Radiohead – Kid A Review

Warming to Kid A is harder than first thought, Radiohead preceded and succeeded this piece of electronic whirrs and muffled horrors with better works, but this piece is a necessary step at the turn of the century. Heading back into this one after enjoying the isolated pangs of technological distortion on The King of Limbs is preparation enough for Radiohead’s most out-there work of the time. Bookended by OK Computer and Amnesiac, the works on Kid A are easier to stomach but still as rooted in ineffectiveness and drone rock as they were on first listen. This necessary break from straightforward rock music would forever shape the future of Radiohead. Make no mistake, Kid A is monumental for its transition of a band who were stressed out and fatigued by their OK Computer days, but this is by no means their best work. Far from it. 

Title track Kid A makes this transition away from rock into electronic manipulation and tools of the future clear. It is here the band starts carving out a new route, though their efforts on Hail to the Thief and The Bends are far more in tune with whatever Thom Yorke and company are trying here. It is not unimpressive, the charms and distance of sonic forces on the title track are, in hindsight, more in tune with stagnant video game soundtracks than anything raw or powerful. A laid-back feel to this one is the point, of course, but Radiohead could do far more than what is offered here. The National Anthem changes course, the thick bass riff and slow build from Jonny Greenwood bring an intensity which is hard to capture but feels like a sweet release of stressed-out bandmates.  

Radiohead makes it clear they were hoping for the world to swallow them up with tracks like How to Disappear Completely, marked works of raw tone and laid-back style. There is a desperate sense flowing through this one for the band to slow their descent into a stress-filled period, take stock of their accomplishments and divert off course. Yet pieces like Treefingers are almost entirely instrumental, obsessive and slipping away as Yorke takes a breather from the studio. You can picture it if you try, a frontman at the end of his artistic tether taking a moment from pouring his heart out. The results are quite wonderful, but Kid A and its tracks feel quite independent from one another, whereas the band at this stage could not be further from this self-reliance.  

Even when far from their best, Radiohead is more than capable of racing through some of their best material – the likes of Optimistic and In Limbo are close to the best tracks the band has, and possibly ever will, make. Morning Bell and Motion Picture Soundtrack still feel positively light even with the repetition from Yorke as he goes round and round. There is a sense of powering on through for the sake of it within Kid A, the stresses of the previous cycle not quite gone yet not exorcised either – they linger on and the baggage is still weighing the group down. Nasty way to go, but a welcome experience which grows after a first listen, a few years in the dark, and then another go around.