." The special edition won a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package at the 44th Grammy Awards.

Release

Radiohead announced ''Amnesiac'' on their website in January 2001, three months after the release of ''Kid A''. It was released in Japan on 30 May by EMI, in the UK on 4 June by Parlophone and in the US on 5 June by Capitol, both subsidiaries of EMI. After having released no singles from ''Kid A'', Radiohead released two from ''Amnesiac'': "Pyramid Song" in May and "Knives Out" in July, backed by music videos. Two music videos were created for "I Might Be Wrong", which was released as a radio-only single in June.

Radiohead reworked "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" and "Like Spinning Plates" for a computer-animated music video directed by Johnny Hardstaff. The video premiered on November 29, 2001, at an animation festival at the Centre For Contemporary Arts, Glasgow. It features imagery of killer whales swimming under UV light, a machine taking shape, and conjoined babies spinning in a centrifuge. The video received little airplay from MTV, who felt it was "of a sensitive nature" and would only broadcast it with a warning. Hardstaff said: "The irony is that you can't move on MTV for bland R&B and the empty boasts of 'artists' effectively fixated with their own flaccid showbiz cocks, but any piece of film with an ounce of real emotion isn't going to get seen."

Radiohead first performed ''Amnesiac'' songs on the ''Kid A'' tour, which began in June 2000. Radiohead performed the electronic tracks using rock instrumentation; for example, Yorke performed "Like Spinning Plates" as a piano ballad. On 10 June, 2001, Radiohead recorded a concert for a special hour-long episode of the BBC show '' Later... with Jools Holland'', including a performance of "Life in a Glasshouse" with the Humphrey Lyttelton Band. The ''Amnesiac'' tour began on 18 June, incorporating Radiohead's first North American tour in three years. Recordings from the ''Kid A'' and ''Amnesiac'' tours are included on '' I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings'', released in November 2001.

Sales

''Amnesiac'' debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart. On the US ''Billboard'' 200, it debuted at number two, with sales of 231,000, surpassing the 207,000 first-week sales of ''Kid A''. It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan for shipments of 100,000 copies across Japan. By October 2008, ''Amnesiac'' had sold more than 900,000 copies worldwide. In July 2013, it was certified platinum in the UK for sales of more than 300,000.

Reception

After Radiohead's previous album, ''Kid A'', had divided listeners, many hoped ''Amnesiac'' would return to their earlier rock sound. The '' Guardian'' titled its review "Relax: it's nothing like ''Kid A''". However, ''Rolling Stone'' saw ''Amnesiac'' as a further distancing from Radiohead's earlier "Britpop-like" style, and ''Pitchfork'' found that it was nothing like Radiohead's 1995 album '' The Bends''. '' Stylus'' wrote that although ''Amnesiac'' was "''slightly'' more straightforward" than ''Kid A'', it "solidified the postmillennial model of Radiohead: less songs and more atmosphere, more eclectic and electronic, more paranoid, more threatening, more sublime".

Robert Hilburn of the ''Los Angeles Times'' felt that ''Amnesiac'', compared to ''Kid A'', was "a richer, more engaging record, its austerity and troubled vision enriched by a rousing of the human spirit". The ''Guardian'' critic Alexis Petridis, who had disliked ''Kid A'', felt that ''Amnesiac'' returned Radiohead to "their role as the world's most intriguing and innovative major rock band ... tstrikes a cunning and rewarding balance between experimentation and quality control. It's hardly easy to digest but nor is it impossible to swallow." He criticised the electronic tracks "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" and "Like Spinning Plates" as self-indulgent, but praised the album's "haunting musical shifts and unconventional melodies". The ''Guardian'' named it "CD of the week". ''Stylus'' wrote that it was "an excellent disc", but was not as "exploratory or interesting" as ''Kid A''.

Some dismissed ''Amnesiac'' as a collection of ''Kid A'' outtakes. The ''Pitchfork'' critic Ryan Schreiber wrote that its "questionable sequencing ... does little to hush the argument that the record is merely a thinly veiled B-sides compilation". Another ''Pitchfork'' writer, Scott Plagenhoef, felt the sequencing worked by creating tension, heightening the power of the more experimental tracks. However, he felt the more conventional marketing created a sense of "ordinariness" compared to ''Kid A'' and the impression that Radiohead had bowed to pressure from their record label.

Some critics felt ''Amnesiac'' was less cohesive than ''Kid A''. The AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that it "often plays as a hodgepodge", and that both albums "clearly derive from the same source and have the same flaws ... The division only makes the two records seem unfocused, even if the best of both records is quite stunning." Another AllMusic critic, Sam Samuelson, said ''Amnesiac'' was a "thrown-together" release that might have been better packaged with the live album ''I Might Be Wrong'' as a "complete ''Kid A'' sessions package". Schreiber, however, felt the "highlights were undeniably worth the wait, and easily overcome its occasional patchiness".

Reviewing the 2009 reissue for ''Pitchfork'', Plagenhoef wrote: "More than ''Kid A'' – and maybe more than any other LP of its time – ''Amnesiac'' is the kickoff of a messy, rewarding era ... disconnected, self-aware, tense, eclectic, head-turning – an overload of good ideas inhibited by rules, restrictions, and conventional wisdom." In 2021, on the album's 20th anniversary, ''The Atlantic'' wrote that ''Amnesiac'' might be Radiohead's best work: "Listening to it 20 years after its release, the album's grumpy wisdom—its dignity in the face of dread—feels more moving than ever."

Accolades

''Amnesiac'' was nominated for the 2001 Mercury Music Prize, losing to PJ Harvey's '' Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea'', for which Yorke provided guest vocals. It was the fourth consecutive Radiohead album nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album, and the special edition won a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package at the 44th Grammy Awards.

Several publications named ''Amnesiac'' one of the best albums of 2001, including '' Q'', ''The Wire'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''Kludge'', the ''Village Voice'', ''Pazz and Jop'', the ''Los Angeles Times'', and ''Alternative Press''. In 2005, ''Stylus'' named it the best album of the decade that far. In 2009, ''Pitchfork'' ranked ''Amnesiac'' the 34th best album of the 2000s and ''Rolling Stone'' ranked it the 25th. It is included in the 2005 book ''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'', and number 320 in the 2012 edition of ''Rolling Stone'''s " 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list. "Pyramid Song" was ranked among the best tracks of the decade by ''Rolling Stone'', ''NME'' and ''Pitchfork''.

Reissues

After a period of being out of print on vinyl, EMI reissued a double LP of ''Amnesiac'' on 19 August 2008 along with ''Kid A'', ''Hail to the Thief'' and ''OK Computer'' as part of the "From the Capitol Vaults" series. On 31 August 2009, EMI reissued ''Amnesiac'' in a two-CD "Collector's Edition" and a "Special Collector's Edition" containing an additional DVD. The first CD contains the original studio album; the second CD collects B-sides from ''Amnesiac'' singles and live performances; the DVD contains music videos and a live television performance. Radiohead, who left EMI in 2007, had no input into the reissue and the music was not remastered. The "Collector's Editions" were discontinued after Radiohead's back catalogue was transferred to XL Recordings in 2016. In May 2016, XL reissued Radiohead's back catalogue on vinyl, including ''Amnesiac''.

An early demo of "Life in a Glasshouse", performed by Yorke on acoustic guitar, was released on the 2019 compilation '' MiniDiscs acked'. On November 5, 2021, Radiohead released ''Kid A Mnesia,'' an anniversary reissue compiling ''Kid A'' and ''Amnesiac''. It includes a third album, ''Kid Amnesiae'', comprising previously unreleased material from the sessions. Radiohead promoted the reissue with two digital singles, the previously unreleased tracks " If You Say the Word" and "Follow Me Around". '' Kid A Mnesia Exhibition'', an interactive experience with music and artwork from the albums, was released on 18 November for PlayStation 5, macOS and Windows.

Track listing

All songs written by Radiohead.

# "Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box" - 4:00
# "Pyramid Song" - 4:49
# "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" - 4:07
# "You and Whose Army?" - 3:11
# "I Might Be Wrong" - 4:54
# "Knives Out" - 4:15
# "Morning Bell/Amnesiac" - 3:14
# "Dollars and Cents" - 4:52
# "Hunting Bears" - 2:01
# "Like Spinning Plates" - 3:57
# "Life in a Glasshouse" - 4:31

Personnel

Adapted from the ''Amnesiac'' liner notes.

Radiohead

* Colin Greenwood
* Jonny Greenwood
* Ed O'Brien
* Philip Selway
* Thom Yorke

Additional musicians

* The Orchestra of St John's – strings
** John Lubbock – conducting
* The Humphrey Lyttelton Band
** Humphrey Lyttelton – trumpet, bandleader
** Jimmy Hastings – clarinet
** Pete Strange – trombone
** Paul Bridge – double bass
** Adrian Macintosh – drums

Technical personnel

* Nigel Godrich – production, engineering
* Radiohead – production
* Dan Grech-Marguerat – engineering
* Gerard Navarro – engineering assistance
* Graeme Stewart – engineering assistance
* Bob Ludwig – mastering

Artwork

* Stanley Donwood – pictures, design
* Thom Yorke (credited as "Tchocky") – pictures

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

Official Radiohead website
*

Ed's Diary:
Ed O'Brien's studio diary from ''Kid A'' / ''Amnesiac'' recording sessions, 1999–2000 (archived at Green Plastic)

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2001 albums
Parlophone albums
Radiohead albums
Albums produced by Nigel Godrich
Experimental rock albums
Electronica albums by British artists