Kid A (album) by Radiohead

From Goliath 3 days ago

Here it is, the highest rated album I just cannot accept as great. I am beginning to think there is an 'Emperors New Clothes' vibe here, the album is at odds with the conventional wisdom of what makes music enjoyable. Random electronic noises, disjointed sound structures, no hooks and sounding truly alien. I enjoy listening to it occasionally, but better than Sgt. Peppers? Better than Wish You Were Here? Led Zep IV? Groundbreaking? Absolutely! Top 10 album ever? Absolutely not.

I've never found the old saying "Less is more" to be notably applicable in the scope of music. Often I've been drawn to music that often incorporates a great deal of moving parts, riddled with crushing crescendos and soul-shaking moments of softness. After OK Computer, many Radiohead fans found far "less" with 2000's Kid A. They were wrong.

It's true there are a startling lack of instruments here, but the band has never upped the ante like this before or since. While I consider its predecessor to be the finer album both personally and objectively, Kid A will always be the record that encased Radiohead in the annals of music history.

A dystopian, shivering piece of art, depicting a future that has completely gone metallic, Kid A is the brain's answer to OK Computer's heart. It was here where the marriage of the band and synthesizer incorporation was fused. The opening tones of Everything in its Right Place encapsulate the definitive sound the band will be remembered for. The skittering, emergency siren of Idioteque paints a picture of a world too preoccupied to sense approaching apocalypse. Finally, the faux comfort of better times evaporates during the final moments of Motion Picture Soundtrack, ending the album with metaphorical hands full of ash.

Radiohead did not redefine the rock record with Kid A, for there is no all-encompassing definition of a rock record. What the band truly did, is redefine themselves, thrusting headlong into a cycle of phoenix-like reincarnation and reinvention.

"Who's in a bunker? Who's in a bunker? I have seen too much. I haven't seen enough." - Idioteque

Standout Tracks:

1. Idioteque
2. How to Disappear Completely
3. Everything in its Right Place

104.1

Solid album. Best of the 2000s? Absolutely not! Best of all time? HELL NO!!

But is pretty good. The opening track is one of the best Radiohead songs ever. The transition from Optimistic to In Limbo is just amazing. I like 7 songs overall.

Apparently a list by Pitchfork or The Guardian creates an opinion and anyone that disagrees with it is just wrong. So I expect to get some dislikes. But seeing this album as a top 5 in this site says a lot about the Radiohead fandom in the Internet.

Like I said, I like the record and Radiohead, OK Computer is definitely a top 10 album of all time for me, but you all need to calm down.

This album changed me a lot. So inspirational

Favorite Tracks: Everything In Its Right Place, Idioteque, Morning Bell,

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The people on this site are so biased. If you like radiohead at all, immediate downvotes. Seriously, why do you feel the need to hate on someone who says 'oh I liked this album' just because it's made by a band you don't like. Get a life. Damn.

I think that, up until I heard this record, most music I had listened to was fairly "normal" and what I mean by this is that the instruments, melodies, vocals, chords, beats, etc. were all done in familiar, identifiable ways (doesn't mean they were bad or not skillful at all, of course). Then, in early high school, I heard this album and was absolutely rocked. The sounds coming at me were all unfamiliar, aggressive, anxiety-inducing and sometimes scary, and I was shifted into a world that contained all of these elements. I was shifted to a place where I had a fresh mind. A place that I had never experienced before, like a baby, and everything was open to interpretation with no prior bias or familiarity of any sort. That is the power of Kid A. It reinvents the concept of music for you upon your first listen, and submerges you into its world immediately upon further listens. That experience is something that I haven't found with any other album to date.

BLEEP BOOP BLEEP

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