that's right. Never bothered with it before. Radiohead never set my world on fire. Really liked "Creep" — let's face it, only "true Radiohead fans" would deny that it's a great track — but The Bends pretty much passed me by without me noticing it. Ended up getting it a few years later, but I'm very rarely motivated to listen to it.

I got into OK Computer when it came out, and I managed to convince myself right up until only a few months ago that it's an accomplished album. Now I realise that it's got some solid tracks on it, but is otherwise quite tiresome.

I was going through a "not listening to music much"/"too broke to afford any records" period in the very early 00s, so I never got Kid A or Amnesiac. Given my general ambivalence towards the band, plus the fact that my two Radiohead-loving friends panned both albums for their lack of guitars, I was not at all inclined to spend my limited cash on those albums. I did buy Hail to the Thief when it came out, though, because I thought "2+2=5" was a corker. Don't mind the album (really like "There There"), but it is at least 4 tracks too long. Still, I haven't listened to it for two years or more...

The inexplicable part of all this is that, despite my ambivalence, bordering on indifference towards Radiohead, I really, really like In Rainbows (bar the godawful "Videotape"). "Bodysnatchers" is acesome, of course, but pretty much all the tracks have got something going for them -- even "Nude", which normally wouldn't appeal, sounds right in the context of the rest of the songs.

So, here I am, listening to Kid A for the first time. Of course, I'm already familiar with "Everything in its Right Place", which I do like, and the title of "How to Disappear Completely" is familiar, though it didn't register when it came on a few minutes ago. "Optimistic" is good -- guitary, which I like (not that I'm in the least bit anti-"electronica"). Generally, I can see why my friends were not impressed -- there's some seriously trying stuff on this relatively short album (e.g. title track and "Treefingers")... "Idioteque" has just started... Hm. Given all the raving I just saw in the recent "Kid A/Idioteque" thread, I was expecting something a bit more than this, but I'll pay it as an interesting enough track.

... "Motion Picture Soundtrack"... oh dear...

First impressions: not the horrible mess that one side of me was expecting, but also not the work of genius that the other half of me was prepared to accept it as (and even wanted it to be). I can see why it has a following, what with its artsy pretensions and all, but I can't help but suspect that the highlights of this plus those of Amnesiac (I'm assuming there are highlights; "Pyramid Song" at the least), even with the restrained use of a couple of "non-songs", would've made a fantastic album.

I can't help but hear The Bends/OK Computer as old-prog to Kid A's "nu-prog" (and, on a guess, Amnesiac's too). Probably open myself to all kinds of abuse for that remark, and indeed for this whole post, but — fuck it — I'm in a confessional, non-self-censorial mood. I do think I'm likely to listen to Kid A a few more times yet, in any case.

So, the question: should I bother with Amnesiac, do you think? Better or worse than Kid A, in yours? More bleepy, I suspect, but song-wise, are they stronger?