Released on October 2nd, 2000, RADIOHEAD‘s “Kid A’ reached a great amount of critical acclaim because of many reasons. This incredibly creative, original and smart offering changed everyones perspective about the band and marked their immensely courageous move. The unique atmosphere of this magical full length instantly placed it among the most incredible musical experiences of my life and I truly believe its incredible jazz and horn-laden feel is worth a bunch of your time.
The experience and emotions tied to listening to Kid A are like witnessing the stillborn birth of a child while simultaneously having the opportunity to see her play in the afterlife on Imax. It’s an album of sparking paradox. It’s cacophonous yet tranquil, experimental yet familiar, foreign yet womb-like, spacious yet visceral, textured yet vaporous, awakening yet dreamlike, infinite yet 48 minutes. It will cleanse your brain of those little crustaceans of worries and inferior albums clinging inside the fold of your gray matter. The harrowing sounds hit from unseen angles and emanate with inhuman genesis. When the headphones peel off, and it occurs that six men (Nigel Godrich included) created this, it’s clear that Radiohead must be the greatest band alive, if not the best since you know who. Breathing people made this record! And you can’t wait to dive back in and try to prove that wrong over and over. . / Pitchfork
This is pop, a music of ornery, glistening guile and honest ache, and it will feel good under your skin once you let it get there. There is also a moral to this mischief: that a manufactured child, by nature or nurture, is no child at all. It is product. / RollingStone
So what should you, dear reader, think of Kid A? This is so strange, so disembodied from OK Computer and The Bends, that you might wonder how anything that far away from genius can still be amazing. The simple answer is: It just is. Through the magic of electricity, Radiohead has accomplished making one of the finest albums of the millenium, if not the best of the year 2000. You don’t always need guitars to have an epic rock album. In any langauge, it’s the epitome of alt-rock. It has excellent musicianship whenever the band members pop up, and Thom Yorke’s signature vibratto and lyrics only make it all the more grand. Although clocking in at just under 50 minutes, it still feels like a quick listen, because lets face it, a beatless electronica interlude could have been skipped. Other than a disappointing length, there’s really not a damn thing wrong with this album. It’s tight, and so un-Radioheadly that it deserves at least 5 spins. It might take that long before you really get it. I suppose what Kid A is saying is that you need to learn to accept us, because we have spent all our lives accepting you. This is really happening. / SputnikMusic
