Kid A was Radiohead's fourth studio album, released on October 2, 2000 in the United Kingdom and on October 3 in the United States and Canada. To much surprise it debuted at #1 on the US Billboard 200, despite the band's refusal to release an official single in the United States. It came as a surprise for many who expected the follow-up album to their enormously successful OK Computer (1997) to be along the same musical vein. Instead of following their old formula, however, Radiohead experimented with electronic soundscapes, polyrhythms, and obscure instruments, notably an Ondes Martenot. After having worked on Kid A for over a year, the group was close to disbanding due to creative pressures. However they remained together and not only saw the project through, they recorded the tracks for what would become their follow-up album, Amnesiac (2001), at the same time.

Kid A offers a melange of modern and experimental music, including electronica, post-rock, indie, art rock, and jazz. The album is a distinct departure from Radiohead's usual work in that it features less of Thom Yorke's impassioned vocals or Jonny Greenwood's uniquely powerful guitar work. While it may have disappointed some of the fans, Kid A certainly brought Radiohead critical and popular acclaim from those attracted to the musical directions the band was exploring.

The album nods at an anti-commercialist and anti-capitalist viewpoint, and in some cases espouses this directly. A possible explanation for this is some members of the band were reading the book No Logo prior to recording the album, and mentioned this on an internet weblog.

Blips

No singles were released from Kid A, and hence no videos. However, in place of these Radiohead commissioned a series of television commercial length cartoons set to music from the album, called "blips". The blips were directed by The Vapour Brothers (Tim and Chris Bran, who also directed the web-released video of I Might Be Wrong). These blips told the story of an example of capitalism gone wrong, represented (somewhat darkly) by genetically modified killer teddy bears (which also appeared on the Kid A album artwork). Ironically, the bears ended up being a sort of commercial "logo" for the album, appearing at the end of the blips.

There is a Latin American release of a video for "The National Anthem". The video was the result of a contest made by MTV Latin America, in which contestants were asked to make an animated video for "The National Anthem".

Track listing

(All songs written by Radiohead)

1. "Everything in its Right Place" - 4:11
2. "Kid A" - 4:44
3. "The National Anthem" - 5:50
4. "How to Disappear Completely" - 5:55
5. "Treefingers" - 3:42
6. "Optimistic" - 5:16
7. "In Limbo" - 3:31
8. "Idioteque" - 5:09
9. "Morning Bell" - 4:29
10. "Motion Picture Soundtrack" - 7:01

• The last track is often reduced to 5 minutes in MP3 files because it ends with 2 minutes of silence. These 2 minutes are intended to provide respite before the album repeats.
• There have been rumors on Internet message boards that "Treefingers" contain secret lyrics. It is not certain that it does.

External link

• Radiohead Unpackt – an in-depth interpretation of OK Computer, Kid A and Amnesiac.
• Did Napster Take Radiohead's New Album to Number 1? - article from MP3 Newswire suggests that the original Napster was the force behind Kid A's success on the charts.