AMNESIAC

Keeping Radiohead's adventurous spirits going, this album delves/dives deeply in the roots of Thom Yorke's depression or "mal-être" all the way down to paranoia, alienation and simply bordering the mental sanity frontier.

This album is rather unlike anything they had done before but at the same time is a logical artistic continuation of Kid A. somehow hovering between post rock (more like the Tortoise direction) and a weird sort of trip-hop or acid-jazz, mixed in with the usual sound of Radiohead. A good deal of these tracks deal with his contradictions and his confrontations (and apparently not just his internal ones) and we are far from the impressive inventions of OK Computer. BTW, Brother Jimmy ( Caravan's Pye Hasting's brother) pulls in a few clarinet lines with his brass section buddies, but this hardly saves the day.

Too many sampled and techno-oïdal moods are preventing me to really appreciate much deeper (but I do think this might be shallower than Thom had originally intended it also), but I do confess I have a problem really caring for the problem of this eccentric self- centred songwriter he is. Thankfully, he keeps the album short enough not to have you pop it out of your deck.

As intimate and personal or even inventive of an album, I think this is too obtuse for the average proghead to invest time (and money) into this album, for the little potential rewards that repeated listenings might just bring to you. And although there are moments of beauty, the risk of driving you to the brink of mental insanity or even suicide is a bit too evident should you decide to get intimate with Thom's alienations.

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