Albums of the 2000s – Kid A
In 1999 a band called Radiohead were wondering what the hell they were going to do after slaying the music critics of the world and the music fans of the world with their 1997 magnum opus, OK Computer. Following an album of such magnitude and marvel was always going to be a mighty challenge. In September 2000, Radiohead released Kid A. The build up was littered with details about a new direction but no one could really comprehend how much had changed until the release of the album itself. It was less guitar-orientated and more electronica-influenced thanks to the Thom Yorke’s love of the Warp label. It’s the kind of music direction that kills careers.
Kid A didn’t kill Radiohead. Not only is it one of their defining moments in their career – arguably at the peak of their artistic creativity – but also their most important album. Everything In Its Right Place is the sound of a pulse waking up as a looped Yorke croons over a Rhodes keyboard, The National Anthem features a repetitive and almost doom-laden bassline and Idioteque is the closest that the band will get to writing a rave song. The most important song though is the heartbreakingly sad How To Disappear Completely. Written at the height of Yorke’s problem with depression on the OK Computer tour, it is now one of the key songs in the history of the band.
When the album was released, no one predicted how well it would do. Thanks to numerous leaks through the illegal version of Napster in the summer of 2000, the album hit number one on the US Billboard chart. Besides the surprising commercial success, this was the album of a band that somehow managed to follow their masterpiece with something equally as jaw-droppingly brilliant. Kid A is not only the best album of 2000 but also one of the key albums of the decade.
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Posted on June 19th, 2009 by Max
Filed under: Albums, Albums Of The 2000s
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