KID A

It took me some time to finally discover this album. For me, Radiohead is defined by The Bends and OK Computer, so I had quite a few reservations about this new electronica direction that the band was striving for with Kid A and Amnesiac. I remember seeing the video for Pyramid Song on MTV and feeling a bit betrayed by this promising young act. Besides, I was still in my early teens and had so much other music to catch up with which resulted in me completely ignoring these two albums upon their initial release dates.

Eventually I did try to reconsolidate with Radiohead once they released their so called back-to-basics album Hail To The Thief but that record left me even less enthusiastic about pursuing any new explorations of the band's discography and singlehandedly pushed my discovery of Kid A another 5 years in time! I finally worked up the enthusiasm to hear Kid A after the very unimpressive encounter with In Rainbows which left me completely scratching my head about that album's highly praised reception. It turned out that Kid A was very different from what I initially expected it to be and it soon became one of my biggest discoveries of 2008!

In retrospect, Kid A really feels like the next logical step in a creative direction that Radiohead were pursuing on OK Computer by pushing the possibilities of electronica genre way beyond its initial use. Just like its predecessor, Kid A is much more about the overall experience and not so much about the individual compositions. It's a well executed performance that takes us on another bizarre ride through the minds of these highly imaginative collective and I'll live my description at that.

Kid A is probably the next best thing after the band's two alternative rock era albums and unlike the obvious influence of OK Computer, I believe that it might take another decade of reflection before everyone, including myself, will truly appreciate how influential this album really has been on the music that is being created today.

***** star songs: Everything In Its Right Place (4:11) The National Anthem (5:51)

**** star songs: Kid A (4:44) How to Disappear Completely (5:56) Treefingers (3:42) Optimistic (5:15) In Limbo (3:31) Idioteque (5:09) Morning Bell (4:35) Motion Picture Soundtrack (6:59)