#8 - Ryan & Steve

Radiohead

Kid A

2000

Kid A was the last of the Radiohead records I listened to. My love for these guys grew exponentially. I began with Hail to the Thief and Pablo Honey, my least favorite of their albums. Amnesiac and The Bends showed me what everybody loves about Radiohead. And then there was OK Computer, and I knew there couldn’t possibly be another Radiohead record I would like more. How could one of the most revered records of our time be topped by the same band? When I heard Kid A was their next album my first assumption was that the band would be slipping into a complacent state after such a massive success like OK Computer. I figured they would most likely just rehash previous endeavors in their new tunes and I could not have been more wrong.

What makes Kid A so successful is that it completely sidestepped the massive hype and expectations Radiohead fans had for the band after the acclaimed OK Computer. This is because it is very difficult to compare this album to any of their previous releases musically. On Kid A, Radiohead abandons their primarily organic sound found on other releases and instead electronically distort their mostly unrecognizable guitars and drums into melancholy electronic atmospheres. This record is cold and fragile with the occasional flickering glow of warmth. It’s the sound of human blood flooding the cavernous thorax of a machine; flowing through the wires and microchips and bringing to life what Radiohead has been looking for.

I don’t completely buy into the notion that Radiohead has abandoned the typical rock paradigm on this record. Yes, they have a primarily electronic sound with ambient moments and amniotic soundscapes with the occasional industrial gristle. But hints of rock remain. If anything, with Kid A, Radiohead has redefined what pop music can be. Because of this, Radiohead has engraved their names permanently into the annals of music history. -R.C.

This is quite possibly the most universally praised album of the decade, and I’m certainly not going to be one to argue with its acclaim. Radiohead pulls off the incredibly difficult feat of offering ten tracks that each have their own unique sound, yet fit together perfectly to form one cohesive mood. Few albums I’ve ever heard do this as well as Kid A does. - Phil