Radiohead
Kid A
2000, I spent the three years between Ok Computer and its follow-up obsessing over Radiohead's every move. I had so many bootlegs from that period that even I thought I could imagine what their next record would sound like. But I was wrong. From the moment I heard the soothing opening synth notes of "Everything In Its Right Place," I knew that Radiohead had destroyed their own music in order to create it anew. It was astounding in 2000 to hear a new Radiohead album... one that barely had any guitars. While familiar bootleg tune "How To Disappear" survived only mostly unscathed, the acoustic ballad "Motion Picture Soundtrack" was almost unrecognizable. The title track had vocals - I just couldn't understand them. "Treefingers" was three and a half minutes of ambience. "Idioteque" is like almost really club music. In hindsight none of this was all that weird: their last album opened with a tribute to DJ Shadow, while its b-sides collaborated with Zero 7 and a remix by Fila Brazillia. This new sound was also grounded a bit by the urgent acoustic guitars strums of "Optimistic" and the absolutely rocking bassline of "National Anthem." Kid A was a brave record, but one that makes sense in hindsight. There's no way the band could have made a proper follow-up to OK Computer. So why not just reinvent the band?