Radiohead — Kid A
The eternal debate is whether Kid A or the preceding OK Computer is better. I feel I’ve at last arrived at an answer but you will have to wait until tomorrow.
For their fourth LP, Radiohead began recording in January 1999. In true malcontent British fashion, Yorke could not abide by the band ever producing a melodic song again, due to the staggering critical and commercial success of their previous album. Their first sessions occurred in Paris while they waited for their own studio to be built. Yorke steamrolled the band and longtime producer Godrich with his own vision of how his new electronic album would sound. The band feared it would be arty nonsense and considered disbanding from Yorke. The final result was twenty songs, ten of which would appear on Kid A, with the others and some extras released the following year on Amnesiac. The album received universal acclaim and peaked on both the UK and US charts in late 2000. The album has gone on to be listed in several publications as one of the greatest albums of all time.
“Everything In Its Right Place” is one of those songs which casts a spell over you. This spell is quite effective between the needle drop and the clicks on my 10” vinyl. This piano synth led piece introduces the stark futurism of this album. Monotonous vocals, fragmented thoughts, audio feedback sample loops… and yet. In Radiohead’s search for the antithesis of melody, they’ve achieved a simulacrum of it, one which cannot be replicated. The vocals on the following title track… are not to my liking. The music is intriguing and well paced even when it introduces dissonant trills. However, Yorke’s ultra compressed vocals are too avant garde and not musical enough to act as another instrument in the piece. This ends the Alpha Side of the x2 LP. Beta begins with “The National Anthem.” Well, not quite, but it is the name of the song. This song is most notable for its experimental use of horn arrangements in various states of tuning and pitch. “How To Disappear Completely” brings the album back to the land of normal vocals. The string arrangement of this track with Yorke’s pained vocals recount a dream in which he was floating through a city as a specter. Taken in context with the album thus far… We’ve had a song about the insanity of everything being in its prescribed spot, the feeling of being a burden to the world, and now a song about retreating from it all. “Optimistic” begins Side Gamma. The tribal chanting and traditional instrumentation shake the album’s conceits to their core. The most analog of any song on the album, “Optimistic” reflects the values of late stage capitalism. This song uses the standard instrumentation as a way to express the antiquity of capitalism and post war boons. The background is haunted by theremin catching up with the antiquated views. In the end the song juxtaposes the extinction of dinosaurs with us using them to fuel our cars, a full circle moment… who or what will use us as their fuel someday? Delta begins with the best song on the album “Idioteque.” Here the band reaches the apex of this musical experimentation. A driving beat, a hint of melody, and heavy political underpinnings all coalesced with frantic electronica… *chefs kiss.* Where at first everything was in its right place, now the narrator is experiencing everything all of the time. The proliferation of consumer culture has led to nuclear war and a nuclear winter. I cannot do this song justice with my words alone. The percussive and glitchy verses giving way to swelling forlorn synth as Yorke hits every note with dejected perfection, there is nothing like it. “Morning Bell” is a weird and fractured song about the dissolution of a marriage. Yorke strings together nonsense to convey a shattered reflection of a life together. Traditional instrumentation breaks through the techno ether every so often, but this song is another showcase of Yorke and his new computer friends. The pipe organ leads us into our final song “Motion Picture Soundtrack.” This operatic goodbye punctuates the album with harrowing instrumentation and Yorke at his most lethargic. In the modern world, everything we do is part of a motion picture, we are all on film, drinking ourselves to death to reach heaven.
Must Listen To: Idioteque
“Ice age comin’, ice age comin’ / Let me hear both sides, let me hear both sides, let me hear both…”
