Radiohead - Kid A / Amnesiac Poll

I think I've only made it through the whole of Treefingers maybe twice... I like the concept of an ambient interlude at that point in the album, but it's fearsomely dull to actually listen to.

I don't think it's that difficult to get a handle on 'Treefingers', really... it's not formless at all, it has a structure and a chord progression and everything!

Doesn't mean I have to like it.

I've nothing against beatless textural ambient numbers, but I don't think Treefingers is a particularly interesting one.

I've always preferred Amnesiac to Kid A. Kid A has more real songs but they're both mood pieces, basically, and Amnesiac does sustained mood better IMO.

Is there a thread for ppl to discuss their personal kid amnesiac mixes? Bc that's a thing I've done

x-post:

I dunno, I think Kid A works well as a start-to-finish thing, whereas Amnesiac is frontloaded... I would have loved for them to have found a way of putting tracks like 'Fog' and 'Cuttooth' on there.

Both of these albums must have been a pain in the backside to sequence though. I guess they knew they had enough for a couple of albums when it came to compiling Kid A, but they had so much stuff that there must have been some strong debates about what eventually went onto Kid A and in what order. The fact that it came after OK Computer, too... they must have really agonised over it. Then with Kid A done, the approach for Amnesiac must have been "how do we make a decent record up out of the remainder of the tracks?"

Ed's diary of the recording sessions is fine, but doesn't really tell the full story... I'd really love to read a book on the sessions from these records from start to finish.

like both well enough as front-to-back listens that i've never considered stripping them down for parts. do agree that amnesiac lists a bit after "knives out". "treefingers" is perfect tho.

I found Dollars & Cents really dull at the time - same with Knives Out and I Might Be Wrong and most of the middle section of Amnesiac. As someone who was underwhelmed by much of Kid A but was glad they made it, I didn't want them to be making any kind of rock music any more, I wanted them to be better at making electronic music.

I wonder if D&C would sound better in light of the new album though. It seems to be closer to AMSP than anything else from that era.

Ed's diary of the recording sessions is fine, but doesn't really tell the full story... I'd really love to read a book on the sessions from these records from start to finish.

They appear to be so fearsomely passive aggressive and closed off I wonder if anybody knows the full story of their tortured, album making sagas.

i love how Cuttooth got mentioned the most in the diary by far and it ended up being a b side

the weak points of Amnesiac are Knives Out (quite a dull song), Morning Bell/Amnesiac, Pulk/Pull (nothing really wrong with it but doesn't work in context) and Hunting Bears

would have much prefer Cuttoth, Fog, Kinetic & Worrywort on it over those, Cuttooth and Fog especially are among their very best. i don't know why they hate the recording of Fog so much

I think they were originally trying to make fog sound like morr electropop a la worrywort. More synth based and melodic... Early demos were more in that style and then they made an even better piano based version.

the weak points of Amnesiac are Knives Out (quite a dull song), Morning Bell/Amnesiac, Pulk/Pull (nothing really wrong with it but doesn't work in context) and Hunting Bears

would have much prefer Cuttoth, Fog, Kinetic & Worrywort on it over those, Cuttooth and Fog especially are among their very best. i don't know why they hate the recording of Fog so much

― ufo

Upthread:

Amnesiac

The Kid A / Amnesiac era has such amazing b-sides. You could argue Amnesiac was a b-side album and in parts it definitely feels like it. This one is in serious need of a rearrangement imho and the b-sides from the era definitely allow it.

There is actually a Stylus 'playing god' article about this album already! - http://stylusmagazine.com/articles/playing_god/radiohead-amnesiac.htm - and I agree with it for the most part. At the time thAT article was published Nude was still unreleased, and he picked a live version of Spinning Plates too. The live version of Spinning Plates would, in fact, been a much better addition than its final form but it feels a little bit like cheating picking up unreleased or live versions when playing god.

I actually love having the final 'playing god' playlist in my itunes and it breaks the mood completely to have a live track in there. Also he left out 'Fog' which is one of the best b-sides of the era next to Worrywort. So from that article I picked the same tracklist with two slight changes; 'fog' instead of 'nude' (which coincidentally share a similar mood so it doesn't ruin the flow) and I decided to remove Spinning Plates completely.

1. Packt Like Sardines in a Crushed Tin Box
2. Pyramid Song
3. You and Whose Army
4. I Might Be Wrong
5. Fog
6. Cutooth
7. Worrywort
8. The Amazing Sounds of Orgy
9. Kinetic
10. Life in a Glasshouse

― Moka, Saturday, February 15, 2014 5:49 PM (2 years ago)

this is how I have it on itunes and it really improves the album:

http://i.imgur.com/WCgJV5N.png

Maybe nowadays I'd add Dollars & Cents or change it for Orgy or Kinetic. I found it very meandering at first but it has grown on me.

Here's my kid amnesiac playlist:

1) everything in its right place
2) kid a
3) national anthem
4) transatlantic drawl
5) pyramid song
6) pulk/pull revolving doors
7) optimistic
8) in limbo
9) cuttooth
10) worrywort
11) packt like sardines in a crusht tin box
12) idioteque
13) like spinning plates
14) treefingers

There were certain sequences of songs I wanted to preserve, and certain tracks segue p well stylistically. I think I'm the only one who favors transatlantic drawl, it seems, but I like its trashiness followed by warbly boards of canada kinda synths

You left out HTDC

See what he did there?

Haw

Love the orchestration of HTDC, but the song doesn't go anywhere for me

There's something about 'Treefingers' that reminds me of the intro to 'Pearl's Girl' by Underworld.

20th Anniversary announcements today!

New / unreleased song on spotify.

Artwork looks super lazy.

a bit more is coming

https://t.co/sMZGB0eE7V
We humbly submit KID A MNESIA to you.
It's a coming of age for Kid A & Amnesiac and it's joined by a new album, Kid Amnesiae, a memory palace of half-remembered, half-forgotten sessions & unreleased material.
All three come out together on November 5th. pic.twitter.com/V5Ms5iRUKl

— Radiohead (@radiohead) September 7, 2021

New/old track is good!

Tacit admission they should have been a double album?

300 page book looks super tasty.

Oh, it does.

I have quickly shifted from "Well, that's a stupid idea" to "Yeah, probably need both the books and the CD of extras".

The sleeve for Amnesiac is good but I really have no fondness for anything I've seen of Donwood's art, it's very bad.

Sprang for the 3CD set; don't need the book.

I've got a lot of time for Donwood - his Holloway book and the London Views prints, in particular. His There Will Be No Quiet book is very good. Actually, he was posting pencil drawings (on Twitter) at some point during the pandemic that were incredible.

i ordered the big book/vinyl thing because I'm a sucker

Not including the original b-sides in that strikes me as misstep.

that's for the 40th anniversary. finally, then it will all be available in one deluxe package

I can't see any difference in track listings between the various formats.

I was glad of that, I was half expecting some dick move, like putting a collage of unreleased music on a cassette.

(I might not be fully paying attention, mind).

I agree with Maresn3st. Never really helped with any of the Radiohead artwork

The only format that has b-sides is the cassette version. It's missing half of them, though.

It's the only one that describes having b-sides but aren't all the actual track listings the same?

it has the 3 LP/CDs of the others on a cassette side each... and then oddly not all of the Amnesiac b-sides although they could've fit them all.

His There Will Be No Quiet book is very good.

Reminded me to pick this up. I'll wait and see on this new stuff!

the photo of the cassette version doesn't include any of the old b-sides

https://store-us.kida-mnesia.com/products/kid-amnesiette-special-edition-cassette-book-kaa

it kind of looks like it, because with the formatting it says

FOG
(AGAIN AGAIN VERSION)

but that's just "Fog (again again version)" the same as on the other formats

Look way down bottom right of the cassette box back, bro

sorry to belabor it, but i don't see any of the old b-sides? i see versions of them, remixes or other versions or whatever, but none of the originals

that's based on clicking the "buy" button on https://kida-mnesia.com/ and zooming in on the tracklists in the photos

Look way down bottom right of the cassette box back, bro

― maf you one two (maffew12),

ooooooooh

well, there's always the 40th anniversary box