Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not exactly what we expected?, 11 Feb 2005
Where are Radiohead coming from and why are we so passionate about them? I read somewhere once that Thom said "lets play something happy, we've got loads of them haven't we lads?" and to me that said it all. Radiohead's music embodies something else completely removed from pop and the the top 40 as it's as far to be.All of there albums portray life from a realist's point of view. Life isn't full of ABSOLUTE happiness for anyone ever - it is filled with lots of mundanity, fear, boredom and stacks of background noise. Radiohead describe this completely in Kid A.
When I first listened to this I thought avant garde bollocks to be honest, but repeated listens revealed a new world of music to me. I don't think it's something you could ever put on at a party to impress your mates but if you dig it then it will become something you treasure. It shows what Radiohead are all about - not misery and sorrow as it seems at first - but life at it's most raw. This is where we all live most of the time (even if we are having a great time in our life the news just tells us the horrible things happening elsewhere). Radiohead show life, musically, in a beautiful and profound way and for that I love and thank them.
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
If you try the best you can, the best you can is good enough, 24 Nov 2000
Mission accomplished. With Kid A, Radiohead have successfully managed to alienate half their fanbase whilst simultaneously delighting the rest of us. Certainly there's nothing remotely indie-schmindie about it - then again, in musical terms Radiohead left that kind of thing behind a long while ago. How many bands in this day and age could successfully attempt something so wilfully eclectic and - deep breath - experimental? Very few, surely.
The spookily warm cut-up electronica of Everything In Its Right Place kicks off the LP, and the eerie mood is maintained throughout, notably on the Eno-inspired intermission Treefingers and the just-downright-odd title track. The National Anthem and Optimistic are two of the LP's most atypical tracks, in the sense that they sound most like 'traditional' Radiohead songs, although ...Anthem clatters to a wonderfully satisfying conclusion in a hail of jazzy noise. Optimistic is notable for its tribalesque drumming from Phil Selway and some rare (for this LP) choppy fretwork from Jonny Greenwood.
Then, of course, there's the so-called dance track Idioteque, its apocalyptic, warped sound (pun intended) marking it out as possibly the most un-Radiohead-sounding Radiohead track ever. It's utterly surprising, utterly brilliant and, for a band of Radiohead's standing, utterly unique.
There has been much vapid criticism of Kid A's supposed impenetrability and inaccessibility, but while it may be a mile apart from their previous work, it's much less difficult and complicated than you may have heard, and undeserving of the (inevitable) mass critical dissection that it's received. Ultimately, it stands as another fine body of work from, lest we forget, one of the most important bands of this generation.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Strange but great, 28 April 2001
By A Customer
I bought Kid A after buying and enjoying OK Computer, and at first I was a little disapointed. The style at first seemed very different from that of OKC, and the weird tunes and bizzare lyrics/vocals seemed baffling. I held this opinion untill about my 3rd listening of the album, when, and I know you've heard this 100+ times on this page already, but it really is true, it suddenly grows on you and you realise that you love this album. The songs are wonderful, not just because they are different, which is what people seem to praise it mostly for, but because they are excellent songs in themselves, whether they are as unique as they are or if it had been done 100 times before. The best tracks are probably 'How to dissapear completely', which is more traditional Radiohead quality, and 'Idioteque', perhaps the track which takes longest to appreciate, but it's bizzare lyrics and atmospheric sound make it a masterpiece of a song, and despite what some think, still sounding like Radiohead if you listen. Lots seem to hate this album, and I think it is just a case of personal preference, not a case of 'intellegence' or 'snobbery' as some argue. It is definately a 1 or 5 star album, and I would definately choose 5 stars. Weirdly brilliant.
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