They're baaaaaaaaaack. Just eight months after unleashing the sonic conundrum that was the avant-pop adventure Kid A, Radiohead on June 5 releases Amnesiac, a companion piece of 11 tracks recorded during the same sessions that produced Kid A. Amnesiac is not merely Kid B, however; though the two albums hail from a similar sensibility - that of pushing the creative envelope as far as possible, particularly from 1997's lauded OK Computer - Amnesiac leans toward more meloodic and accessible terrain; "Knives Out," in fact, is so catchy and straightforward that you wonder if it wasn't a leftover from The Bends or OK Computer that sneaked its way onto Amnesiac.

But as the British quintet - singer Thom Yorke, guitarists Ed O'Brien and Jonny Greenwood, bassist Colin Greenwood, and drummer Phil Selway - kicks off an extensive summer of touring (after playing only a handful of dates for Kid A), there's no question that the two-album exercise has raised the group's stock immeasurably, establishing Radiohead as a band with shiftless artistic vision that won't rest on even the most considerable laurels. And isn't that just the kind of group we keep saying we want more of? Wall of Sound spoke with Colin Greenwood about the new disc, being compared to U2 and R.E.M., and which artists the band is currently tuned into.

What makes Amnesiac different than Kid A?

I think the difference is Kid A's like a more far-off, distant-sounding record, whilst Amnesiac is more present. Kid A is like a message recorded on your answer phone, whilst Amnesiac is a good, direct conversation with someone. Amnesiac is a more present example and representation of the music … that we've been recording over the past 18 months.

If all the songs were done during the same sessions, how did you decide which ones would go on which album?

They were all done at the same time. We had around 20 to 30 songs that we were finishing, and we selected the first team, the first football squad [Laughs] for Kid A, and for the second match we selected the Amnesiac team, and the songs that were left over we just used on some B-sides for the singles.

Ever consider doing a double album instead?

Yes, we were gonna do it as a double album, but then we thought that was kind of cheesy, the kind of thing a '70s progressive band would do. We think that records should be no longer than 45, 50 minutes maximum; it should be long enough for your average car journey and certainly no longer.

With the two albums done and out, what's your hindsight perspective on what Radiohead set out to do, particularly in the wake of OK Computer?

Well, when we walk out of the studio now we get really bad agoraphobia since we were in there for 18 months. [Laughs] I think the perspective is that the media was building us up to be the next sort of U2 or R.E.M., especially with our OK Computer-style music being really successful in arenas across America. But some of our experiences on OK Computer made us very uncomfortable with that career trajectory, so we've been spending the past two years working out how to do things a bit differently and still play good performances in front of our fans.

Were you really surprised at the impact you made with OK Computer?

We were, especially when there were bands appearing in England that were having big success with sort of diluted versions of what we were doing; I'm not interested in any of them, though they've gone on to sell a lot more records than we have. But we thought we'd become a target for other people, and we wanted to change it, sort of become a moving target, you know? I think people who would have been influenced by us before - like the number of bands in England who, when journalists write about them, use the R word to describe them - I think that'll drop off now, unless the band is being described in terms of willful career-wrecking decisions and wayward artisticness. [Laughs] We've always been a difficult band to pin down; I think that's what ended up being good for us.

The new songs did not come easy at first. Was there a lot of panic over how hard the process was?

We recorded lots of things early on which we were unhappy about, that we didn't think were very good. And six months later, we want back to them and wound up using a lot of them for the two albums, for bits and pieces that ended up on songs for both records. I think that says more about our state of mind at the time, which was sort of fractured and confused. There's the potential of setting a trap for yourself where you're never satisfied.

How did you know when you had something that worked?

Well, I think once you decide that you have to release an album, it's important to stop recording at some point — otherwise you can go up your ass forever. The only time you get to assess the quality of your work is when you complete a record and release it to the public; then you see how it's received and you get an idea of what's good and what's not, what works and what doesn't work. I think for us, playing live concerts and releasing records will always be crucial.

Was the group ever in danger of breaking up?

I don't think so. I mean, I think it's a relief when you emerge; you come out into the real world again and you realize that your music is good compared to other people's music - and also there was other good music out there as well. We all like that band Low, and the new Kristin Hersh record [Sunny Border Blue] is really good. There's some really exciting records being made at the moment, so that's all good when you realize you've done good work plus you know you can still be excited by good music.