Kid A (2-10" LPs)

But "Kid A" is entirely different, smoothed with techno groves that would make you think of Aphex Twin or Kraftwork, then covered with a sheet of Pink Floyd. But with the slow, almost sometimes quiet mood of the songs, Yorke and crew give you an entirely new message on this album--Surrender. The angst of "OK Computer" is gone forever, replaced with a sense of slow decay, not giving a damn about the world anymore.

Songs like "Everything in it's Right Place," gives you a good example, with simple electronic keyboards driving a continous note with little pause; Yorke's fractured vocals, saying "Everything...Everything...Everything..." cry out in muted sadness continuously, interupted by a record stopping and going, leaving him to sing out of tune terribly. The next song--the title track--with its simple, lonely lullabyish keys, sounds like one thinking of their childhood, yearning for a long-gone innocence when things weren't so clear

I have to agree that "Optimistic" is the most up-front and radio-friendly track on this album, since all the other songs are too sonically different and by far out of place on modern-rock radio. But in my opinion, "Kid A"'s best achievement is "How to Disappear Completely." I don't know how to decribe it, other than it's brilliant! Yorke's lonely vocals set back against an accoustic guitar and eerie keyboards can make anyone's hair stand up.

The song also fits into much of the album's artwork, where a faintly drawn scene of a post-apocolyptic office hallway shows, covered with icey cave-like stalagmites. It's the complete opposite of "OK Computer." Instead of the imagery of endless, inhuman, windowless cubicles, circled by a world where people work and live like corporate drones, we have a place where everything has come to pass. The companies are gone, the workers have disappeared, and the world that they used to inhabit is decaying. "This isn't happening," Yorke sings chillingly

Of all the descriptions of this album, it can be quickly summed up as an album that breaks the commercial barriers of pop and returns it to anti-pop. Instead of 'N Sync dancing around with plastic smiles or Limp Bizkit moshing and being angry about nothing, Radiohead is a group with purpose, bringing fans with them on a journey where neither knows where it's going.


"Kid" is A+   November 18, 2004
 150 out of 163 found this review helpful

In the year 2000, Radiohead ditched its former "real" rock sound for Pink-Floydian, electronic post-rock. The result was "Kid A," where they relearned everything they knew about music from scratch. Some people loved it. Some didn't get it, and felt it was "pretentious." But there's one undeniable thing -- this chilly, eerie collection is a marvelously complex piece of work.

An ominous keyboard melody and gibberish vocals open the album in "Everything In Its Right Place," sounding a bit like a possessed radio. Then the fuzz and hums kick in, adding a spacey dimension to an already strange melody. A drum melody kicks in in the title track, followed by the ghostly rock of "National Anthem" and unearthly lament of "How to Disappear Completely."

Another "real" rock song kicks in with the darkly desperate "Optimistic," flanked by a pair of softer, eerie songs. "Idioteque" throws all the rules out the window with sharp percussion backed by weird waves of sound and Thom Yorke's high vocals. And finally it ends on the same note it began -- a stately organ -- in the harp-accented "Motion Picture Soundtrack."

In a musical world where anything that has a guitar can be called "rock," it's difficult to find music that is really creative. It's even harder to find a band that is willing to take risks, and expand their art. But those things can be found in Radiohead, and the evidence is in "Kid A" -- whether listeners think it's a wild success or a pretentious failure, it has to be admitted that it takes guts to try out something this different.

Thom Yorke's vocals are often described as whiny, but they are suited to the music here. Sometimes it's as little as backing "ooh oohs," and sometimes he's lamenting about ice ages and suicidal cries of "This isn't happening/I'm not here." Do the lyrics make sense? Not at first glance, at least -- they're more like a part of the music than lyrics in themselves.

And hoo boy, the music. Few bands do panoramic electronic soundscapes as Radiohead does here, scratched with wailing voices and eerie noises. More ordinary instruments are included, but add to the strange atmosphere rather than grounding it -- razor-sharp percussion, mellow organ, rippling harp strings, and subtle, swelling strings.

The Radiohead of "Kid A" is looking at a bleak, cold place, but not one that is ugly or alienating. Instead, you just want to sink into it and experience its beauty, no matter how cold or bleak it is. A true modern classic.


A fresh look at Radiohead.   October 12, 2000
 48 out of 52 found this review helpful

I suppose the only thing I may offer up as a characteristic of this review that sets it aside from the 600-odd other reviews is the fact that it is written by someone who is completely unexperienced with Radiohead. Before purchasing this album, I had not even heard of Radiohead, and had no particular interest in the whole rock/alternative/whatever scene. After listening to this album, however, it is clear that Radiohead had in mind an attempt at progression when they produced this album.

Perhaps this album is really nothing more than a departure from OK Computer (whatever the hell that album sounds like--I haven't heard anything from it); it seems to me that it's quality is nonetheless undeniable.

Without going too far into my own theories of music and the apprehension of music, I'll note that Radiohead seems to have grasped the fact that lyrical content is relatively unimportant to a musical expression. Who cares if I don't understand the singers in an Italian opera? I still leave the opera house having experienced the emotion that the music (which includes the voices of the singers) evokes. The same goes for Kid A; the phrases may be repeated, and some of it may be unintelligable--it is still evocative and damn powerful.

This album seems to be an experience, not merely a collection of songs from which a few favorites can be culled and then played on the local radio station. It has its flaws, sure, but it is still a work of brilliance--though this may not be understandable to one who is accustomed to listening for "hits."

From the perspective of one who has never heard Radiohead before Kid A, I say bravo.


Great Debate = Great Music; Great Music = Great Debate   October 17, 2000
 29 out of 31 found this review helpful

In writing, film, art, whatever, there's an old viewpoint that says if you get a room of people continually debating opposing viewpoints about a single piece of work, you did your job. Nearly 800 reviews on Amazon that run the gambit from "It sucked." to "Godallmighty! I'm reborn!" Clearly, the band did something right.

As for me, I've been wishing for something like Kid A for so long it was hard for me to believe it was actually made. I've also been wishing for a band that pushes its limits and keeps me on my toes without alienating me or boring me. Basically, I've been wishing for a Beatles for today. Well, I've finally got them in Radiohead, and my own Sgt. Pepper or White Album in Kid A as well. The music on the album is so diverse, and so well put together, I continue to hear new things every time I hear it, and I continue to be surprised and delighted. The album is different from the last three, it's different from everything else out there in the pop music world right now, and it's positively delightful.

The band's influences are very apparent on the album. Aphex Twin and Charles Mingus being the primary influences I've read about in interviews. The thing is though, this album isn't only a Mingus redub, or an Aphex Twin exploration. It doesn't sit still with its horns, its electronic symphonics, or its modulated vocals. You listen to an Aphex Twin album, and that's what you get: an entire Aphex Twin album. Each song on Kid A has a life of its own, and it's been a long time since I've been able to sit down with an album and feel that I experience something different from track to track.

The album will take a few listens through in order for the mind to get its arms around the music, and get past what seems like a random hodge-podge of modulated beats, vocals, strings, and horns, but when you get past the preconceived expectations, you find something really amazing. When I first heard it, I was totally taken back by the vocals on the first track, but now I love them. Any music that gets better as you listen to it strikes me as the most interesting kind out there.

And any music that gets such a wide response is worth checking out.


"Kid A" is beyond anything likely to be heard for years...   June 14, 2002
 88 out of 103 found this review helpful

IF YOU THOUGHT "KID A" WAS AMZINGLY BRILLIANT, CLICK "YES" ON THE "HELPFUL?" THINGY BELOW. IF NOT, THEN CLICK "NO". LET'S TALLY UP THEM VOTES FOR THE GREATEST ALBUM TO HIT SOCIETY IN YEARS!!!