Album Review: Kid A

Radiohead’s fourth studio album Kid A wastes no time bringing the listener into a world of its own. Its memorable opening track “Everything In Its Right Place” immediately draws you in with its rolling synths, pulsing drums and robotic vocals, and it only gets more interesting from there.

Before this album came out in the year 2000, Radiohead was known simply as an alternative rock band—albeit a talented one—famous mostly for his 1996 hit “Creep” and a few similar songs which generally stuck with the classic framework of an alternative rock song without venturing too far outside of the box. As such, many were surprised to put on the newest Radiohead album and hear synthesizers and computerized drums as the backbeat of many of the songs.

But, as most listeners now recognize in hindsight, Radiohead had not abandoned the genre of rock: they were simply ahead of their time. While it may be hard to find on some of the tracks on Kid A, the core elements of rock and roll music are still very present on this album: from the blaring drums and distorted guitars of “The National Anthem,” to the simple yet effective backbeat of “Optimistic,” to the soft rock vibes of “How To Disappear Completely.”

Far from eschewing the conventions of rock music, Radiohead expanded its horizons and brought it to new heights with this landmark album of the 2000s. With a wider range of textures and synths and more inclusion of piano, strings and some horns, the album has an overall mesmerizing quality and a polished finish. Experimental in nature, Kid A was a huge step away from Radiohead’s first three albums.

Many of the songs on the album exhibit a chaotic feel that has often been described by listeners and critics as apocalyptic. A few of the songs embody this feel more than others, such as “The National Anthem,” where dissonant horns and overblown guitars build to a heart-pounding climax, and “Idioteque,” with its rambling lyrics in disjointed phrases which seem to pertain to some sort of apocalypse.

Kid A is much more electronically influenced, which allows the band on some tracks to have a much fuller and more deeply layered sound. The guitars on the album are prominent, but not in the traditional sense; there are no guitar solos, the songs only using guitars with minimal chord changes and as another full-textured buzz. The solemn tone and an overarching theme of war lends this album to introspection. Instantly recognizable hooks and riffs make it not an album for dancing or partying, but an easy listen for studying or a long night. This is one album I can always come back to; I give this album a strong 7 out of 10.