Radiohead - Kid A / Amnesiac Poll

"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)

Wilson and Alroy's review was also bizarre:

Kid A (2000) *1/2
A cruel trick, Radiohead's Lumpy Gravy. Electronica at its least entertaining, with a few endlessly repeated "atmospheric" samples and synth lines per song ("Everything In Its Right Place"), and almost no guitar or vocals. When Yorke is audible, he's extremely subdued, except on the robotic drum machine-based "Idioteque." There are a couple of songs with rock instrumentation, but they're as dull as the rest ("The National Anthem," in which a sluggish vamp is first augmented and then overwhelmed by amateurish horns). Thirty-some years ago, this might have been avant garde - the attention it's getting today is due solely to the band's rep. I mean, "Treefingers" and the dreary pseudo-classical title track sound like outtakes from Tubular Bells - what's inventive or moving or exciting about that? I never dreamed the band would release such a bland, simpleminded, just plain insipid piece of work. Grammy winner for "Best Alternative Album," whatever that means. (DBW)

As someone that's heard Kid A, Tubular Bells, and Lumpy Gravy dozens of times I cannot for the life of me draw a connection between them

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

― silverfish, Friday, February 14, 2014 2:27 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

From Select Magazine:

"We will, by now, know that 'Ok Computer' Version 2.0 was never on the cards. But that realisation doesn't quite do justice to how frustrating this LP actually is. Like an aggravating adolescent, 'Kid A' has all the answers to your criticisms. There aren't many songs here. "So?" It doesn't 'say' very much. "Not meant to!"

Like its most obvious forebear, David Bowie's 'Low', what's not present is as important as what's actually here. The main absentees, then, are choruses, coherent lyrics, crescendos and guitars: the very stuffing of 'OK Computer'.

The brilliantly pounding 'National Anthem' underlines how sapped this music is of communality. "Everyone around here/everyone is so near," warbles an untouchable Thom - plastic coating well in place - over a funk-rock brass cacophony.

Tellingly, the other highpoint also comes rock band-shaped. The almost psychedelic gumbo groover 'Optimistic' surveys the capitalist whirl with supreme distance - the perpetrators and victims are even portrayed as other species, as dinosaurs, pigs and fish. Great, too, is the masterfully antiseptic opener 'Everything In Its Right Place', the point where a new musical approach - think To Rococo Rot plus rock intensity - makes most sense.

But while an elliptical masterpiece is within sight, 'Kid A' is finally dragged earthbound by some unfortunate delusions. Ambient electro soundscapes like 'Idioteque' are fine enough. But, really, what do you want for sounding like Aphex Twin circa 1993? A medal?

The knowledge that better stuff is deliberately being held back adds to the frustration. Live performances of 'Knives Out' and 'Egyptian Song' raised expectations to a height that isn't reached here. A couple more 'big' songs and it would have been far easier to herald 'Kid A' as a bona fide Major Work. But Radiohead didn't want that. They've done that. Too much information.

Taken alone, 'Kid A' is a cohesive, resonably successful, sometimes excellent new album which points Radiohead in all sorts of wrong directions.

3/5, Steve Lowe.

I just thought "cool, these guys listen to mille plateaux and autechre" except there's no signature or magic going on here for the 'out' tracks, they just sound like stuff from a c90 'radioheads first electronic jams".

it's amazing, listening back to these again today, how SLOW national anthem and i might be wrong sound compared to their live versions!

yea, that's true. also anyone hear that live album they put out shortly after kid a/amnesiac? i think it was titled "i might be wrong." anyways, i thought it was terrible. ha, i don't even know why brought this up.

the crowd on the version of idioteque on that album is p lovable

I quite liked 'I Might Be Wrong'. More than Hail to the Thief, anyway. The live version of Like Spinning Plates was beautiful. Hm, I think I'll put it on right now, in fact.

i felt like the sound quality was terrible on it, the crowd seemed really loud for professional recording, everything echoed way too much.

Listening to it now, you might be right... I was very young and impressionable when it was released...

I must admit, I do prefer the stripped down Thom'n'piano version of 'Like Spinning Plates' on I Might Be Wrong to the album version, but realise that the song wouldn't have existed in the first place if they hadn't written and recorded it the way they had, by taking a backing track of an early version of 'I Will', flipping it backwards, and working on the song from there.

what other songs do that (the reverse thing)? stone roses "don't stop" i know. Maybe there's a thread for it.

There's been loads! The Stone Roses did a lot of them, but I think only 'Don't Stop' had lyrics to it. There's an album by The Skids where the closing track is the opening track reversed, and The Stranglers had a B-side called 'Yellowcake UF6', which was a track that they were working on which didn't work out called 'Wasting Time' (aka 'Social Secs') which they slowed down and reversed to create a backwards instrumental.

My perfect album, which if call "Kid Amnesiac":

Everything in its right place
Pyramid song
National anthem
You and whose army
How to disappear
Optimistic
In limbo
Idioteque
Dollars and sense
Morning bell
Like spinning plates
Life in a glass house

relistening to 'amnesiac' and remembering how much i liked it at the time. i'd never noticed before, but talk talk must've been a big influence on these guys -- espec. 'laughing stock.'

xposts, and there's that crazy teenage filmstars album that was written backwards and recorded forwards and then reversed post-recording.

or something like that... the whole recording is in reverse, the melodies themselves are not.

i don't really get why anyone would want to remove anything from Kid A.

I was at the public premiere of Kid A. It was at a movie theater in NYC and a label rep from Capitol Records was there to introduce the album to us. The music was accompanied by 3D footage of fish (the label rep said the band had nothing to do with the film). As for the initial impressions of the music, I remember being very surprised by it and kind of waiting for more of a "Radiohead sound" to kick in, but I ended up being completely blown away by it. On the way out, I passed some guy who was asked by a reporter for his opinion and I remember him complaining that there weren't any guitars...

i felt like the sound quality was terrible on it, the crowd seemed really loud for professional recording, everything echoed way too much.

Yeah, this is sadly otm. MTV broadcast some live footage around this time which didn't sound amazing, but was revelatory compared to I Might Be Wrong. A huge missed opportunity.

Just having a late night listen to Amnesiac right now, and I love how the rimshots on 'Dollars and Cents' have so much reverb on them. In fact, I love how the whole track sounds like a bunch of very paranoid people covering 'Lowrider'.

The b-sides and non-album tracks from this era were also terrific. I must have listened to the full-band live version of "true love waits" (with the glockenspiel?) hundreds of times. I think it was my first napster download.

Yeah if the b-sides had been thrown in I'd have a hard time. "Worrywort," "Fog," "Kinetic," "Amazing Sounds of Orgy" all great, and the others are fun too. I even like "Cuttooth."

I love that they crammed all the "trademark" Jonny guitar fuckery into one half of a three-minute b-side.

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.

I've written before about how Amnesiac became, for me, the soundtrack to having to terminate a pregnancy due to health reasons, so this review is both laughably, horrendously terrible, but also, weirdly OTM for deeply personal reasons no one else would ever guess at.

It took a very long time to be able to listen to Amnesiac without it being a visceral, emotional one-way ticket back to that period of my life. But oddly, despite or because of that experience, I do prefer it of the twins.

Radiohead miscellany from the Kid A/Amnesiac era:

A+ "True Love Waits" -- probably the best bootleg they never recorded in studio; simply heartbreaking
A "Rabbit in your Headlights" -- as someone said upthread, precursor to Kid/Amnesiac electronica; best song not on either album
A- "Like Spinning Plates" (live piano version) -- this wouldn't have fit well on the album, but sounds like a revelation
A- "El Presidente" -- Thom's duet with Drugstore, whom I have never heard of before or since
A- "Follow Me Around" -- been floating around live performances since The Bends, I believe; simple guitar melody
B+ "This Miss We're In" -- Thom's duet with PJ Harvey; spooky and meandering, as are most things PJ Harvey
B+ "Lift" -- guitar-driven Bends-era-sounding live performance about being trapped in an elevator; never ended up anywhere
B+ "Fog" -- aka "Alligators in New York Sewers" and reworked later as "Fog (Again)"; simple, sad melody that defines this era for me
B+ "Worrywort" -- moderately haunting, pleasant electronica gurgle
B "Cuttooth" -- the most "rock"-sounding track of the era, but for some reason never made the leap from "good" to "great" for me
B "Amazing Sounds of Orgy" -- decent groove; atmospheric production; sounds like a B-side
B "Kinetic" -- decent groove; atmospheric production; sounds like a B-side
C+ "I've Seen It All" -- Thom's duet with Bjork from Dancer in the Dark; great collab on paper, but no hook

"I've Seen It All" is better than anything Radiohead ever did.

Probably because Radiohead didn't do it.

hahaha owned

"Idioteque"

Voted "Hunting Bears" because it's the shortest song option and the less Radiohead anyone has to hear is a good thing.

Wrote this in a thread elsewhere:

Amnesiac

The Kid A / Amnesiac era has such amazing b-sides. You could argue Amnesiac was a b-side album and in parts it definitely feels like it. This one is in serious need of a rearrangement imho and the b-sides from the era definitely allow it.

There is actually a Stylus 'playing god' article about this album already! - http://stylusmagazine.com/articles/playing_god/radiohead-amnesiac.htm - and I agree with it for the most part. At the time thAT article was published Nude was still unreleased, and he picked a live version of Spinning Plates too. The live version of Spinning Plates would, in fact, been a much better addition than its final form but it feels a little bit like cheating picking up unreleased or live versions when playing god.

I actually love having the final 'playing god' playlist in my itunes and it breaks the mood completely to have a live track in there. Also he left out 'Fog' which is one of the best b-sides of the era next to Worrywort. So from that article I picked the same tracklist with two slight changes; 'fog' instead of 'nude' (which coincidentally share a similar mood so it doesn't ruin the flow) and I decided to remove Spinning Plates completely.

1. Packt Like Sardines in a Crushed Tin Box
2. Pyramid Song
3. You and Whose Army
4. I Might Be Wrong
5. Fog
6. Cutooth
7. Worrywort
8. The Amazing Sounds of Orgy
9. Kinetic
10. Life in a Glasshouse

'Life In A Glasshouse' was the only song that they recorded after Kid A had been released, wasn't it? (Even though they apparently had the bare bones of the song during the time of OK Computer)

That "Playing God" article is awesome!!

testament to the enormous psychic pull radiohead have on their fanbase that anyone likes those terrible b-sides. amazing sounds of orgy is pleasantly unremarkable & transatlantic drawl is worth hearing once mb. yorke crooning on el presidente/ive seen it all/rabbit in yr headlights is awful, altho I believe I gave the latter I pass when I was still orbiting the rh star. airbag ep was great tho & talk show host, which was spiritually similar.

Look, I understand that Radiohead and Radiohead fans getting a kicking on any ILM Radiohead thread is all par for the course, but STFU ABOUT DRUGSTORE, DRUGSTORE IS AMAZING AND ALWAYS HAVE BEEN, ISABEL MONTEIRO COULD TAKE ALL OF YOU WITH ONE HAND TIED BEHIND HER BACK. The end.

the drugstore collab was way before the kid a/amnesiac era anyway, right? early 1998?

Yeah, it might have been earlier (I will have to check that Drugstore record) because I have a funny feeling that Thom was still ginger?

(c)1997/1998 according to the disc, which is bloody hard to read.

Isabel's blog about having to blackmail her bandmates into doing the track in the first place is pretty funny, though. She's such a wonderful character. A real original. I love her to bits!

I remember the video to that coming up on The Box quite a lot. No other knowledge of Drugstore.

Look, if this thread does nothing else, people, *please* go and check out more Drugstore that isn't El Presidente. (Which is a great song, sure, but when the duet with Thom Yorke is actually the least interesting song on the album...) They've recently had a big retrospective reissued on Rocket Girl recently, plus a new album last year (erm, the year before, now). If memory serves, the best of, at least should be on Spotify?

This Wednesday, for one night in Detroit, chef Kyle Hanley is presenting "A Night With Kid A", Huffington Post reports. It's a pop-up restaurant offering a 10-course meal based entirely on Radiohead's classic 2000 album. Check out the full menu below.

01 Everything in Its Right Place: Pan-seared diver scallop, yuzu fluid gel, fried cellophane noodle, lemongrass ponzu, chili oil. With Pfalz Riesling.
02 Kid A: Black caprese. With Alto Adige Kerner.
03 The National Anthem: Pan-seared lamb chops, crispy pig ear, blood orange reduction. With 100 percent Mourvedre.
04 How to Disappear Completely: Oil-poached monkfish, white asparagus, white balsamic vinaigrette, daikon sprouts. With Leelanau Good Harbour Golden Ale.
05 Treefingers: Tomato granita. With cilantro-infused gin, jalapeño syrup, fresh lime, sea salt, chili oil.
06 Optimistic: Maple sugar-seared duck breast, pink peppercorn gastrique, orange juniper pearls, shredded confit. With Anderson Valley Knez Pinot Noir.
07 In Limbo: Shades of Bouillabaisse. With Cava VallDolina.
08 Idioteque: Arugula salad, sous-vide egg, lardo croutons, manchego crisps, crispy pancetta, smoked sherry vinaigrette, meyer lemon foam, caper dust. With Mezcal Chartruese sour, dash of Ango.
09 Morning Bell: Meyer lemon sorbet. With gin and tonic.
10 Motion Picture Soundtrack: Mousse dou with blackberry pâte de fruit Niepoort LBV port.

testament to the enormous psychic pull radiohead have on their fanbase that anyone likes those terrible b-sides. amazing sounds of orgy is pleasantly unremarkable & transatlantic drawl is worth hearing once mb. yorke crooning on el presidente/ive seen it all/rabbit in yr headlights is awful, altho I believe I gave the latter I pass when I was still orbiting the rh star. airbag ep was great tho & talk show host, which was spiritually similar.

― ogmor, Saturday, February 15, 2014 8:05 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I really like both 'Fog' and 'Cuttooth', but ultimately I don't think the could have improved on the tracks they chose for Amnesiac. After they put together Kid A, Amnesiac really was the best of what they had left.

*the band

my two penn'orth: this basically boils down to a fight between 4 or 5 Amnesiac tracks. Kid A is their weakest album other than the first two and In Rainbows. TKOL is hideously underrated. HTTT their best. Airbag EP also their best. winner of this poll, after deliberation: Dollars & Cents

*winner of my vote, even, lol

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmjyUce7kSU

my two penn'orth: this basically boils down to a fight between 4 or 5 Amnesiac tracks. Kid A is their weakest album other than the first two and In Rainbows. TKOL is hideously underrated. HTTT their best. Airbag EP also their best. winner of this poll, after deliberation: Dollars & Cents

― Know Scot! Free Getaway: Glen, Handa Island, Rua Reidh (imago)

I completely disagree with Kid A being their weakest album (also with D&C being the highlight song from the era) but I've never understood the hate towards TKOL either. I think it's one of their best albums and I kind of hope they continue exploring on this path but it seems unlikely at this point since noone seemed to give a shit.