Albums That I Liked (in 2000): Kid A

Ahoy! This is the start of a music feature (finally!) that will be ongoing. Essentially, it's a sort of "best-of the last decade" thing, but instead of doing a list or anything I'm just going to go through each year and talk about whichever albums I want. So I'll be on the year 2000 for a bit, then 2001, and so on and so forth.




The year is 1997. Radiohead have just released their revolutionary album OK Computer to deafening critical praise. The album is an extremely complicated piece of music, mixing their previous mainstream alt-rock appeal with thick, experimental soundscapes, and trading in teen angst and heartbreak for complex lyrical themes of consumerism, social corruption, and alienation. In the public eye, they have finally reached their full potential, and have established themselves as a band important to the present and future of rock music.

The question, of course, remained: Now what? Well, for Radiohead, the answer was to take away anything resembling an electric guitar and create one of the best electronic albums of all-time. Kid A is a huge stylistic change from their earlier work; one that, in my opinion, payed off in spades. From the opening descending synth run in Everything in It's Right Place to the organ and harp fade-out of Motion Picture Soundtrack, this album grips you with a feeling of oppressiveness and paranoia. The world of Kid A is cold and emotionless; everything seems eerily sterile and programmed to perfection.

Most of the music perfectly exemplifies this feeling with tons of synthesizers and strange sound effects, but what's great about the album is that almost every song stands out on its own while still working perfectly with the overall feel of the album. Only two of the ten songs here don't immediately stand by themselves; the ambient interlude Treefingers is really just that, and the OK Computer-esque Optimistic (the only track where the guitar is the dominant instrument), while actually a really nice, well-written song, doesn't really fit with the rest of the album. Regardless, these are still good songs, and serve to break up the oppressive nature of the album.

Something else pretty neat about Kid A is that it was one of the first largely-pirated albums ever, debuting on Napster a month before it's release - and yet, it debuted at number one on the album charts in the UK, US, France, Ireland, New Zealand, and Canada. Just sayin'.

I've always said that, as a real ALBUM, as in a cohesive musical work and not just a collection of songs, Kid A is maybe my favourite album ever. You need to be in a specific mood to listen to it, but there just aren't any other albums that can so totally express such a feeling of dread and paranoia of the surrounding world. It's a breathtaking piece of music and one that should not be missed by anyone who consider themselves fans of music in general.



Suggested Songs:
- Everything In Its Right Place
- How To Disappear Completely
- Idioteque

Agree? Disagree? Questions? Comment!

-Daniel