Most of the time, I’m pretty sure that Amnesiac is just as good as Kid A and occasionally I think it’s better. Recorded at the same time, I often wonder what the energy was like when these two monumental albums were recorded together in the studio. Did Radiohead know that they were about to change the game so drastically for modern music? And, did they really change anything? I’m not sure, but I am sure that Amnesiac is absolutely amazing.
Sparklehorse It’s A Wonderful Life
(Capitol, 2001)
It’s A Wonderful Life is beautiful like a slow motion campfire or watching a Polaroid picture as it develops. Spiked with nostalgia, Sparklehorse, in his follow-up to the schizophrenic Good Morning Spider, created his most focused and endearing record to date. Tinged with sadness but magnificently life affirming, the feel of this album is written in its title.
Whatever genre James Murphy’s music qualifies as, he has his finger directly on its pulse, and with precision he orchestrates beats, synths, and vocals that manage to loop and loop without becoming monotonous. And again on Sound of Silver, Murphy creates songs with more soul than dance music is used to. The album is book ended by two conflicting thoughts. At one end, the beats and reverb laden vocals of “Get Innocuous!” and on the other, the stripped down “New York, I Love You But... (But You’re Bringing Me Down.)” In “Get Innocuous!”, Murphy encourages us to become harmless? Really? No, it couldn’t be. And in “New York, I Love You” the true spirit of the conflict becomes apparent. Murphy laments that his precious New York has lost all its charm, having become “safer, and wasting [his] time.” So which is it? Or is it the conflict? Or does it really matter? To some it might, but to others the music will stand on its own. Either way, the Sound Of Silver is a lesson in the mathematical paradox of a whole being much more than the sum of its parts. Each part beginning with a simple beat or piano loop, and gradually unfolding and interweaving into something you didn’t really expect. The sum being an album full of wonderfully simple, yet intricate songs, that rarely if ever disappoint. The kind of album anyone should be able to produce with a laptop and some time. That is if you had your finger on the pulse of dance pop/rock. My guess is you don’t. As an aside, you want to know who else is quite a dance music aficionado, check out the 7+ minute album version of David Bowie’s classic “Lets Dance.”
Radiohead 
