Kid A

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Biography

Kid A is the fourth studio album by the English rock music|rock band Radiohead , released in October 2000 by the Parlophone label. A commercial success worldwide, Kid A went Music recording sales certification|platinum in its first week of release in the United Kingdom. Despite the lack of an official single (music)|single or music video as publicity, Kid A became the first Radiohead release to debut at number one in the United States. This success was credited variously to a unique marketing campaign, the early Internet leak of the album, and anticipation after the band's 1997 album, OK Computer .

Kid A was recorded in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucestershire and Oxford with record producer|producer Nigel Godrich . The album's songwriting and recording were experimental for Radiohead, as the band replaced their earlier "anthemic" rock style with a more electronic music|electronic sound. Influenced by Krautrock , jazz , and 20th century classical music , Radiohead abandoned their three-guitar line-up for a wider range of instruments on Kid A , using keyboards, the ondes Martenot , and, on certain compositions, string orchestra|strings and brass instrument|brass . Kid A also contains more minimal and abstract lyrics than the band's previous work. Singer Thom Yorke has said the album was not intended as "art", but reflects the music they listened to at the time. Original artwork by Stanley Donwood and Yorke, and a series of short animated films called "blips", accompanied the album.

The album won a Grammy Award|Grammy for Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album|Best Alternative Album and was nominated for Grammy Award for Album of the Year|Album of the Year . It also received praise for introducing listeners to diverse forms of underground music . Despite the band's new direction alienating some fans and critics, Kid A received generally positive reviews from notable music publications. It was subsequently listed by multiple publications as one of the best albums of recent years, and in 2009 was ranked No. 1 in lists of the best albums of the 2000s by Pitchfork Media|Pitchfork , Rolling Stone , and The Times . In the updated version of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time , it was ranked number 67. http://www.last.fm/user/RadioKaKa/journal/2012/05/02/5g5i4g_rolling_stone%27s_500_greatest_albums_of_all_time_%282012_edition%29

Background

By 1998, the attention Radiohead had received from OK Computer had become a strain, particularly for singer Thom Yorke . His feeling of disconnection with the "speed" of the modern world, which had inspired songs on OK Computer , had intensified on the 1997–1998 "Running from Demons" world tour. As documented in Grant Gee 's 1999 film Meeting People Is Easy , Radiohead unveiled new songs on the tour, including what was then known as "How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found", but the band had difficulty recording them.

While Yorke was receiving praise for his music, he became openly hostile to the media. He believed his songs had become part of a constant background noise he described as "fridge buzz". Yorke felt that "all the sounds you made, that made you happy, have been sucked of everything they meant", and he suffered clinical depression|depression as he struggled to write new music. Yorke said that in late 1998, "Every time I picked up a guitar I just got the horrors. I would start writing a song, stop after 16 bar (music)|bars , hide it away in a drawer, look at it again, tear it up, destroy it". Radiohead members decided to continue; bassist Colin Greenwood adding, "we felt we had to change everything".

Recording and production

When Radiohead began work on the album early in 1999, the members had differing ideas as to the musical direction they should take. Guitar player Ed O'Brien wanted to strip the band's style down to direct, three-minute guitar pop songs, while Yorke felt their past efforts with rock music had "missed the point". Yorke said he had "completely had it with melody. I just wanted rhythm". Yorke had been a DJ and part of a techno band at Exeter University , and began to listen almost exclusively to electronic music , saying, "I felt just as emotional about it as I'd ever felt about guitar music". He liked the idea of his voice being used as an instrument rather than having a leading role in the album.

Work began on Kid A with OK Computer producer Nigel Godrich , without a deadline from the label. Yorke, who had the greatest control within the band, was still facing writer's block . His new songs were incomplete, and some consisted of little more than a drum machine rhythm and lyric fragments he had drawn from a hat. The band rehearsed briefly and began recording at a studio in Paris, but rejected their work after a month and moved to Medley Studios in Copenhagen for two weeks. Some music from early 1999 was incorporated into the album, often unrecognisable from its original form ("In Limbo", originally known as "Lost at Sea", dates from this time). According to band members, the period was largely unproductive.

O'Brien began to keep an online studio diary of the band's progress. In 2003, he told the Chicago Tribune :

We had to come to grips with starting a song from scratch in the studio and making it into something, rather than playing it live, rehearsing it and then getting a good take of a live performance. None of us played that much guitar on these records. Suddenly we were presented with the opportunity and the freedom to approach the music the way Massive Attack does: as a collective, working on sounds, rather than with each person in the band playing a prescribed role. It was quite hard work for us to adjust to the fact that some of us might not necessarily be playing our usual instrument on a track, or even playing any instrument at all. Once you get over your insecurities, then it's great.

He later described Radiohead's change in style during this period: "If you're going to make a different-sounding record, you have to change the methodology. And it's scary — everyone feels insecure. I'm a guitarist and suddenly it's like, well, there are no guitars on this track, or no drums". Drummer Phil Selway also found it hard to adjust to the recording sessions.

In April 1999 recording resumed in a Gloucestershire mansion before moving to the band's long-planned studio in Oxford , which was completed in September 1999. In line with Yorke's new musical direction, the band members began to experiment with different instruments, and to learn "how to be a participant in a song without playing a note". The rest of the band gradually grew to share Yorke's passion for synthesiser|synthesised sounds. They also used digital tools like Pro Tools and Cubase to manipulate their recordings. O'Brien said, "everything is wide open with the technology now. The permutations are endless". By the end of the year, six songs were complete, including the title track.

Early in 2000 Jonny Greenwood , the only Radiohead member trained in music theory , composed a String instrument|string arrangement for "How to Disappear Completely", which he recorded with the Orchestra of St. John's in Dorchester Abbey . He played ondes Martenot on the track, as well as on " Optimistic (song)|Optimistic " and " The National Anthem ". Yorke played bass guitar|bass on "The National Anthem" (known during the sessions as "Everyone"), a track Radiohead had once attempted to record as a B-side for OK Computer . Trying it again for Kid A , Yorke wanted it to feature a Charles Mingus -inspired horn section , and he and Jonny Greenwood "conducted" the jazz musicians to sound like a "traffic jam". Jonny Greenwood and his brother Colin also began experimenting with sampling (music)|sampling their own and other artists' music. One such sample yielded the basic track for " Idioteque ", which Yorke sang over. Despite their change in direction, Colin Greenwood still described Radiohead as being a rock band. Jonny Greenwood summarised their recording sessions for Kid A :

I don't remember much time playing keyboards. It was more an obsession with sound, speakers, the whole artifice of recording. I see it like this: a voice into a microphone onto a tape, onto your CD , through your speakers is all as illusory and fake as any synthesizer—it doesn't put Thom in your front room—but one is perceived as 'real' the other, somehow 'unreal'... It was just freeing to discard the notion of acoustic music|acoustic sounds being truer.

Radiohead finished recording during the spring of 2000, having completed almost 30 new songs. Preferring to avoid a double album , the band saved many of the songs for their next release, the 2001 album Amnesiac (album)|Amnesiac . Yorke obsessed over potential running orders and the band argued over the track list, reportedly bringing them close to a break-up. It was eventually decided that Kid A would begin with "Everything in Its Right Place". Yorke felt the song, which was written on a piano and computer, was most representative of the new record, and initially wanted to release it as a single. Final Audio mixing (recorded music)|mixing was completed by Godrich, and Audio mastering|mastering of Kid A took place at London's Abbey Road Studios under Chris Blair.

Marketing and release

After finishing the record, the band, with their label, drew up a marketing plan. One EMI executive praised the music but described "the business challenge of making everyone believe" in it. However, there was considerable media interest; Kid A was described as "the most highly anticipated rock record since Nirvana (band)|Nirvana 's In Utero (album)|In Utero ". Thom Yorke found the situation "terrifying", and according to Ed O'Brien, the marketing campaign aimed to dispel hype about the new album. In a departure from music industry practice, the band decided not to release any official singles from Kid A , although "Optimistic" and promotional copies of several other tracks received some radio play.

Radiohead and their fans had a large Internet presence by the late 1990s. As a result, Parlophone (UK) and Capitol Records (US) marketed the album in an unconventional way, promoting it partly through the Internet. Short films called "blips", set to the band's music, were distributed freely online and were shown between programmes on music channels. Capitol created the "iBlip", a Java applet that could be embedded into fan sites, allowing users to pre-order the album and listen to streaming audio before its release. No advance copies were circulated, but the album was played under carefully controlled conditions for critics and at listening parties for fans, and it was previewed in its entirety on MTV2 .

The band made a brief tour of Mediterranean countries in early summer 2000, playing their new songs live for the first time. By the time the album's title was announced in mid-2000, concert Bootleg recording|bootlegs were being shared on the peer-to-peer service Napster . Colin Greenwood said, "We played in Barcelona and the next day the entire performance was up on Napster . Three weeks later when we got to play in Israel the audience knew the words to all the new songs and it was wonderful." A month before its release, the finished album appeared on Napster. In response, Yorke said "it encourages enthusiasm for music in a way that the music industry has long forgotten to do." Estimates suggested Kid A was downloaded without payment millions of times before its worldwide release, and some expected weaker sales.

European sales slowed on 2 October 2000, the day of official release, when 150,000 faulty CDs were recalled by EMI. However, Kid A debuted at number one in the album charts in the UK, US, France, Ireland, New Zealand and Canada. It was the first US number one in three years for any British act, and Radiohead's first US top 20 album. Some have suggested peer-to-peer distribution may have helped sales by generating word-of-mouth. Others credited the label for creating hype. However, the band believed measures against early leaks may not have allowed critics (who were supposed to rely on the CD copies) time to make up their minds.

In late 2000, the band toured Europe in a custom-built tent without corporate logos, playing mostly new songs. Radiohead also performed three concerts in North American theatres, their first in nearly three years. The small venues sold out rapidly, attracting celebrities, and fans who camped all night. In October the band appeared on Saturday Night Live . The footage shocked some viewers who expected rock songs, with Jonny Greenwood playing electronic instruments, the in-house brass band improvising over "The National Anthem", and Yorke dancing spasmodically and stuttering in "Idioteque". Radiohead went to the US just after Kid A s chart-topping debut and according to O'Brien, "Americans love success, so if you've got a Number One record they really, really like you." Yorke said "We were The Beatles , for a week."

Musical style

Yorke explained that the record was influenced by 1990s Intelligent dance music|IDM artists Autechre and Aphex Twin , along with others on Warp Records ; by 1970s Krautrock bands such as Can (band)|Can , Faust (band)|Faust and Neu! ; and by the jazz of Charles Mingus , Alice Coltrane and Miles Davis . During the recording period Radiohead drew inspiration from Remain in Light (1980) by their early influence Talking Heads , they attended an Underworld (band)|Underworld concert which helped renew their enthusiasm in a difficult moment and band members listened to alternative hip hop|abstract hip hop from the Mo'Wax label, including Blackalicious and DJ Krush .

Tracks 1-5

Opening track "Everything in Its Right Place" was cited by Yorke and O'Brien as the moment their frustrations with a year of contentious recording sessions began to give way. The song was written late one night by Thom Yorke on a piano at home. According to Yorke, "I bought a piano for my house, a proper nice one - a baby grand. And this was the first thing I wrote on it. And I'm such a shit piano player. I remember this Tom Waits quote from years ago, that what keeps him going as a songwriter is his complete ignorance of the instruments he's using. So everything's a novelty. That's one of the reasons I wanted to get into computers and synths, because I didn't understand how the fuck they worked. I had no idea what ADSR envelope|ADSR meant." http://radiohead1.tripod.com/songs/album/everything.htm The song was noted for its unconventional time signature (10/4), to a dance/house groove. The feel of the song, especially when played live, has been seen as akin to house music and minimal techno due to its keyboard part, which plays an ascending chord sequence in a syncopated rhythm, alongside a steady, synthetic bass drum. The composition highly differed from Radiohead's earlier work, as it featured neither guitar, piano, nor drums, but electric piano, drum machine and computer manipulations of Yorke's voice.

"Kid A" is among the more unusual works of Radiohead, and featured distorted vocals that were reminiscent of "Climbing Up the Walls", and a lullaby like melody It featured electronic organs among other different sounds, and a syncopated, electronic drum kick pattern for the majority of the song. Towards the end of the track, a highly compressed, distorted drum beat is briefly underpinned. The song references the Pied Piper of Hamelin , although the lyrics itself were gibberish.

The Ostinato|use of a repetitive bassline in "The National Anthem", along with the chaotic soundscape produced by a brass section, is an example of the band's attempt to emulate the music of Charles Mingus. The composition also features the Ondes Martenot, electronically processed vocals, as well as other sounds, supported by a prominently disordered brass section which ascends into a climatic crescendo. In the recording sessions, band members Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood conducted the session musicians, though Yorke lacks formal musical training. Yorke stated in an interview, "The running joke when we were in the studios was, 'Just blow. Just blow, just blow, just blow'", referring to the chaotic brass section sound.

"How to Disappear Completely" was inspired by singer Scott Walker (singer)|Scott Walker , who had previously inspired the band's 1993 hit single " Creep (Radiohead song)|Creep ". The string orchestration for "How to Disappear Completely" was influenced by Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki . The lyric "I'm not here, this isn't happening" in "How to Disappear Completely", were taken from Michael Stipe 's advice to Yorke about coping with the pressures of touring. The song features Yorke paired with an acoustic guitar, with a pronounced string section, including the Ondes Martenot. The lyrics of "How to Disappear Completely" was noted for its theme of depersonalization , which Thom Yorke admitted as being his experience a dream. Yorke recounts, "I dreamt floating down the Liffey and there was nothing I could do. I was flying around Dublin and I really was in the Dream. The whole song is my experiences of really floating." The climax of the song opens with the intensification of the strings, in which Yorke's falsetto-vocals are reverberated, and are blended into the string section.

The ambient track "Treefingers" contains no percussion, and is instrumental, save for a short sample of Yorke's voice at 0:46 and again at 1:33 (both instances are played through the right channel and reverberate through the left). Ed O'Brien pointed out in an interview that no synthesizers were used to make the song, and that it was all recorded on a guitar, after which it was cut and paste onto a sampler. "Treefingers" was reminiscent of the works of Gyorgy Ligeti , as well as Brian Eno .

Tracks 6-10

"Optimistic", which begins the second half of the album, is the first guitar driven song in "Kid A", and consists of dense, atmospheric guitars, underpinned by unconventional drums which one commentator noted as resembling that of a tribal village. The song has been compared to their earlier, rock-oriented work. Another guitar song on the generally electronic "Kid A", "In Limbo" prominently features syncopated guitar work from Greenwood and O'Brien, with staccato and a loose groove, along with delay and reverb. The song is also likened to have the feel of a waltz, as it carries the distinctive waltz time signature (3/4).

The eighth track, "Idioteque", is driven by electronic beats. "Idioteque" contains two credited samples of experimental 1970s computer music . The first is several seconds of Mild und Leise , a piece by Paul Lansky , forming the four chord progression repeated throughout the song. Mild und Leise is 18 minutes long and through composed . The portion sampled by Radiohead is only heard once in the original piece, very briefly. Also sampled is "Short Piece" by Arthur Kreiger, now a professor of music at Connecticut College . Both tracks were compiled on the 1976 LP First Recordings — Electronic Music Winners , which Radiohead instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood stumbled upon while the band was working on Kid A . Several of the "Idioteque" lyrics (as well as those of certain other songs from the period) are audibly different in live performance. The "Idioteque" lyrics, like others on Kid A , were created from cutting up phrases and drawing them from a hat.

"Morning Bell" is marked by another irregular time signature (5/4), with ambient wind noises, and distorted, moaning vocals from Yorke. Yorke said, "It's very, very violent. Extremely violent. The really weird thing about that was I wrote the song with all the words pretty much straight away, which is basically the only one I did that with. I recorded it onto MiniDisc and then there was a lightning storm, and it wiped the MiniDisc and I lost the song. I completely forgot it. Then five months later, I was on a plane, knackered for 24 hours, I was just falling asleep, and I remembered it. It was really weird, I never had that before. It's gone in and took a long time to come out again. The lyrics are really... they're not as dramatic as they sound, you know? Except "Cut the kids in half", which is dramatic no matter which way you read it."

The album ends with "Motion Picture Soundtrack", a staid, slow piece with a simple chord progression of a harmonium, which was an attempt to emulate the soundtrack of 1950s Disney films. Yorke recorded it alone on a Pedal keyboard|pedal organ , and the song contains sampled harp and double bass sounds. Jonny Greenwood spoke of his intrigue of utilizing old and new music technology, and the band also sought to combine electronic manipulations with jam sessions in the studio, stating their model was the German group Can. The track appears to end with two minutes of silence, after which a short electronic piece thought to be named "Genchildren" (as it was named in a Napster leak in 2000) is played.

Sound and influences

Jonny Greenwood's use of the ondes Martenot on this and several other Kid A songs was inspired by Olivier Messiaen , who popularised the early electronic instrument and was one of Greenwood's teenage heroes. "Idioteque" samples the work of Paul Lansky and Arthur Kreiger, contemporary music|classical composers involved in computer music . Thom Yorke also referenced electronic dance music , saying the song was "an attempt to capture that exploding beat sound where you're at the club and the Public address|PA 's so loud, you know it's doing damage".

"Motion Picture Soundtrack" (a song written before "Creep") was an attempt to emulate the soundtrack of 1950s Disney films. Yorke recorded it alone on a Pedal keyboard|pedal organ and other band members added sampled harp and double bass sounds. Jonny Greenwood described his interest in mixing old and new music technology, and during the recording sessions Yorke read Ian MacDonald 's '' Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties|Revolution in the Head '', which chronicles The Beatles' recordings with George Martin during the 1960s. The band also sought to combine electronic manipulations with jam sessions in the studio, stating their model was the German group Can.

Radiohead have stated their lack of identification with progressive rock . As such, Kid A includes no songs longer than six minutesWhile "Motion Picture Soundtrack" has a track length of over six minutes, the song itself is less than three and a half minutes long. See: lacuna (music) . and has been sometimes characterised as post-rock , due to a minimalism|minimalist style and focus on texture. Jonny Greenwood's guitar solos are less prominent on Kid A than on previous Radiohead albums; however, guitars were still used on most tracks. The instrumental "Treefingers" was at first a guitar solo by Ed O'Brien that was subsequently digitally processed to create an ambient sound. In addition, some of Yorke's vocals on Kid A are heavily modified by digital effects; Yorke's vocal effect on the title song was created with the ondes Martenot, giving an effect comparable to vocoder . The band's shift in style has been compared with U2 's Zooropa (1993) and Passengers (band)|Passengers (1995) projects, and Talk Talk (band)|Talk Talk 's Laughing Stock (album)|Laughing Stock (1991).

Lyrics

Kid A was the first Radiohead album since the band's debut, Pablo Honey (1993), whose lyrics were not officially released or published in its liner notes . Thom Yorke, who wrote all the lyrics, explained this by saying the words could not be considered separately from the music. He said he used a vocal manipulation to distance himself from the title track's "brutal and horrible" subject matter, which he could not have sung otherwise. For at least some of the lyrics, Yorke cut-up technique|cut up words and phrases and drew them from a hat. Tristan Tzara 's similar technique for writing " dada poetry" was posted on Radiohead's official web site during the recording. Post-punk bands who influenced Radiohead, such as Talking Heads in their work with Brian Eno , were also known to employ the technique.

According to Yorke, the album's title was not a reference to Kid A in Alphabet Land , a trading card set written by Carl Steadman dealing with the work of psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan . Yorke suggested that the title could refer to the first human clone , but denied he had a concept album|concept or rock opera|story in mind. On another occasion, Yorke said "Kid A" was the nickname of a sequencer. Yorke said, "If you call it something specific, it drives the record in a certain way. I like the non-meaning".
Band members read Naomi Klein 's anti-globalization movement|anti-globalization book No Logo while recording the album, recommended it to fans on their website, and considered calling the album No Logo for a time. Yorke also cited George Monbiot's Captive State|Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain as an influence. Yorke and other band members were involved in the movement to cancel third world debt during this period, and they also spoke out on other issues. Some feel Kid A conveys an Anti-consumerism|anti-consumerist viewpoint, expressing the band's perception of global capitalism . In 2005, music journalist Chuck Klosterman wrote that Kid A was in fact an "unintentional but spooky foreshadowing of the events of the 11 September 2001 attacks " and the world's situation beyond that.

Yorke said the album was partly about "the generation that will inherit the earth when we've wiped evrything out". However, he has refused to explain his songwriting in political terms. Some songs were personal, inspired by dreams. Other lyrics were inspired by advice Yorke received from friends. The lyric "I'm not here, this isn't happening" in "How to Disappear Completely", were taken from Michael Stipe 's advice to Yorke about coping with the pressures of touring. The chorus of "Optimistic", "If you try the best you can, the best you can is good enough", was inspired by Yorke's partner, Rachel Owen. "Everything in Its Right Place" was a result of Yorke's inability to speak during his breakdown on the OK Computer tour.

Imagery

Videos and blips

No conventional music video s were initially released from Kid A , but 30-seconds-long short films called "blips" were set to its music. The blips were shown between segments on MTV , occasionally as TV commercials for the album, and were distributed free from Radiohead's website. Each blip was made by one of two collectives: The Vapour Brothers or Shynola . Most blips were animated, often inspired by Stanley Donwood 's album artwork, and have been seen as stories of nature reclaiming civilisation from uncontrollable biotechnology and consumerism . Characters in the blips included " sperm monsters" and blinking, genetically modified killer teddy bear s, the latter of which became a self-conscious logo for the album's advertising campaign. A more traditional video was released in late 2000: the band performing an alternate version of "Idioteque" in the studio. Several months later a video was released for "Motion Picture Soundtrack", which entirely consisted of material from the blips. Yorke described it as "the most beautiful piece of film that was ever made for our music".

Artwork

The cover art, by Donwood and Tchock (an alias for Thom Yorke), is a computer generated imagery|computer rendering of a mountain range, with pixel ated distortion near the bottom. It was a reflection of the Kosovo war|war in Kosovo in winter 1999. Donwood was affected by a photograph in The Guardian , saying the war felt like it was happening in his own street. Influenced by Victorian era military art depicting British Empire|British colonial subjects, Donwood also produced colourful oil painting s, creating a sharp texture with knives and putty. The back cover is a digitally modified depiction of another snowscape with fires raging through fields. Kid A came with a booklet of Donwood and Tchock artwork, printed on both glossy paper and thick tracing paper . Near the back is a large triptych -style fold-out drawing.

Some of the artwork was seen to take a more explicitly political stance than the album's lyrics. The red swimming pool on the spine of the CD case and on the disc represents what Donwood termed "a symbol of looming danger and shattered expectations". It came from the graphic novel Brought to Light by Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz , in which the CIA measures its killings through state terrorism|state-sponsored terrorism by the equivalent number of 50-gallon swimming pools filled with human blood . This image haunted Donwood throughout the Kid A project. Early pressings of Kid A came with an extra booklet of artwork hidden under the CD tray. The booklet contained political references, including a demon ic portrait of then- British Prime Minister Tony Blair surrounded by warnings of demagogue ry.

A special edition of Kid A was also released, in a thick cardboard package in the style of a children's book with a new cover and different oil paintings of apocalyptic landscapes and bear images. Although in the same style as the album art, these paintings were without digital distortion. The book included a page with statistics on world glacier melt rates, paralleling the art's themes of environmental degradation. In 2006, Donwood and Tchock exhibited Radiohead album artwork in Barcelona, with a focus on Kid A . An art book documenting the work and Donwood's inspirations, called Dead Children Playing , was also issued.

Reception

Kid A received considerable attention, being greeted with strongly positive critical reaction, but it initially alienated some listeners. Novelist Nick Hornby compared Kid A to Lou Reed 's Metal Machine Music , implying that it was an attempt at "commercial suicide" in order to escape from a label contract. He summarised a common source of opposition to the album in a review for The New Yorker , lamenting the change in musical style from The Bends (1995) and OK Computer . (This article is highly critical of Hornby's opinion of Kid A and the mentality his review is seen to reflect, with White seeing it as a justification for the album's existence.) In 2001, by contrast, Radiohead appeared on the cover of The Wire (magazine)|The Wire , an avant-garde music magazine that usually ignores trends in alternative rock . The band earned a feature interview by Simon Reynolds , championing Kid A and its follow-up, Amnesiac (album)| Amnesiac , and dismissing accusations that they lacked originality.

Several American critics gave the album positive reviews, with Spin (magazine)|Spin naming Radiohead "Band of the Year" and USA Today calling Kid A "the most eccentric album ever to debut at No. 1, setting Radiohead apart from an army of lock-stepping pop and rock acts." Robert Christgau gave the album an A-; he wrote, "this is an imaginative, imitative variation on a pop staple: sadness made pretty. Alienated masterpiece nothing- it's dinner music". French publications Les Inrockuptibles and Magic gave Kid A highly favourable reviews. Readers of Les Inrocks also voted it album of the year. However, in the UK, Kid A disappointed and infuriated some critics who expected the band to be "rock saviours". Melody Maker had said months in advance of the album, "If there's one band that promises to return rock to us, it's Radiohead". The album was later given a negative review in the magazine, which ceased publication soon afterwards. New Musical Express|NME described the album as "scared to commit itself emotionally", though giving it a 7/10.

Despite the lack of consensus, by the end of 2000 the album was appearing frequently in critics' top ten lists as praise for Radiohead's experimentation appeared to outweigh reservations. In 2001, Kid A received a Grammy Award|Grammy nomination for Album of the Year and for Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical|Best Engineered Album , and it won Best Alternative Album. In 2004, the album was ranked number 428 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time|the 500 greatest albums of all time . However, in the updated version, released in 2012, it was moved up to #67. In 2005, two popular independent music|indie music publications, Pitchfork Media and Stylus Magazine , independently named Kid A the best album of the past five years. Rolling Stone , Pitchfork and The Times would all go on to rank Kid A as the greatest album of the 2000s. In 2006, British Hit Singles & Albums and NME organised a poll of 40,000 people worldwide who voted for the 100 best albums ever and Kid A was placed at #95 on the list.. The Times . 1 Jun 2006

Acclaim

Publication	Country	Accolade	Year	Rank
The Guardian	UK		2009	2
Hot Press	Ireland		2006	47
Mojo	UK	Lifetime 1993–2006	2006	7
NME	UK		2006	65
Pitchfork Media	US		2009	1
Rolling Stone	US	The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time	2012	67
Rolling Stone	US	The 100 Best Albums of the Decade. Rolling Stone . Archived at rockonthenet.com. Retrieved 22 June 2010.	2009	1
Spin	US		2005	48
Stylus Magazine>Stylus	US		2005	1
Time	US		2006	*
The Times	UK		2009	1
Sputnik Music	US		2010	2

(*) designates unordered lists.

Track listing

All tracks written by Radiohead except where noted.

# " Everything in Its Right Place "& nbsp;– 4:11
# "Kid A"& nbsp;– 4:44
# " The National Anthem "& nbsp;– 5:51
# "How to Disappear Completely"& nbsp;– 5:56
# "Treefingers"& nbsp;– 3:42
# " Optimistic (song)|Optimistic "& nbsp;– 5:15
# "In Limbo"& nbsp;– 3:31
# " Idioteque " (Radiohead, Paul Lansky , Arthur Kreiger)& nbsp;– 5:09
# "Morning Bell"& nbsp;– 4:35
# "Motion Picture Soundtrack"& nbsp;– 7:01

Personnel

;Radiohead

Colin Greenwood & nbsp;– bass guitar, double bass, sampler

Jonny Greenwood & nbsp;– guitar, ondes Martenot , keyboards, sampler, string arrangements

Ed O'Brien & nbsp;– guitar, programming

Phil Selway & nbsp;– drums, percussion, programming

Thom Yorke & nbsp;– vocals, guitar, keyboards, piano, organ, bass guitar, programming

;Additional musicians

Andy Bush& nbsp;– trumpet

Andy Hamilton& nbsp;– tenor saxophone (credited as "tenor horn")

Steve Hamilton& nbsp;– alto saxophone (credited as "alto horn")

Stan Harrison& nbsp;– baritone saxophone (etc.)

Martin Hathaway& nbsp;– alto saxophone

Mike Kearsey& nbsp;– bass trombone

Liam Kerkman& nbsp;– trombone

Mark Lockheart & nbsp;– tenor saxophone

The Orchestra of St. Johns& nbsp;– strings

;Technical personnel

John Lubbock& nbsp;– conductor

Paul Lansky & nbsp;– sample of " Mild und leise|Mild und Leise " on "Idioteque"

Arthur Kreiger& nbsp;– sample of "Short Piece" on "Idioteque"

Nigel Godrich & nbsp;– producer, engineering, mixing

Zero 7|Henry Binns & nbsp;– sampling

Chris Blair& nbsp;– mastering

Graeme Stewart& nbsp;– engineering

Gerard Navarro& nbsp;– engineering

Charts

Chart (2000)	Peak position
UK Albums Chart	1
Billboard 200	1
	2
Austria	5
	3
Belgium (French)	4
	1
	1
	4
	1
	3
	4
	1
	3
	8

Footnotes

Ed O'Brien's studio diary from Kid A / Amnesiac recording sessions, 1999–2000 (archived at Green Plastic)

Marzorati, Gerald. "". The New York Times . 1 October 2000. Retrieved on 4 November 2010.

"" (a collection of articles). PopMatters . November 2010. Retrieved on 4 November 2010.

External links

on Radio3Net a radio channel of Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company

Category:2000 albums
Category:Albums produced by Nigel Godrich
Category:Albums recorded at Abbey Road Studios
Category:Capitol Records albums
Category:Parlophone albums
Category:Radiohead albums
Category:Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album

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Copyright Citations

This article is licensed under the GNU License
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1. Icos 2. Joe 90 3. Kid Creole and the Coconuts 4. Simon and Milo 5. Achtung Baby 6. Lion's Share 7. Rikki Rockett 8. Hail to the Thief 9. OK Computer 10. Parachutes 11. OK 12. Robert Miles 13. Zero7 14. Mower 15. Charlie Chaplin 16. Cisco Kid 17. DecembeRadio 18. Edgar Winter Group 19. Girl Authority 20. Harmonium 21. Harrison, George 22. Holly Brook 23. Johnny Greenwood 24. Jonny Greenwood 25. Kate Winslet

Undetermined Music Artists