Happy 20th Anniversary to Radiohead’s fourth studio album Kid A, originally released October 2, 2000.
Some albums are designed to be shared. Blasted from stereo speakers to build a sense of community. Others long for isolation. A connection between artist and listener. A direct conversation best enjoyed with headphones to fully consume you.
Radiohead’s fourth studio album released in the latter half of 2000 is definitely a headphone record. Its sonics designed to be enjoyed in darkened rooms, eyes shut and the otherworldly ethereal quality of the music moves inside that space.
With 1997’s OK Computer widely acclaimed as one of the best albums of all time bearing down on Thom Yorke and co, Radiohead took time to regroup and rediscover where they wanted to go next.
Over a 15-month period, they recorded enough material to warrant a double album release. But feeling the music was so weighty and dense, the decision was to whittle the tracks down to a single release and preserve the remainder for the equally glorious follow up Amnesiac (2001).
Whereas OK Computer was the pinnacle of their alternative rock rewriting, Kid A was something else entirely drawing from glitching electronica, fusing elements of jazz, ambience, art-rock and even alt-hip hop.
The result is beautifully challenging.
Dark, ominous, isolating and dense, Kid A makes no apologies or tries to soften its bleak spikey moments or its harsh crisp beats that crackle and cackle beneath Yorke’s borderline obtuse vocals, which ache one moment and bristle the next.
But it’s all by design. An experiment with focus.
From the unnerving electronic unwinding of the multilayered “Everything In Its Right Place” that became an instant electronica classic upon its release through to the final sustained notes of closer “Untitled,” the album doesn’t let up.
The synth-led “Everything In Its Right Place” feels at once claustrophobic and freeing, as Yorke’s vocals scrub against your ear and manipulated samples swirl around you. The plodding propulsion of the synth line and subtle bass drum keep the track focused, as a new world seems to appear before you.
“Kid A” with its chiming ambience and skipping back beat creates a mood of sinking into the sound and letting it envelop you. The vocal treatment feels as if you are trying desperately to tune in to Yorke’s frequency as the track slowly ratchets up the tension and lets you peak above the sonic horizon spiraling you down in the final moments.
That tension is unleashed on the bass heavy purge of “The National Anthem” that blends the alt-rock Radiohead had come to define with a cacophony of brass and beats. It’s a revelation of a track with such forceful forward propulsion that becomes a sensory overload of the highest order.
All the bluff and bluster fall away to sweet moments of calming like the serene “How To Disappear Completely” and the ambient soaked “Treefingers,” which is comforting and soothing. Further in the album, “Motion Picture Soundtrack” offers a collision of edge-of-your-seat tension and quiet reflection.
Tracks like the guitar jangle of “Optimistic” and the soft skipping of “In Limbo” and the blissful one-step-forward, two-step-back “Morning Bell” further broaden Radiohead’s musical language whilst playing with its well-established lexicon. They act as the bridging tracks of the band’s turning point as they move into more experimental electronica sounds.
Perhaps the best example of this is the album’s standout track “Idioteque,” which mixes crunchy beats with atmos and eerie synth beds. Hard pounding and glitch field, the track is a panicked jolt of energy that shoots up your spine. As the track builds and builds, there’s a myriad of aural delights to pick out, an off-beat bass run here and there, twirling percussive elements, malfunctioning melody. It’s the cornerstone for which new musical adventures would be built upon and cast further afield the group’s later releases.
As mentioned earlier, Kid A is a headphone masterpiece filled with sonic exploration and glitching beats. To truly immerse yourself within it you need to plug in and tune out the distractions of the outside world, as it pushes you further into the inner sounds. And you’ll find great comfort in the isolation.
LISTEN: