Student Essentials: Radiohead - Kid A :: Wessex Scene Online

Student Essentials: Radiohead - Kid A

17th August 2005
Anthony Nicholls Edge Editor

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This is Radiohead’s fifth album and one that many would argue is not their best work.

It’s far less accessible than ‘OK Computer’ and is, predictably, a million miles away from ‘The Bends’ and ‘Pablo Honey’. ‘Kid A’ was recorded at the same time as ‘Amnesiac’, but released a year prior and the two albums see the band wondering off into the realms of the avant-garde and obscurity. Some would say that they had in fact wondered just a little too far off the beaten track and up their own arses.

So why is ‘Kid A’ a student essential? I must say I used to be leaning towards the persuasion of them being up their own arses, but I feel I may have been a little misguided. Now, for some reason I just keep coming back to this album, I can’t keep myself away from it. It’s like a magnetic force pulling me in and begging me to listen, and with each listen the force just gets stronger and stronger. ‘Kid A’ encapsulates the term "a grower".

I am often at a loss to express why this album keeps pulling me back in. At times it’s morose and nothing short of heavy-going. But at times that seems to be the point, and with time it gets easier. There’s a subtlety to this album and an innate ability to encapsulate life and, despite the often depressing tone of the album, there is an inspiring ray of light that shines through, captured beautifully in the frailty of York’s voice.

This is definitely an essential album to have even if it just sits in your CD rack after a couple of confused and uninterested listens resigned to being a pile of artsy-fartsy rubbish. One day you will pick it up again and listen and everything will fall into place and like the album itself it’ll be a triumph over adversity.