Customer Reviews
...I see where you're all coming from...but this isn't shocking and inaccessible... 
2008-03-29
...well it happened in the end didn't it? Radiohead wanted to change their sound and I really don't blame them...they are a really talented bunch of musicians (yes not just Greenwood and Yorke) and I find this change in direction very refreshing...although there are some issues I have with the complainers of this album...
..."Ooh it's just electronic and static noise...how does anyone listen to this?" You really need to listen to some real static noise then...bands like Wolf Eyes and Merzbow make their living out of this kind of noise...now spot the diference...what is it? Yes this is melodic and listenable...so please stop complaining...
...the plus sides of this album I'd have to say is the new use of synths and new instruments...for the most part the electric guitar is left in the cupboard to gather dust as they try synthed voices in the song "Kid A" mixed with the Xylophone on the keyboard...combining a hypnotic bassline with a brass ensemble in "National Anthem"...and electronic drums with a synth in the (in)famous "Idioteque"...these ideas prosper within the album as long as you have an open mind (within reason)...
...and the downside...well...the problem is it's completely overshadowed...if they started with this as their debut instead of "Pablo Honey" they probably would have had more prestige success instead of being known as the band that played "Creep" and annoyed half of the population...but because "OK Computer" came first the die hard fans will always say it's not good enough and push it aside...
...my advice? Give this album a chance...it's not as abstract as everyone says it is...merely in contrast to their other albums...and if you don't enjoy it...fine...just don't call it abstract...because it isn't...oh yeah and the rumour that the whole record company lost their christmas bonus after the manager heard this...not true...
A shock when it was released, and now more of an IDM relic, but still fairly entertaining 
2008-03-27
Almost everyone has heard the story of how Radiohead shocked the world with this album. After releasing the hugely successful rock album OK COMPUTER in 1997, the band went on a massive world tour and then a long creative hiatus. When KID A appeared in 2000, their sound had moved away from straight-up rock to a peculiar mix of their previous style and electronic music. The sounds of the traditional quartet are expanded with sequencers, vocoders, and a brass troupe, and even an ondes martenot.
Lyrically the album continues to some extent the theme of the alienation and existential crises that our modern technological society produce. "The National Anthem" treats the pressure of urban population, and "Idioteque" alludes to the cruelty of global capitalism. Indeed, both musically and in terms of the album art KID A could be said to be OK COMPUTER's dark side. However, the cohesiveness of this theme is weakened by several instrumentals, which are little more than electronic noodling, and the final "Motion Picture Soundtrack", an out of place ballad.
Of all their albums with OK COMPUTER and after, KID A may have dated badly. The electronic sounds of Aphex Twin, Autechre and Boards of Canada which inspired this change in style were being touted as the future of music a decade ago, but IDM has faded and rock music is still standing strong. I get much less out of the album today than I did back in the day. Nonetheless, there are worthy moments in KID A, and a maturity in the songwriting and performances that, if lesser than the most part of their late albums, is still preferable to PABLO HONEY or THE BENDS.
Radiohead - Continues Their Evolution 
2008-02-08
After the massive success of their big breakthrough album "Ok Computer" one might expect Radiohead to sit back and try to capitalize on it's success with a clone album. Instead the band gets even more experimental with "Kid A". They drop much of the guitar out of the mix and instead focus even more on electronic music. The result is another winner that is a treat to listen to on a good stereo system or especially with headphones. From it's opening line "today I woke up sucking on a lemon", to it's closing notes the album is another testament to modern intelligent progressive rock. The band even ad a horn section to the mix in songs like "A National Anthem" to mix it up even further. Although "OK Computer" remains the band's masterpiece I like this one almost as well. It is another step forward in the evolution of Radiohead.
Almost Everything In Its Right Place 2008-02-06
When Kid A was first released, it was with alot of fanfare.I,personally didnt like or get it.But,over time,its been 7 years now,it has grown on me.The disc stands up well.I was literally blasting the tune Optimistic the other day and couldnt believe how great it sounded.I hit the repeat button and left it.The thing that I wasnt crazy about when I first heard this disc, was that the songs lacked punch.I was lucky enough to see the band live at Victoria Park,Warrington,England on October 2,2000.It was a kickoff gig for the disc.They opened with The National Anthem.I thought..wow,that first song totally blew me away and then I heard the disc version and well,the song wasnt as strong.Not even close.Live the bass riff came flying out at us in attendance.But the studio version is kinda flat.Wats with the horns?It sounds like a bad trip.The same goes for In Limbo.The punch,compared to the live versions from Warrington,are absent.Everything In Its Right Place sounds very good here as does Idioteque.Solid songs.Period.In my opinion,when performing live,Thom doesnt whine as much.(BBC Radio 1 recorded this show,as well as a gig from Oxford,07/07/01). Listen to the difference when you hear Everything,Idioteque and Morning Bell live,or Motion Picture Soundtrack,for that matter,compared to the studio version.If you can get your paws on either of those shows,do so.I know the band released I Might Be Wrong,but 8 songs is a waste of your money.The classic moment of this disc , without question, is the tune How To Disappear Completely.This is quite possibly their best song.When they played this song, on that Monday night in Warrington,all of us in Victoria Park froze.Its a slow song.So the amazing thing is you could here traffic outside the park,not the thousands of fans at the gig.The song is utterly fantastic.How it builds.Thom saying how in a lil while he will be gone...how he isnt here..and this isnt happening.Its sends chills up my spine when I think about that live performance on that night in Victoria Park.They also played a song that ended up on Amnesiac.Thom introduced it as Egyption Song(the title was latter changed to Pyramid Song).That song would have fit in so well on Kid A.Its possible the tune was done.I know Knives Out was recorded during the Kid A sessions,I have a live version from Holland,recorded 09/16/00.So in my opinion, it should have been on this disc, instead of the two boring intrumentals,Kid A and Treefingers.They are brutal.Treefingers does nothing for me,and Kid A is wacked out.Its not music.Its complete utter nonsense.If those two songs could have been replaced by say,Knives Out & Pyramid Song,(if ready),Kid A would very well be a true masterpiece.
with amnesiac, an important work which grew on my 2008-02-04
This album, along with Amnesiac (which was produced around the same time) is not easy to like. At first you probably won't get it. Listen to the album a few times. Let it sink in.
This is not the Radiohead of The Bends. What started as an experimental direction in OK Computer gets more convoluted and further away from rock in this album.
It took some time to grow on me--but now I think this album is amazing.
Music starts with Kid A 2008-07-11
It's almost tragic, in a way, the first time you hear an album as magnificent, visceral, and life-changing as Kid A; tragic because you just know you're never going to get the same feelings from an album ever again.
I was a casual Radiohead fan in ninth grade when I decided to pick up Kid A. I was first drawn to the more immediately catchy tracks on the album (The National Anthem, Optimistic, etc.), but ultimately I didn't grow to love it as much as I do until I went to college, where my obsession with this album led to a complete reevaluation of my music tastes, leading me to explore more experimental and electronic music.
It's hard to explain in words the impact Kid A has on me. I can't listen to it without having certain moods, feelings, and memories being brought out of me. The first few seconds of the first track, Everything in its Right Place, push me into this amazing mental space every time I hear it. The track "Kid A" has these calming nursery sounds that melt into a pulsating muffled rhythm from the future. The National Anthem, with its "traffic-jam" orchestra sections crashing over the catchy, rolling bass line. The beautiful, eerie acoustic How to Disappear Completely. The ambience of Treefingers, the epic rock anthem Optimistic, the underwater acid trip In Limbo, the danceable stuttered rhythms of Idioteque... I can go on for pages.
Kid A is the perfect album. Every song is incredible. The album takes a little time to sink in, not so little that the hooks become boring but not so much that the album becomes too difficult and aesthetically awkward. No track goes on for longer than you would like, no sound seems misplaced. Everything seems to, well, fall into the right place.
I cannot overstress the brilliance of this album and recommend it to anyone who enjoys music. Kid A is approaching its tenth birthday and has only become more musically relevant over the years in this music reviewer's opinion. If you haven't heard Kid A, do yourself a favor and buy a copy of one of the best records of all time.
The decade of minimalism begins... 2008-07-07
To examine Kid A's influence (and it is influential), let's look at "The National Anthem." This song starts with a simple bass line, not even a bass line so much as a very basic bass rhythm. This rhythm is then played unswervingly for the rest of the song. No other melodic elements are ever added. Where a rock band might gradually raise the tension with a developing guitar solo, where a club-oriented dance band might build up many different layers to crescendo, Radiohead adds a whole bunch of blaring trumpets, squealing cacophonously all at the same time all of a sudden. The surprise and the volume attempt to make up for the lack of music.
In recent years, this sort of thing occurs all the time in popular music, when albums are largely defined by the adjectives assigned to them in reviews or interviews, and their musical content consists of very common, basic stamps, simple stand-ins for the explanations offered in the reviews and interviews. You know the type, when "musical diversity" means that someone bought a couple of exotic instruments, strummed a few idle and disconnected notes, then tweaked them in ProTools until they sounded palatable. "Making nonsense seem profound," to paraphrase the editorial blurb, is the defining quality of popular music throughout the 2000s. If you want to see the downside of Kid A's influence, listen to something like Blur's 2002 album Think Tank. "Crazy Beat" is a more ingratiating take on "The National Anthem," based on the same exact kind of dull repetition.
This approach is heavily inspired by the "artistic" trend in nineties electronica: Aphex Twin, Autechre, Bjork, etc. This type of music was already extremely susceptible to adjectives and mystique, even in the nineties. Look at some of the essays written about the Warp Records catalog in the early nineties, and you'll see what I mean. Kid A synthesized many of those sounds and made them mainstream. Put Bjork in front of the microphone in "Motion Picture Soundtrack," and you get an absolutely typical example of one of her "harpsichord songs" like "Cover Me" or "Like Someone In Love," where she sings over incidental strumming. "Idioteque" recalls Autechre with a mechanical dance beat that you can't dance to, with a few dissonant, droning synth waves (again, no other melodic elements) laid on top. And just about any electronic band has done something like "Treefingers," a moody ambient drone with no musical progression.
The title track, in particular, is a flawless Aphex imitation. He did this kind of playful/wistful music-box lead many times, both before Kid A ("In The Glitter Part 2" from 26 Mixes For Cash) and after it ("Nannou," on the Windowlicker EP). The distorted, croaking vocals, half-creepy and half-innocent, as well as the jittery drumbeat, are also straight out of his playbook. I guess it's a testament to how deeply Radiohead buried themselves in the part. But, in Radiohead's hands, this stuff became oblique enough for countless adjectives, and sounded serious enough to create mystique.
The best musical moments occur in the mid-tempo tracks, where it's possible to ease into the mood and zone out. "Everything In Its Right Place" is quite original in the way the moody piano is arranged into an oscillating loop, backed by buzzing vocal samples and Yorke's neurotic lead. "How To Disappear Completely" takes the quiet acoustic guitar from "Exit Music For A Film," and adds whale-song synths to match the drifting vocals -- pretty and detailed for a rock band, inventive for a techno band. "Optimistic" also has a pretty simple guitar line, but the aggressive rhythm section creates a powerful churn. 'Churn' is one of those meaningless rock-journalist words, but here it's apt. There's a chaotic and ramshackle feel to the song that gives it the energy that was lacking in "The National Anthem." Of all the songs on the album, this one is closest in spirit to OK Computer. "In Limbo" is quieter, back to drift mode, but keeps that chaotic churn, now given form by a faint keyboard line.
Take those four tracks, add "Kid A," and you have five very good songs that genuinely make use of some of the strengths of Warp-style electronica. But the album's reputation claims so much more. The lyrics play a key role in the mystique of Kid A, and here too, we run into some trouble.
Lyrically, Yorke's focus has constricted to oblique, demonstrative statements of isolation, things like obsessively repeating, "there are two colours in my head." OK Computer is also an introspective album, but most of it somehow reacts to the outside world: to lovers ("Exit Music For A Film," "Lucky"), politicians ("Electioneering"), insufficiently sensitive bourgeois ("Fitter Happier," "The Tourist"), or outside events ("Airbag"). By contrast, Kid A shuts out everyone and everything other than Yorke. The only reaction Yorke has to anyone other than himself is stated in the first song: "What, what was that you tried to say?" Any possibility of meaningful communication is immediately, categorically denied.
Yorke's exclusion of the outside world is so total that it begins to sound very deliberate. The loneliness of modern man is no longer enough to explain it. It takes a sustained, deliberate effort to drown out the outside world so completely. This type of thing has its appeal, in one's self-pitying moments ("the best you can is good enough," Yorke reassures in "Optimistic"), but it's important to realize that it's not all that sympathetic. And then, one can't help but get a bit fidgety. Gentle reader, are you really patient enough to want to help someone who seems to delight in rebuffing your efforts?
Kid A is not so much an "experimental" work as it is a collection of many then-contemporary ideas in electronic music. In a way, it set the tone for the decade. However, one might wonder if that was entirely a good thing.
Monumental 2008-05-29
This may be the best album I've ever heard. The first five notes are simply the most arresting announcement of a sea change for a band that I know. When this was released, it was instantly the most important popular (admittedly, a dubious title) album on the planet. That it only lasts about 60 minutes (when it easily could have been crammed to the brink with the outtakes that later comprised the comparatively weaker and less mysterious [read: Kid A could not have been equaled or surpassed] Amnesiac) is instead a testament to its cohesiveness. It is the only album I own that I almost never interrupt to select individual songs.
As for the mystery, it is rampant and lovely: Who is Kid A? What is he or she (or, most likely, it) the product of? What is the year? Does the cover depict a landscape or a soundscape? Are those the same thing?
I could go on. I won't.
Radiohead KID A 2008-05-12
I just saw Radiohead live for the 1st time last night in Bristow, VA. They were absolutely incredible live!!! If you're looking for one of they're best, then you can't go wrong with the album KID A. From start to finish it just leaves you wanting & yearning for more! If I were stranded on a desert island(no not on LOST)I would take this one with me with plenty of batteries....er maybe Saywer could help me out with that?
Radiohead Enter A New Realm 2008-05-04
I'll make this short as so many people have nailed the amazing aspects of this album.
Radioheads sound changed on a large scale in only a few years. They became a
Post-Rock Electronic band with a majority of the songs zeroing in on the sound and flow of things.
The songs are well produced and very technical. The album is worth double the price in my opinion and will remain a constant in my playlists for ages to come.
