Radiohead - "Kid A"

[Suedehead]

And yes it's my favourite Christmas album

As in - I love listening to it around Christmas time.

 

[octophone]

Anyone who favours the Amnesiac 'Morning Bell' should be considered suspect in every sense.

 

[octophone]

I mean, of course it's a masterpiece. Who else in the history of pop/rock/whatever has stripped away their defining musical characteristics and delivered their greatest album? Answer - no-one. Kid A's genius is how it placed the unease at the core of Radiohead's music front and centre, refusing to sugar-coat it with sparkling guitars and vocal harmonies. Instead, they want us to experience the audio turmoil, moving the weird noise down the stairs at 3am to middle of the sound picture, rather than hiding it beneath the surface, letting the loop that won't get out of your head sit for a while, wandering away into dreamlike errands before warping into a classic anxiety nightmare. It's a surreal, disquieting album which has proved thoroughly prescient.

 

[Sheena]

BORING. Like the rest of their TURGID OEUVRE.

 

[Sheena]

I mean, of course it's a masterpiece. Who else in the history of pop/rock/whatever has stripped away their defining musical characteristics and delivered their greatest album? Answer - no-one.

THE CHEEKY GIRLS!

Seriousky, though, that’s hyperbole nonsense too. You only have to look back as Folklore to see another example.

 

[Sheena]

I have TRIED AND TRIED AND TRIED with Radiohead but it’s just meandering shite with gloomy vocals. It irks me how well it’s all still regarded, this far on.

 

[octophone]

THE CHEEKY GIRLS!

Seriousky, though, that’s hyperbole nonsense too. You only have to look back as Folklore to see another example.

Nah - if anything Swift went *back* to acoustic instruments with everything she'd learned from her 'pop' albums.

The closest thing to Kid A is Talk Talk's "Spirit Of Eden" which dissolved song structures but retained a clutch of their audio signatures. With Kid A, a lot of the guitars are unrecognisable and even Yorke's voice is distorted beyond recognition or missing altogether on a couple to tracks, as well as being reduced to a handful of repeating phrases elsewhere. That's gutsy.

 

[Dark Carnival]

Anyone who favours the Amnesiac 'Morning Bell' should be considered suspect in every sense.

Hi! I prefer Amnesiac over all. Though I don't care about either Morning Bell to be honest.

 

[RS]

I can’t remember/decide which out of Kid A or Amnesiac I like the most. If they could be combined into one album, without a couple of fillers (incl Morning Bell) then it would be one of the best albums ever.

Kid A has Everything in Its Right Place, Idioteque and Motion Picture Soundtrack.

But Amnesiac has Pyramid Song, Knives Out and Like Spinning Plates.

 

[octophone]

Amnesiac has some of their best 'conventional' songs but all the 'experimental' pieces are outclassed by their closest companions on Kid A, I think.

 

[Dark Carnival]

Listening to Amnesiac right now.

You and Whose Army!!!
Knives out
PYRAMID SONG

 

[RS]

A moon full of stars and astral cars
And all the things I used to see

 

[RS]

Lately I’ve been listening a lot to this instrumental and dance-ier cover of Everything in Its Right Place that I found a while ago.



I’ve been thinking of using it for whenever we do ASFM covers again but I guess it might be more appreciated in here.

 

[Suedehead]

PYRAMID SONG is probably their greatest song ever and ever.
That being said I do prefer KID A album as album.

 

[Suedehead]

I also listened to IN RAINBOWS earlier - and wow, one of their best.

Radiohead top 5 albums for me (today at least):

1. Kid A
2. OK Computer
3. The Bends
4. In Rainbows
5. A Moon Shaped Pool

 

[POP!]

It's been awhile since I revisited the others, but my top 3 are OK Computer, The Bends and In Rainbows.

 

[octophone]

Kid A
OK Computer
In Rainbows
The Bends
Amnesiac
The King Of Limbs
A Moon Shaped Pool
Hail To The Thief
Pablo Honey

But HTTT is a 7.5/10 album. That's how strong their catalogue is.

 

[Suedehead]

Let's face it, the holy trifecta is Kid A/OK Computer/In Rainbows (whichever order you prefer). I never thought I would say that pre-In Rainbows (The Bends) was always my 2nd fave) but parts of it have not aged that well (The Bends) whereas In Rainbows is just *chef's kiss*

 

[Suedehead]

I need to revisit King of Limbs. It's always left me COLD - unlike the rest of their OEUVRE (hi @Underneath the Shee ;)

 

[Suedehead]

Can I just add here that the opening notes of Kid A are probably joint with the opening bars of "Like A Prayer" for me as the best intro to an album by anyone ever.

Prove me wrong!

 

[octophone]

I need to revisit King of Limbs. It's always left me COLD - unlike the rest of their OEUVRE

It's a weird album and it could have been better - they said that they left off The Butcher because it didn't fit and it might be my favourite song from the whole era!

The answer was simple - the album was three groups of three, not two 4 song sides. You put The Butcher before Feral so part 1 is the first three songs, part two is The Butcher/Feral/Lotus Flower and part three is the last three songs. A 3 sided double would have been just the thing.

(Mid you, Morning Mr Magpie is crap - no idea what got into them there).

 

[VoR]

Thom Yorke walks off stage after being heckled by pro-Palestine protester at Melbourne concert | Radiohead | The Guardian

The Radiohead frontman, in Australia for a solo tour, has previously denounced the pro-Palestine BDS movement and defended his decision to play in Israel

amp.theguardian.com

 

[funky]

I don’t have an issue with someone performing in Israel (the Jewish people are not the Jewish government etc) but I would have had Thom Yorke down as a Palestinian supporter, strange

 

[octophone]

Jonny Greenwood's wife is Israeli and fully supports Netanyahu as well as being a terf and a general right-wing tosser - if she'd been American, she'd be a full-on MAGA. The group's first major success was is Israel and they have played there on every tour since 1993 with one of their last live dates happening in Tel Aviv in 2017 (maybe 2018?).

The group have largely been quiet on the subject with the odd platitude but, AFAIK, only Ed O'Brien calling for a ceasefire.

 

[octophone]

Oh, I forgot, Jonny Greenwood took part in a protest calling for a ceasefile while in Israel earlier in the year.

 

[old spice]

Yah, Radiohead have a huge Israeli fanbase. I was traipsing around the South Caucasus last month and in one tiny lil town there were a bunch of drunken Israelis on the neighbouring guesthouse's rooftop blasting bloody 'Creep' (which NO ONE ever needs to hear again ffs) ON REPEAT in the middle of the night. Buffoons.

I fully support BDS and disagree with Thom's stance, but that tweet's incredibly misleading. He walked off, yes, but he then returned and finished the gig. It's hardly 'collective punishment of thousands' as is claimed.

Anyway, we've had almost 25 years for sth better to come along, but Kid A might still be my favourite record of the 21st century (I'm probably blanking on a lot here). It's so texturally rich and expansive - lurching from distorted space lullabies to funereal, orchestral dirges to apocalyptic robo-canticles - that I think it'd make for a captivating listen even if it had nothing at all to say. But it does, imo. If OK Computer was rightly apprehensive about an oncoming digital dystopia, Kid A feels entrenched deep within it; its stuttering heart oft-deluged by electronic cacophonies, but resonant enough to make itself (just about!) heard in those patchwork lyrics. It's distressed, demoralised, lost in panic and paranoia. It doesn't really make sense, but paradoxically it made perfect sense to me when I first encountered it - I felt like the whole album vocalised what life was like in the most irrational throes of the abyss, where chaos reigns and the darkness terrorises, consumes, and enlivens you - sometimes simultaneously. It articulated a lot of what I could not.

I love that a record so notoriously obtuse and opaque ends with these simplest of words: "I will see you in the next life," sung like a wearied angel and set to the most overtly-celestial sounds in Radiohead's discography. I love also that the same song says "Cheap sex and sad films help me get back where I belong" - a song that I discovered precisely at the juncture at which both those things were becoming critical in my own life. I adore this shit beyond all good reason as a result.

Radiohead from 1995-2007 really were everything imo. I'm grateful I got on board while they were still vital and witnessed their prime firsthand. Buckets of cider in the sun right in front of the stage at Victoria Park in 2008 will always be amongst my fave moments from my fleeting youth.

 

[octophone]

"Apocalyptic robo-canticles" is the most delightful clump of syllables I've encountered for quite some time...

 

[old spice]

Oh my sweet sweet musical twin @octophone , if Fate's tremulous hands one day contrive the crossing of our physical paths then trust that THIS will be the most DELIGHTFUL CLUMP that you'll ever have encountered. (Well, CLUMP DU JOUR at the very least!) x