I’m going to have to disagree with the music critics and hard core Radiohead fans on this one. I suppose the constant airplay of “Creep” back in the early 90’s made Thom Yorke want to run and hide. Instead of offering anything resembling an accessible record for the masses, Radiohead chose the path less taken. Their music and the band have ventured away from anything even remotely radio friendly and have decided instead to cater to a group of fans willing to swallow anything they release. Since it’s cool to like Radiohead, and since pretentiousness in rock and roll has always been a bit of an art form, Yorke and his band mates decided to go for the proverbial jugular with Kid A.
Full disclosure here, I am only a passing Radiohead fan. But I am a music fan. I appreciate quality music in all shapes and forms. I am enough of a student of what goes in to the making of a record to understand what a band is attempting to accomplish. The band had two choices as to what was to follow the stellar OK Computer. The band could have chosen to revisit the lush textures, beautiful melodies and loud guitars of The Bends or they could have evolved further away from the mainstream and deconstruct their sound. With Kid A they took it to an eleven.
Gone are most sounds that even resemble a song. In its place are riffs, elaborate string arrangements, more atmosphere than you can shake a stick at and Yorke’s painful guttural cries of anguish. The disc generally sounds like a collection of bits and pieces. Is Yorke offering a song to us or is he just messing around with a mixing board? Are we hip enough to get his point? To some out there this is the perfect Radiohead record. To the casual fan, they will be left wondering why they just don’t get it.
The disc is most certainly not without merits. “The National Anthem” does succeed in pulling in the listener to this rather complex world with an amazing bass line and off kilter horns. Stoners looking to having the crap scared out of them will appreciate this song played through a set of quality headphones. This song is a bit disconcerting but like a well made horror movie you will be swept up with a certain joyous nervousness. “Optimistic” and “Morning Bell” are also worthy tracks. The disc ends with “Motion Picture Soundtrack” complete with the obligatory 30 seconds of silence built into the middle of the song just to start up again and end with a full two minutes of silence? Do you think they are still listening? Not sure of the point with this.
So again, we are left with a disc that to some may sound like the album of the decade, while to others will sound like a band trying hard not to make a listenable record. This disc does belong in the collection of any die hard Radiohead fan, but to the fan who appreciates the beauty and power of “Fake plastic trees” they will be left wondering what all the fuss is about. And maybe that is the point entirely.