Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Radiohead, Warner Music Group/XL Recordings 2021.
Here’s something special for Radiohead fans – the iconic British band has announced that they are reissuing Kid A and Amnesiac along with a new album of previously unreleased songs from the original recording sessions called Kid Amnesiae.
Although there has been no new music from Radiohead since their 2016 album A Moon Shaped Pool, the various band members have kept themselves busy on solo projects.
Thom Yorke wrote a film score in 2018 for Luca Guadagnino’s film S uspiria and in 2019 released a solo album Anima and Jonny Greenwood scored Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread, which earned him an Oscar nomination, and Lynne Ramsay’s thriller You Were Never Really Here.
Jonny Greenwood is also engaged in the scores for two more major films, the Princess Diana biopic Spencer and Jane Campion’s The Power of The Dog.
On top of this he’s also launched a new record label Octatonic Records, so he’s been a busy boy.
Ed O’Brien also released a solo record last year, Earth, under the name EOB.
Back to the re-issues. Both Kid A and Amnesiac were recorded together with Kid A released in 1999 and Amnesiac in 2000.
This time they will be released together with the album names amalgamated.
The album of unreleased tracks which accompanies them is an album of offcuts and other material that was recorded at the same time but didn’t make either of the two releases.
These reissues follow on from their previous reissue of OK Computer NOTOK 1997-2017 which commemorated the 10-year anniversary of that album’s release.
I was a big fan of Radiohead back in late 1990s and early 2000s and like a lot of people I’ve lamented their disappearance from the airwaves, so I’ll be keen to get hold of these new albums when they are available.
I don’t have a firm release date at present but expect it to be sometime in November.
