Radiohead: Kid A (2000)-Ethan Smith
Radiohead: Kid A (2000)
By Ethan Smith
I did not like Kid A when I first heard it. The second time I didn’t either but a few songs began to stand out. The third time still those few, same with the fourth and fifth time and so on. However, one night I couldn’t sleep and I felt like listening to “How To Disappear Completely” and after that came this urge to listen to the album in it’s entirety.
And maybe, it was the fact I’d be been doing homework at 3 in the morning or maybe just because it was 3 in the morning and I wasn’t feel too swell the album just clicked with me then and there.
As you guessed this album is much more inaccessible than OK Computer, which seems an odd way to follow up what is arguably (or annoyingly unarguably depending on your point of view) their masterpiece but it was a stroke of genius really. I wouldn’t have wanted another OK Computer and obviously Radiohead didn’t either and though alienating your fan base can be disastrous they managed to pull it off.
Right from the start of this album you can tell Radiohead threw away the guitar rock of their earlier days, in fact Kid A doesn’t ever really rock out. It does in “The National Anthem” and sort of does on “Optimistic” but overall it doesn’t quiet reach that point but it works with the album. They dropped the basic song structure and became even more ambient and electronic. It’s almost like a lullaby at times, but not a happy one.
In fact, it sounds like a lullaby written by a very sad robot. Kid A isn’t just an album you throw on and chill to, it really does take attention to appreciate the beauty of it and like most Radiohead albums it takes a few listen but when it finally clicks you’ll wonder why it didn’t sooner. Kid A is an amazing story set to music. Radiohead created a beautiful portrait; hauntingly beautiful, at times bleak or vague and almost unbearably sad.