Radiohead - Kid A / Amnesiac Poll

I feel rather underwhelmed by Disc 3.

Considering the amount of time and fuckery involved in making the records, a few songs and a bunch of fragments and string stems (as beautiful as they are) is a bit half hearted.

"if you say the word" and "true love waits" are the real gems here but the rest is pretty underwhelming yeah.

some cool stuff from the vaults that we know exists to some degree that would have been cooler to hear than like fragments of early versions of "morning bell" and "fast-track":
-early "a wolf at the door" (a "heavy metal version that sounded like the darkness")
-early "i will" ("dodgy kraftwerk version")
-early "up on the ladder"
-early "4 minute warning"
-early "feeling pulled apart by horses"
-any sort of more complete/interesting "follow me around"

There’s also this “where i end and you begin” demo from 2001 :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYVMCKfFqbE

Not really Kid A / Amnesiac sessions anymore but it does share an obvious aesthetic proximity compared to what they did with it later.

Song was pretty much laid out and an unheard demo previous to this one does exist from the sessions but they decided to keep it in the vault amongst all these you mention.

It is very disappointing compared to what they released for OKNOTOK and how complete it felt. Plenty of stuff we didn’t get in the end. Copying from a reddit comment:

We know via the mid session webcasts and Ed’s diary the following songs were worked on during the Kid A sessions.
There There (webcast)
I Will
Wolf At The Door
Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses
Gagging Order
4 Minute Warning
Backdrifts
Up On A Ladder
Skating On The Surface
True Love Waits
Burn The Witch
Along with countless versions of Cuttooth, Knives Out, Optimistic, etc.
Now I’m gonna assume the HTTT stuff will be held back for some sort of revisit in 2023.

even oknotok left a ton of stuff on the vaults as the minidiscs revealed but it was still pretty revelatory while this is more minor

i didn't know anything about skirting in the surface dating back to kid a though, all i can find about that is that thom had written some of the lyrics then, but that's not really historically indicative of its musical history

Yeah I haven’t double checked if that comment is accurate. Having early lyrics doesn’t mean there’s a song demo. Thom has notoriously been lifting completely new lyrics from old ideas from this era.

That said ed’s diary does describe some songs which we already know what they are - eg: “bombers” and “neil young 9” being the early names for “4 minute warning” - and that they definitely had several early demos of.

Oh and there’s still some mysterious song titles which we have no clue what they are.

picked this off the shelf yesterday, found the extras record solid and substantial considering it's just 35 minutes. Wonder if they could've tightened up the OKNOTOK new 3 songs with strong outtakes to make a similar record on that set. I liked going through the cassette and minidiscs exactly once. Great for what they were.

I could just be really jazzed from visiting a big city for the first time in a couple years

It's a pretty disappointing release unless you're buying these albums for the first time (or at least for the first time on a different format). At this point, given the bonuses they're willing to release for sale, I wish they'd put them out as their on own album rather than package them as deluxe set extras - a lot of it may be forgettable but at least it would be more reasonably priced.

true, if i was a really big vinyl guy I'd (try) to be having none of this. i never had Amnesiac and that has some of my fave songs (pyramid song, spinning plates, glasshouse). Hopefully i can sell my Kid A 2x10" reissue sometime.

Also from what I've listened to so far these are fine as single LPs.. and why in the heck were they ever doubles??

If they were cut in 45 or they wanted to cut bigger grooves, the double LP could be a noticeable improvement...but you can say that about any album, and when it inflates the cost, you have to weigh whether it's excessive.

under 50min over 1LP is practically aerobics

figured the 2x10" thing was just to be different, no reason why they couldn't fit onto a single LP. in fact Kid A makes so much sense with that Side A/Side B split, I don't get it at all. maybe it's just "weird album = weird packaging", I dunno

maybe for a different thread but I hate when bands split up albums less than 45 minutes onto 2 albums. I get that in theory they sound better but I never notice any real distortion until they get to like, 25+ minutes a side (lookin' at you, TODD)

yeah. of course this normally goes in the other direction to juice fans at anniversary times (new, better than ever!). Paul's Boutique 30th anniversary on 2 LPs... the 20th anniversary 1LP is one of my best sounding records!

My biggest gripe with this release - and I think I already wrote it upthread - is the complete lack of b-sides on vinyl. I would have 100% preferred to have the b-sides on vinyl than these extras which don’t really feel like a record I’ll be playing much if at all.

Takes on disc 3:

True Love Pulks sounds like a dodgy mashup to me.
I share ufo's disappointment that FMA isn't a full-band version.
If You Say The Word is clearly the best thing here.

I already forgot what the rest of it sounded like.

Still holding out for the follow-up to AMSP, whenever that will be.

the pulk/pull version of "true love waits" on this is wonderful, it's still not quite there but my favourite of the many many arrangements we've heard them try

― ufo, Wednesday, November 3, 2021 10:40 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Agree, I love this one. It doesn't have the emotional impact of the Moon Shaped Pool version, but I think it works a whole lot better than the Amnesiac "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors"

yeah. of course this normally goes in the other direction to juice fans at anniversary times (new, better than ever!). Paul's Boutique 30th anniversary on 2 LPs... the 20th anniversary 1LP is one of my best sounding records!

it's 53 minutes long so I get putting it on 2 LPs but yeah I have heard the 20th and it's great (the 30th sounds incredible too, of course). idk how exactly they did it but I have heard a good, knowledgeable engineer can make those 25+ minute sides work

Oh and there’s still some mysterious song titles which we have no clue what they are.

everything is actually known these days except the "jonny scott walker song", "if you say the word" was the last titled track we'd never actually heard anything of before

Citizen Insane stopped updating but “if you say the word” was actually several times in ed’s diary. First referred as “c minor song” and then “say the word”:

https://citizeninsane.eu/music/pile/saytheword.html

oh yeah i mean the last one named in ed's diary we'd never heard any music from before

Innocent Civilians is another unknown track iirc (speculation that it was “sit down stand up” but no confirmation yet) and Rachel’s song which is also speculated it ended up being “optimistic”.

I guess the “scott walker” song is also out there by now or it was just a riff that never went anywhere.

I always wondered if 'Scott Walker Song' was 'How To Disappear...', listen to the start of Sleepwalker's Woman, nearly identical hovering string notes, RH's one a little more dissonant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op4055-AuGQ

xxxxxp Yeah they were really aa skirting the.. limits of how much could fit on the surface with that one.

"The Scott Walker one" was how they referred to "Creep" after they recorded it, leading one engineer to remark "The only decent song they have, and it's a cover!"

“How to Disappear into Strings” is just incredible. Would love to hear more of just the string arrangements for their other songs.

though i am very annoyed that they are repackaging these albums yet again, i did enjoy the outtakes. at times, it feels less like outtakes and more like a "remix + rarities" album. i certainly don't have any complaints, even if it is a bit inconsistent. it's good for a super fan of the era and i expectedly really like the ambient / sound collage / harp / orchestral stuff that takes up most of the second half. feels like a very fitting coda to the period. wonder if the following albums will get similar treatment(s). i'm far from a bootleg-seeking tier fan, but i would love a similar `highlights` type disc from the in rainbows period.

Today I did not enjoy to listen to the mid-period stab at “True Love Waits”— I loved that this song existed for the “officially released tracks only” listener that I am as a live version and then as a eulogy. Hearing it paired with Pulk/Pull weakened both tracks for me

While chatting about the experience with a friend tho he tipped me off to what he claims is his favourite RH song, “Worrywort”, which is so lovely, and then I enjoyed the rest of the Amnesiac b-sides, so yeah I agree w you Moka

Also I love that the song “Kid A” ranked so highly in this poll!

I like Idioteque because it really does mangle Thomas Yorke's irritating oxford drawl. Just needs to be mixed into some bass heavy silicon scally electro to truly come alive.

I was laughing at the thought of them swapping the original “Pull/Pulk” with the “True Love Waits” version for the final Amnesiac release and how irate their diehard fans would’ve been with TLW getting officially put out like that.

i actually really like this version of "true love waits" — familiar, yet not, simultaneously.

also agree that this era of b-sides is pretty delicious. in terms of b-side material, i think i prefer only the ok computer era.

“Worrywort” is probably a top 5 song in their discography for me. I don’t think it fits in any of their albums though.

“Kinetic” was always my favorite b-side from that era. Felt completely difficult to pin down compared to the others during those sessions.

my favourites are "cuttooth" and "fog"

While chatting about the experience with a friend tho he tipped me off to what he claims is his favourite RH song, “Worrywort”, which is so lovely, and then I enjoyed the rest of the Amnesiac b-sides, so yeah I agree w you Moka

― flamboyant goon tie included, Friday, November 5, 2021 8:25 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i put this, "transatlantic drawl", and "cuttooth" on my personal kid amnesiac playlist

hearing this early version of "kid a" with piano and live drums opened up this song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-oHjLIcPMU

“How to Disappear into Strings” is just incredible. Would love to hear more of just the string arrangements for their other songs.

Jonny Greenwood albums imo

xp that's not actually an "early" version. it's established that it was one of the first tracks finished for the album (by november 1999), but this version is from their summer 2000 tour, not too long before kid a was released. it's just a fairly different arrangement to how they started playing it from the httt tour onwards (though they've tweaked the live arrangement quite a few more times since then). they never played it between kid a's release & the httt tour, so they presumably weren't happy with this particular arrangement at the time.

i think pretty much everything from kid a/amnesiac was finished by the time they went on tour in june 2000, except "life in a glasshouse"

i stand corrected chronologically but i maintain i was otm about it fuckin slapping

yeah it's a great version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZhnUWCDuo4

this one's a soundboard recording from that tour, much better quality

thats great!

early “Kid A” live versions were great- think this one is soundboard as well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aJQcw2GcCM

In context it’s admirable that they were out of their comfort zone not only on record but adapting it to a live setting.

re the Pulk/Pull TLW, what a weird one. Prefer the released versions of both, but I'm fascinated by the history of TLW as a parallel to the song's subject and its final release on what was basically a divorce record, lyrically.

Man I just listened through to the whole reissue and Amnesiac sounds amazing, even Hunting Bears sounds amazing

hot take: hunting bears has always sounded amazing.

(but yes, this new remaster absolutely rewards headphone listening for longtime fans of the material.)

Pull/Pulk sounded a lot less opaque too. Like, I could hear Thom was saying actual words and not just mumbling through an FX unit

Huh? I thought it was confirmed that these weren’t remastered at all? I think the only change is in the half speed vinyl cut?