Radiohead
Kid A

THE REVIEW

With the permission of those who are tired of reading reviews on this record, I couldn't resist inscribing my personal reflections on the Debaser boards.

The sound of the electric piano, after an instant, has already entered the listener's brain to communicate that “everything is in its place.” Thom's voice, at times filtered and reversed, merges with the alien sounds to form a single soundscape capable of reaching the most remote and confused corners of the human soul. That's where disorder resides. But here comes the landing of the spaceship: it's the toy of “child A”!!

The hypnotic percussion precedes the entry of the bass making its appearance on the record. The vocoder-processed voice allows for the singing of a very dark text. The feeling is that even in these conditions, the singer manages to be expressive. The National Anthem bursts in with Colin's sharp bass, soon joined by Phil's percussion and Jonny's radio distortions. This paves the way for Yorke's estranging voice. The rhythm is tight and has the proper presumption of a national anthem. At minute 2.39, the brass suddenly comes into play to offer us the jazz atmospheres of the third millennium. “That there that’s not me” are the words introducing “how to disappear completely.”
The sound of the violin contrasts with the vocals and together with a sweet and dreamy bass line creates an atmosphere of suspension from space and time. It is a painful reflection by Thom on the status of a rockstar. The untreated voice emphasizes that the message comes from a being claiming his humanity: “I’m not here, this is not happening, I’m not here, I’m not here.”

The subsequent instrumental track “Treefingers” has the duty of completing the annihilation process started by the previous track. To start anew, there is a need for something familiar, ensuring that Radiohead still want to be there, albeit in their own way. “Optimistic” represents the bridge to older works and the more typically rock sound. The lyrics also return to politically charged messages against a society devastated by economic giants, which Thom loves to define as “dinosaurs roaming the earth.”
But there is also a beautifully shouted sense of hope: “you can try the best you can, if you try the best you can, the best you can is good enough.” In the finale, a sudden change of direction serves as an intro to the next track. “In Limbo” is capable of disorienting even the greatest musician, unable to understand what the next direction of the sound will be.
In some interviews, the band declared that the genesis of the piece was precisely a lack of inspiration, a mental confusion transformed into music. But now what happens?? “Idioteque!!” In my opinion, this is the cult piece of the album. The explosive electronica of Aphex Twin is not far away. The band seems to get rid of the instruments, and Phil contributes to giving the sound a Radiohead touch. It's neither a rock piece nor a techno piece: the ice age is coming, we are involved in the idioteque and can't remain still. The morning bell calls to order. It is a sound order: “Morning Bell” is incredibly regular. It talks about family and children torn apart. Once again, the singer reflects the issues of a seemingly normal but profoundly contradictory life.

The album's closure is conceived, from the title, as the soundtrack to conclude a wonderful film. Jonny Greenwood enjoys himself with the ondes Martenot and the harp sound seems to stretch the time. “Motion Picture Soundtrack” contains within it 1 minute of absolute silence after which a bed of sampled sounds returns us to a new and definitive silence. And thus, the listener is left waiting for something else to come and surprise them.

“KID A,” prophetically released in 2000, destroyed rock just to rebuild it. There will be no singles or videos: they belong to the reality from which they want to escape. The RADIOheads, coming from nowhere, want to return there. But in the meantime, they seem to whisper to us that music has changed.