Were you concerned about Radiohead’s “Idioteque” not topping the best-singles-of-the-decade list that the indie-crit behemoth Pitchfork ran last week? Well, fret not: The folks over there still love Radiohead’s 2000 album Kid A, with today’s review reaffirming the 10.0 that it received back in the day, and critic Rob Mitchum calling it “unashamedly… a complete album, one where everything from production to arrangements to lyrics to album art were carefully crafted towards a unified purpose” while nodding to the fact that its creators have made noise about growing weary of that particular format:
Kid A turned out not be the music of the future, but a relic of the past, more in line with dinosaurs like Dark Side of the Moon or Loveless as try-out-your-new-speakers, listen-with-the-lights-off suites. By the time Amnesiac officially arrived, it had been served up piecemeal on the internet, handicapping the final product from reproducing its predecessor’s cohesive structure. From then on, albums have persisted, sure, but they’re increasingly marginalized or stripped for parts– release Kid A today, and many might choose to save or stream “Idioteque” and Recycle-Bin the rest, missing the contextual build and release that makes the album’s demented-disco centerpiece all the more effective.
That’s not a qualitative judgment: The way things are now isn’t better or worse, just different. Technology, of course, is a selection pressure, digital music eroding the arbitrary 45ish-minute barrier that once was dictated by vinyl’s finite diameter. But while a single song will often do, there’s a talent to building and a pleasure in experiencing a dozen songs weaved together into a 40 minutes that’s richer than each individual track, a 12-course meal for special occasions between microwave snacks. Like calligraphy, it’s a fading art, as even Radiohead themselves seem to be disinterested in the format, perpetually threatening to dribble tracks out in ones or fours when the spirit takes them. In the end, one of the many ghosts that haunt the corridors of Kid A is The Album itself, it’s death throes an unsettling funeral for a format that, like so much else, was out of time.
Radiohead: Saving the album to kill it? Or something like that.
Kid A: Special Collector’s Edition [Pitchfork]
Kid A [Pitchfork]
I can’t disagree. It still gets play from me all these years later. I can’t say the same for albums that came out six months ago.
It’s good and all, but Amnesiac > Kid A.
As I muttered on Twitter, if Capitol really wanted to honor Kid A they should rerelease its tracks as a glitchy 128 kbps rip.
@mahkiavelli: Amnesiac is good, but I must firmly diagree. I’m not a stan for all things Radiohead, but it is seriously a massive “statement” album. Of all the directions they could have gone, they chose the one that still blows my mind while being extremely listenable. I can’t say that for “Packt Like Sardines…” and “Push/Pulk…”
I love both albums, but if I had to choose, it would be KID-A all the way. Beautiful and creepy all at the same time.
This kind of makes me want to check it out again, because as it stands now, Kid A was the point where I stopped listening to Radiohead.
No one should be allowed to forget one of Brent DiCrescenzo’s less obnoxious (but still highly Pitchfork-stereotype-y) reviews, the original Kid A review:
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6656-kid-a/
@sparkletone: “Less obnoxious” should not be used to refer to any early P4k reviews — or anything penned by Brent DiCrescenzo, really. “Stomps like mating Tyrannosaurs”??
Bizarre new review. They usually ding re-releases when the majors flog their back catalogs with the addition of lousy bonus material. Seems more like this reviewer just wanted his own chance to fete the album in the hallowed pages of the Fork.
i don’t give half a shit about radiohead or this album, but could they please, pretty, pretty, please drop the “best new music” tag for reissues? it just looks fucking stupid.
@sparkletone:
Sorry, what part of this isn’t obnoxious?:
“The butterscotch lamps along the walls of the tight city square bled upward into the cobalt sky, which seemed as strikingly artificial and perfect as a wizard’s cap. The staccato piano chords ascended repeatedly. “Black eyed angels swam at me,” Yorke sang like his dying words. “There was nothing to fear, nothing to hide.” The trained critical part of me marked the similarity to Coltrane’s “Ole.” The human part of me wept in awe.”
Incredible album. I had to put it away for a few years (I just didn’t want to feel that in-my-head for a brief period in my life) and when I came back to it it was such an extraordinary homecoming.
@ScrabbleChamp: It was less obnoxious because DiCrescenzo wasn’t writing about a phony trek across Europe looking for a misplaced Radiohead show.
Kid A and Amnesiac are both great. They could have released them together as a double album and there would have been no suffering in quality or importance.
It’s a shame that the band since hasn’t done much for which to sing praises. Come on, admit it, the best thing that can be said about “In Rainbows” is that it’s the band’s fifth best album.
And a bit off subject, but I wish Pfork would just stop complaining about Radiohead’s treatment by Capitol. The label allowed them full creative control to become the most influential and (arguably) greatest band of their generation; they helped land the band’s records debut at number one on billboard; they promoted in interesting ways that were respectful to their art; they basically financed the groundwork for the cottage industry that Radiohead will now rely on for the rest of their lives. I don’t know if I’ve actually heard Radiohead complain about Capitol, but Pfork needs to shut the fuck up about it. Their constant complaining sounds like your run-of-the-mill 90’s indie-kid bellyaching to me.
And if it comes down to the fact that Capitol released a box set of the albums and a “Best of”, then I have to advise the writers over there to grow up. Worsts offenses have been committed to the legacy of a band. Further to the point though, Capitol owns those records and can do whatever they want with them. Radiohead signed a contract, and I’m sure Capitol’s ownership of the masters were explicitly laid out in it. Anyway, I’m sure the band still sees a nice royalty rate from those sales too.
@ChrisB.: that was the best retraction ever.
@iantenna: i kind of like what they’re doing with that. there’s an icon that differentiates it from an actual new release, and then it goes in the separate section on the front page for reissues.
it used to be that some reissues would get 9s and 10s and then fall through the cracks while the new Crystal Wolvvvz EP or whatever sits on the front page for the world to see.
“everything from production to arrangements to lyrics to album art were carefully crafted towards a unified purpose”
This is why Radiohead, by way of their superfans, are so annoying. There is a huge, huge chasm between “carefully crafted” and “lots of cool sounding overdubs and studio wankery”. And Kid A is where Radiohead jumped straight from the one to the other. Sometimes (always?) random stuff thrown together is just random.
@Bruno the Fishing Dog: the new Crystal Wolvvvz EP
Haha that’s great.
No, no! I’ve been misunderstood. DiCrescenzo’s initial Kid A review IS obnoxiously written! However, compared to the … highlights? … of his time at Pitchfork, it doesn’t rate with the truly weird and awful ones.