Radiohead has been one of my perennially favorite bands. Time and time again they return with amazing material, and I think this was the year I really understood their brilliance. Thus, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Kid A.
After O.K. Computer, which is without a doubt the seminal Radiohead album, the British quintet started from scratch, searching for a theme and a sound out of the most electronic and simplistic of noise and sound. Consequently, Kid A sounds very electronic, complete with synths, metallic drums, and vocal effects out the wazoo. But, strangely, it all works, especially the atmospheric pads and synths and vocal effects, which give Thom Yorke's already buckling voice an extra, glassy delicacy that lends itself to an album with striking lyrical topics, sounds, and a handful of blisteringly cathartic moments amid the hollow, electronic sounds the album offers.
I'm no music theory expert or guitar expert, but I will try to best convey Kid A using imagery and sonic cues, in addition to what I know Radiohead to be as a band...deep, thoughtful, abstract, and they can tell a story when they want to.
Opener "Everything In Its Right Place" is, for me, the definite highlight. A group of lush, warm electronic chords fall into place as Yorke's voice slowly fazes and ripples into place, shaken and shifting constantly before his subtle, moving voice breaths "Everything....in its right place." The track conveys a sense of initial confusion and structural dilapidation, while Yorke's voice gives the track focus and foundation, while the electronic pads shift, groan, and wince in between the different voices, all trying to struggle for a part of the spotlight, everything soon getting clogged and messy, before all but Yorke's voice remains along with the chords, beautiful, fragile, and finally in its right place. A beautiful opening to a beautiful album.
The album continues along with solemn, dark, electronic path, in both lyrics and sound. "Kid A" takes a nostalgic, child-like bell melody and wraps it up around warped vocal effects and a plodding, vibrating pad. The drums thump along beside the schizophrenic, seemingly melting, electronic voices. Warm, glistening chords even come in late, giving the bells a truly lush feeling the track maybe had the whole time...
"The National Anthem" kicks off with an ominously catchy bass riff before rocking into a Radiohead-esque feel, synths continuing to creep, fall, glide, and rise around the bass and drums, ghostly specters of horns blare before sinking back down as Yorke's voice finally comes in, metallic, hollow, and cold, contrasting well with the warm French horns that stumble and shudder around everything else in cavalcade of sound and chaos. Yorke's vocals attempt to figure out what is going on around him..."Everyone / Everyone around here / Everyone is so near / What's going on? / What's going on?"
A whining synth characterizes "How To Disappear Completely," behind which a comforting, strident acoustic guitar chugs along, an eerily atonal synth line playing on repeat in the background. More pads come in, crooning and blaring like mournful sirens up against the desolate sonic landscape before them. Yorke's lyrics and voice are equally separated and desolate, "That there / That's not me / I go / Where I please / I walk through walls / I float down the Liffey / I'm not here / This isn't happening / I'm not here / I'm not here." Strings eventually join the calamity, equally morose and aching. The entire song, for that matter, sounds a weight trying to yank your heart down through your stomach.
"Treefingers," "Idioteque," and "Optimistic" are other highlights, with the first being another somber soundscape punctuated rumbling quakes of sound and sweeping, elongated stretches of barren, cold pads and synth lines, the second being a buzzing, blaring siren of an electronic track, electronic drums and all, rolling and shaking with a robotic fervor as Yorke's voice and the harmonies mesh beautifully and eclectically, and the last track being a rollicking, bouncy, jumbling rocker highlighted by wonderful lyrics from Yorke and a classic Radiohead feel that rocks the heck out while making you think. Classic Radiohead.
In the end, the beauty of Kid A is how much it explores sound and music on such an abstract level while still remaining true to what makes Radiohead Radiohead. Things buzz, hiss, drone, sink, glide, float, and splinter with a mechanical feel that makes everything feel so cold, yet oddly warm and full of emotion. The soundscapes Radiohead build, explore, and eventually conquer set alternative rock and music into a whole new area that has not been mapped out. Working basically from scratch, Radiohead managed to create a beautiful tragic album as they tried to blindly stumble through new sonic territory, working with not music, not sound, first. A journey well worth the trip.
-NL
P.S. You can find this album at any record store basically. Or on Amazon. A must-own for rock fans, nay, music fans. Enjoy.
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