Shona Winfrey's Reviews: Nov. 2000

Radiohead
Kid A

EMI/Capitol Records
http://www.radiohead.com

Release Date: October 4, 2000

Church Bells In Outer Space: The Proof That Thom Yorke Is Not Human

I heard this record about two weeks before it was released one night on the radio. I was both dismayed and elated in equal proportion. I'm dismayed that this is Radiohead, and Thom Yorke has already proven himself way too worthy of the adoration his fanatical following heap upon him, via 1997's grating, hideous yet beautiful OK Computer. Radiohead is very popular, and I begrudgingly bestow any sort of praise on them. I always want to stand back and say "It's all hype, and I'm not having it". But I sat there, headphones glued to my ears, in the dark, and I was mesmerized, enveloped, and finally, elated. I was elated because it doesn't sound like everything else I've heard this year.

Ya gotta hand it to a band who refuses to rest on their laurels. It'd be easy to become formulaic when you know what will sell, and exactly how to do it with the least amount of work possible. And yet, Radiohead, who have nothing but time and money to burn, do what many major label artists in similar positions would not: they took complete artistic largesse, and burned their time and money, and they made a record that was a complete departure from the previous. This won't come as any surprise to anyone who's tracked the career of the band from album to album. The records all sound different as night and day. And this one, Kid A, is the ultimate psychedelic, ambient headphone trip ever made. And like OK Computer before it, though I am loathe to admit it, the album is likely to go down in history as one of the best albums of all time, as soon as we all get through grinching about how it's Radiohead.

Part druggy-hazed rock record, part techno-outer space horror show, it's anything but run of the mill. Think: Cathedral bells ringing on mars and you'll have a good idea of what you're in for. It's more for the tech-heads in our midst: my underworld/Fatboy Slim-worshipping alter-ego feels well loved-up by this album, but my pop chick self isn't so sure what to make of it. I haven't thought Thom Yorke was from earth since the first time I heard "Paranoid Android" in 1997, and now I'm sure he's from Pluto or somewhere.

Capable of evoking great mournfulness most times ("Optimistic" is one of the bitterest songs I've ever heard receive airplay---how does the industry pick singles these days? Anyone?), Kid A as a whole entity still plays through as ethereal with exceptions like the out of place "The National Anthem", yet remains solidly sonic and resonant with the title track practically vibrating.

The production is gorgeous, with sweeping, orchestral arrangements played against spare lyrics. When Thom Yorke does sing, his vocals are in top form, and he reminds us that he can be a really great singer.

I hear it's had a lot of detractors. I also hear it's had a fair share of overwhelming praise. I purposely haven't read one review in the press about the album. Honestly, aside from the title track, "Optimistic", and "Morning Bell", the album leaves me flat without the benefit of my trusty 'phones. But with headphones, the record becomes a pulsating, tactile, sensate world of just plain old aural sex. It is a stunner. That was my first impression of Radiohead's Kid A and six weeks after my first listen, it remains so.