Radiohead – Kid A

What better way to mark the occasion of the 10th anniversary of its release in the United States than to write about it now.

I remember the day Kid A came out. I was working as a library page at the time and I used my fifteen-minute break to go over to Best Buy to get a copy. I listened to it after work. After I was done, it really excited me to hear something so exciting, so challenging and so incredible.

For myself, the sound of it - electronic textures, various effects, fragmented lyrics, kaleidoscopic arrangements - was not that far off for me. I know for others it was "strange" or "weird" but I never got that impression. Interestingly this was before I went through an intense look at experimental electronic music, including the main inspiration for this album. But I heard enough music that veered into new territories - or at least roads less traveled - to not be surprised by this. So in a way, this was almost the album I waiting for: a chance for a lot of people to hear some strange/truly alternative sounds.

The danger with "employing kitsch" is losing relevancy as you lose its novelty. It's the whole "what was 'new' then is not so new now." And what remains? I think in 10 years - and even just listened to it again - it still holds. I think this album is our generation's Low, another one that took its inspiration from the "avant-garde" and specifically from Germany. When you listen to it (either of them really), there's something inspiring and fresh and vibrant ... and not just in the sounds. It's rooted on the emotion. You can feel the emotion from the sounds, which include vocals/lyrics/words. And when you hear it as a whole, it's a remarkable total picture that captures a particular moment.

I know recently Pitchfork named this their #1 Album of the Decade. Anyone who has followed Pitchfork long enough knew this was coming. Hot off the press, it got the grand 10.0 rating (and a rating that still held - surprise, surprise - during the expanded reissue batch back in 2009). But while you can argue about it using its musical merits, I would add that it does deserve the title because the overall album *feels* like it defines the decade. Released less a year before 9/11 and then everything that happened afterward ... it seem to anticipate the feeling of dread that was to come (and we can argue later as to the cause or source or driving force). And it still held throughout that decade. Thus it's very deserving of the title and I really don't know any other albums that comes close.

Finally I want to point out that it's one of the great *complete* albums. There's not a dead moment. There's not a point where you feel it should be cut or skipped. It works completely: the songs themselves and its sequence. While it was interesting to note that it was another album that was leaked and shared via the then free Napster (and back when most people had low bandwidth Internet connections), it was much more of an album where it was greater than the sum of its part, even when you had to download it one track at a time. [Their follow-up/companion LP Amnesiac feels closer to that fragmented, one-track-at-a-time download mentality where it feels like a somewhat lesser total work even though there are still a lot of great moments]. In that sense, it's up there with The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon: a collection of individual songs that works better as a complete sequence.

Here's to another ten years ... come on kids ... and I will see you in the next life.

damm good lp. Everything in its right place opens the album perfectly. This album was a far change from the likes of ok computer and thre bends.

good record; for once the misery of thom yorke is covered by some brilliant music, which in parts sounds like a twisted david lynch film s/track.
lots of wierd electronic burbles; wicked album

oh this record is good, very good
no idea what it's actually about but its a class record
rumours say its about the first human clone hence the name Kid A and others believe its like the alphabet of life like b= birth, d = death etc
This is really determines radiohead for me as a great band

if u have read its a difficult record trust me it isnt really
it might be for rock fans but for electro peeps its pretty easy to get in
Thom Yorkes voice works well here too

a great record to listen to