Radiohead - Kid A / Amnesiac Poll

Treefingers or hunting bears

Everything in it's right place

I remember 'Hunting Bears' getting a lot of scorn at the time too: "why is this great band who write great songs and have great interplay between three guitarists putting out a slight track that consists of one guitarist doodling on riff they could have written in their sleep backed with someone pissing about on a keyboard?"

Which reminds me of another criticism that some people had of Kid A and Amnesiac at the time: people were actually genuinely confused as to what certain band members were doing on certain tracks, and because they couldn't hear the whole band playing at once with their usual instruments on every track, it somehow made the music seem a bit inauthentic to them. Like "how can this possibly be called a Radiohead record? Where's the actual band at?" ... For some, it took until they actually saw the band performing the tracks live until they "got it", and weirdly I noticed The King Of Limbs had the same effect for some people.

Again, I think it comes back to this idea of guitar music having "authenticity" that was still a little bit in the air after Britpop.

hunting bears sounds like a computer trying to recreate the dead man soundtrack or something.

weirdly I noticed The King Of Limbs had the same effect for some people.

I much prefer the live versions of songs from KoL! I think they dropped the ball a bit production wise on that one, it's mainly a bit flat and listless. Bloom for example kind of drifts by inocuously on record, whereas live takes sound like the universe forming (particuarly the mighty From the Basement reading).

i agree, i was a bit let down by the record after having seen live clips + the live at abbey road thing

Then there was the other group of people, the ones who were holding out hope that Kid A was the "experimental" record and that Amnesiac would be the return of the Radiohead of The Bends and OK Computer. When this didn't prove to be the case, those who weren't thrilled with Radiohead's new sound knew that this is the direction in which the band would be going and jumped ship entirely.

I remember reading lazy* reviews that actually claimed that Amnesiac was a welcome return to more traditional guitar-based music after the crazed experimentation of Kid A.

*lazy, in as much as they obviously couldn't have been bothered to listen to it before writing the review

maybe they just heard "Knives Out" and made assumptions

The biggest grower for me, of all the tracks in this poll, was 'Dollars and Cents'. Took some time to get its claws in me, that one. At first, I just thought/felt it was just a kind of tarted-up studio jam they'd rescued from the bottom of the pile of stuff they'd amassed during the Kid A/Amnesiac sessions, but over time I just gradually found myself getting more and more drawn into it.

Yeah I love that one. The non album single 'These Are My Twisted Words' reminds me of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2ztWvuyXeU

the press during kid a had emphasized they'd recorded two albums during the sessions and the next one would be much more guitar focused (true enough) and friendly, the listen w/o prejudice vol 2 to kid a's listen w/o prejudice vol 1. that they would be making a video was a big deal also so it was pretty funny that when the video came out that radiohead's big 'you wanted a hit, well here's yr hit' was this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2VzLn6DMCE

the press during kid a had emphasized they'd recorded two albums during the sessions and the next one would be much more guitar focused (true enough)

Well, maybe a touch more guitar-focused... I mean the first three tracks on Amnesiac are an electropop song, a seasick piano ballad and four minutes of pounding beats and Thom talking about doors!

I mean, sure, 'Knives Out' is on there and 'You and Whose Army?', but those looking for the next 'No Surprises' or 'High and Dry' were pretty much going "this isn't what I was hoping for, this is just more Kid A" upon listening to the first couple of tracks of Amnesiac.

The first time I heard Kid A I thought my copy was deffective. Asides from Optimistic it didn't sound anything like them, it was very alienating. I forced myself to like the record with blunt repetition and suddenly around the 9th listen everything clicked in. It's one of the most satisfying album experiences I've had. Granted I was young and impressionable but I'm still amazed at how well it has aged, at least to my ears. OKC sounds very dated nowadays, i think kid a will still sound 'new' 10 years from now. The combination of sounds and influences makes it sound very different, it's also a hard style to copy so unlike OKC there's nothing quite like it.
Anyhoo here's how I rate them:

Unfuckwithable

Everything In Its Right Place
Kid A
The National Anthem
How To Disappear Completely
In Limbo
Idioteque
Morning Bell
Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box
Pyramid Song
Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors
I Might Be Wrong
Life In A Glasshouse

50/50
Optimistic
Motion Picture Soundtrack
You and Whose Army?
Dollars and Cents

Meh / the b-sides are way better

Treefingers
Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors
Knives Out
Morning Bell/Amnesiac
Hunting Bears
Like Spinning Plates

don't forget the sub self-parody/coldplay-esque/commercial-stab/relegated-to-bside track category

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPz2mBKlMWE

First time I heard Kid A, I thought my copy was defective. I took it back and exchanged it for another copy. It was.

True.

kid a the first radjohead i dug, still my favorite, closely followed by amnesiac. everything in its right place.

Then there was the other group of people, the ones who were holding out hope that Kid A was the "experimental" record and that Amnesiac would be the return of the Radiohead of The Bends and OK Computer. When this didn't prove to be the case, those who weren't thrilled with Radiohead's new sound knew that this is the direction in which the band would be going and jumped ship entirely

I was in this group.

Even when HTTF came out I remember some reviews going, "Seriously guys? Still with the weird shit?" Because There There and 2+2=5 seemed to promise "back to rock" (as did some of their interviews iirc) and of course it wasn't.

I think Yorke's rep in the UK press had a lot to do with it as well. The subtext of a lot of the early reviews was that Yorke was being an asshole by refusing to be a rock star, which seems silly now.

They were confused because Yorke was being more of a Rock Star than they could ever conceive of being - which is why he gets to be a rock star and they're... critics.

haha otm

its like...slight of frame depresso plays by his own rules and sticks to bleep bloops. what are ya gonna do, old man? *chucks guitar into trash heap*

What's HTTF?

I wonder how the 00's alt/rock/indie landscape would have been affected if Kid A/Amnesiac had never existed or if Radiohead had gone down a more traditional route?

hail to the thief, i'm guessing

x-post

hail to the fraud?

used to be fascinated at just how untraditional Amnesiac was. i mean that thing dicked with expectation, sequence, the whole shebang. it was almost weird in itself that reasonably conventional pieces such as Knives Out and You Might be Wrong were bedfellows to left-field, albeit successful, experiments like Revolving Doors and Like Spinning Plates.

In a way the track 'Kid A' was a manifesto - "You were expecting a rock album, you were WRONG!", except for me it was also the track that made the album scream "WARP RECORDS TRIBUTE!!" at the time and clouded my opinion.

hell, i'm gonna dig Amnesiac out for the first time in years.

am increasingly ambivalent to these guys, but i was a big fan for years, and i think it's important that i occasionally remind myself of that fact.

Has there ever been a studio outtakes / sessions / demos thing released from these albums, y'now for dorks? I wouldn't mind hearing some of these tracks disassembled.

The weird thing I remember was that quote from Yorke saying he'd become embarrassed by melody - both these albums are really melodic in places.

oh is that why he sings all drawn out and moany

The lyric thing too... At first the switch was described as 'gnomic', 'nonsensical', possibly even lazy on Yorke's part, but now listening to old Radiohead sing about car and plane accidents and alien visitations sounds way too transparent, blunt and trite.

He's a decent rather than brilliant lyricist (though he is sometimes a surprisingly funny one), but his oblique cut n paste style suits latter day Radiohead perfectly.

Then again, he was on the Jonathan Ross show, solo piano and singing, some old (pre-KidA) radiohead classic...

Even when HTTF came out I remember some reviews going, "Seriously guys? Still with the weird shit?" Because There There and 2+2=5 seemed to promise "back to rock" (as did some of their interviews iirc) and of course it wasn't.

I think Yorke's rep in the UK press had a lot to do with it as well. The subtext of a lot of the early reviews was that Yorke was being an asshole by refusing to be a rock star, which seems silly now.

Yeah, I recall a bit of this too. There seemed to be this sense that, while they had brought the guitars back and went for a more 'live band' approach on Hail To The Thief that some critics felt the band were still deliberately shying away from "anthemic" material and maybe resented that a little. It was kinda this feeling of "you had the world in the palm of your hands circa OK Computer, what do you mean you didn't want to take that further? are you fucking crazy? why do you not want to be the hugest band in the world!?"

I wonder how the 00's alt/rock/indie landscape would have been affected if Kid A/Amnesiac had never existed or if Radiohead had gone down a more traditional route?

― doglato dozzy (dog latin), Friday, February 14, 2014 12:39 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's difficult to truly say what would have happened if Radiohead had decided to try to make another OK Computer, but I think things definitely would have been different. A lot of people bought and heard Kid A, and I think those that found a lot to enjoy in the work were undoubtedly influenced by it. It's become a highly influential record in its own right. Those that weren't taken in with their new sound started listening to bands like Muse and Coldplay instead. Would Muse and Coldplay have become as big as they did if Radiohead hadn't changed their sound? It's hard to say.

Not that hard.

Kid A, just over Knives Out and Idioteque (obv gonna win)

If anyone hasn't read the hilarious Pitchfork review of 'Kid A':

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6656-kid-a/

Comparing this to other albums is like comparing an aquarium to blue construction paper.

Has there ever been a studio outtakes / sessions / demos thing released from these albums, y'now for dorks? I wouldn't mind hearing some of these tracks disassembled.

― doglato dozzy (dog latin), Friday, February 14, 2014 12:52 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not a far as I know, but there's a couple of things on Amnesiac which give an insight into the recording process. If you play 'Like Spinning Plates' backwards, you get the backing track to a very early electronic version of 'I Will' (which eventually surfaced on Hail To The Thief). The version of 'Morning Bell' on Amnesiac was the first version recorded; the Kid A version being what the song eventually turned into.

There's a lot of material that they had during the Kid A and Amnesiac sessions that were worked on during the sessions and were junked, but later were attempted again for Hail To The Thief and In Rainbows.

Ed O'Brien kept an online diary for a short time during the recording of Kid A and Amnesiac and these are the songs mentioned:-

KID A tracks: 'Everything In Its Right Place', 'Kid A', 'The National Anthem' (working title: 'Everyone'), 'How To Disappear Completely' (working title: 'How To Disappear Completely and Never Be Found'), 'Optimistic', 'In Limbo' (working title: 'Lost At Sea'), 'Idioteque' (referred to as 'Thom & Johnny's Drum Thing'), 'Morning Bell'.

AMNESIAC tracks: 'Pyramid Song' (working title: 'Egyptian Song'), 'You and Whose Army?', 'I Might Be Wrong' (working title: 'Song With No Name'), 'Knives Out' and 'Dollars and Cents'.

B-sides:: 'Fast-track', 'Kinetic', 'Cuttooth'.

early attempts at HAIL TO THE THIEF era tracks: 'I Will' (recorded in an electronic style, was then junked and the backing track flipped backwards to become 'Like Spinning Plates'), 'A Wolf At The Door' (working title: 'Keep The Wolf From The Door'), 'Gagging Order' (working title: 'Move Along').

early attempts at IN RAINBOWS era tracks: 'Up On The Ladder', '4 Minute Warning' (working title: 'Neil Young *9/Bombers').

other tracks mentioned: 'Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses' (working title: 'Reckoner', eventually released as a Thom solo single - has nothing in common with 'Reckoner' from In Rainbows), Follow Me Around (attempted, but junked), True Love Waits (attempted, but junked), Lift (not attempted but mentioned in the diary), Innocent Civilians (written during an "electronic only" session in early 2000 but junked), 'Say The Word' (working title: 'C Minor Song', attempted but junked and remains unreleased), 'Johnny's Scott Walker Song' (attempted but junked).

There was a period of time during Kid A/Amnesiac's recording where they worked on electronic stuff only, which yielded the unreleased 'Innocent Civilians' (as mentioned above), the rhythm track to Backdrifts (which would later appear on Hail To The Thief, Colin and Johnny programmed the first version of 'The Gloaming' (working title: '33.3 Recurring') during this time too.

Stuff they had, but not attempted or mentioned in Ed's Diary: 'Nude' (working title: 'Big Ideas (Don't Get Any)'), of course... played live on the OK Computer but eventually surfaced on In Rainbows.

So yeah, lots of stuff. Very prolific period for the band. Who knows what else they were working on?

Oh god, yeah, and some of the lyrics from 'Cuttooth' appeared in 'Myxomatosis'... It seemed like they had a massive burst of ideas around this time and took a few years to work through them all.

The experience and emotions tied to listening to Kid A are like witnessing the stillborn birth of a child while simultaneously having the opportunity to see her play in the afterlife on Imax.

Jesus christ, that review is just ludicrous.

When the headphones peel off, and it occurs that six men (Nigel Godrich included) created this, it's clear that Radiohead must be the greatest band alive, if not the best since you know who.

who are 'you know who'?

Oh wait, he mentions the white album in the previous paragraph, so he means the Beatles

I guess they probably mean the Beatles, but considering this is circa 2000 pitchfork it might just be Pavement

"Word down Oxford Mensa is that "Kid A" is the result of studio sessions in Gloucestershire where about 60 songs were started that no one had a bloody clue how to finish. Frankly it shows." -(1.5/5, Mark Beaumont, Melody Maker)