o is Amnesiac "Kid B" like everyone says? Not quite. While easy comparisons can be made between Amnesiac and its predecessor (and it suffers from some of the same faults), Amnesiac is better seen as a step from the magnificent OK Computer on the way to the more experimental Kid A. Plenty of experimentation is going on here, but the album is not nearly as disconcerting a listen as Kid A.


Of course, to call Amnesiac the midpoint of OK Computer and Kid A would also be an incomplete description. I get the sense that Radiohead spent a lot of time writing, recording, and fooling around before they finally started cranking out their highly-anticipated follow-up to OK Computer. Plenty of experimenting was going on with electronics, weird time signatures, noise, and jazz. But we'd heard all that before. In that sense, Amnesiac can be called "Kid B" in that it feels like the studio leftovers from Kid A.


Does that mean that the album is not worth getting? By no means. A band with the unique talent and vision of Radiohead is capable of putting together an excellent album with studio extras. In fact, many of the tracks are more accessible than Kid A - more guitars, more traditional rock, albeit with a Radiohead twist. However, the album struggles from a lack of vision or cohesion, a similar problem to Kid A. Of course, it's hard to make a concept album with all of your leftovers.


With Kid A, Radiohead struggled between going full out to the experimental electronic side of music -- "Everything In Its Right Place," "Treefingers," "Idioteque" -- but still made accessible rock songs -- "Optimistic," "National Anthem." Amnesiac suffers the same fate. Tracks such as "Pyramid Song" and "You And Whose Army" shimmer with a Lennon-esque vibe, while "Packt Like Sardines In A Crushed Tim Box" and "Like Spinning Plates" push the limits again. I almost want to rearrange the tracks from Kid A and Amnesiac and come out with one experimental space-rock album and one weird-ass electronic album. Somehow it would just make more sense.


The synopsis: Amnesiac is a good album. It is not a masterpiece like OK Computer. It feels like a companion to Kid A. The two might be halves of a double album. If Kid A frightened you, beware, although I tend to think Amnesiac would have made a more comfortable transition from OK Computer than Kid A. If you liked Kid A, you're probably in for a treat as long as you don't mind a little treading water between releases.


And if you haven't heard any Radiohead since "Creep"... I'd like to be there when you find out the same band made this album.