Radiohead - Kid A
(Capitol)
I've
never really liked Radiohead that much. Sure, I acknowledged OK
Computer as a pretty good
mainstream pop record, but their music never spoke out to me as
anything particularly special. However, when I saw Kid A
on Napster last week I thought, "What the hell?," and gave it
a download.
I was
quite surprised by this record--I spent most of the weekend
listening to it, actually. This
is probably the most experimental record by an established pop artist
(in recent years) that I can think of. Still, Metal
Machine Music this is not. Kid
A doesn't betray the Radiohead
aesthetic, instead mixing more of the electronic sounds that made OK
Computer so popular with
critics and really creating some interesting songs.
Songs like "How
to Disappear Completely" and "Optimistic" are not
unusual Radiohead fare; it is the first three songs that really jump
out of the water and introduce Radiohead's new direction. The first
two tracks contain barely intelligible lyrics, which give the effect
of suggested emotion. "Kid A" is a barely coherent pop
song that is accentuated by strange electronic blips, while the
heavily processed vocals dance around a melody. It's splendid, and
probably my favorite track on the album.
"The
National Anthem" is a rocker, based on a simple riff, that also
wouldn't sound out of place on OK Computer.
The song ends by building to a crazed horn section that sounds like
Talk Talk collaborating with Captain Beefheart, some of the vocal
trickery making me think of This Heat. The instrumental "Treefingers"
sounds like something off Another Green World.
But despite these influences, Radiohead are doing something here
that is their own.
Perhaps this is the
next step in the direction of pop music, as first hinted at by My
Bloody Valentine's "Soon" in 1991. Kid A struck me
in the same way that OK Computer struck everyone else. I'm
curious as to what they will be capable of next.
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