Been listening to Radiohead's Kid A, for quite a while. This, after a few pompous recommendations. Will admit I had not previously heard any music by Radiohead. Somehow, this one has had my fullest attention since the first listen.
Some of the incredibly appealing bits in the album feature the lead Thom Yorke playing the Ondes Martenot: a fairly niche instrument, originally invented to transmit radio signals at custom frequencies; whose variants are more popular than the archetype. Played with the usual array of electronica equipment, it makes for a deep aura to envelope the usual frequencies. In some places, to completely replace the conventional bass and create its own. Sometimes, eerie and funereal, sometimes not quite.
Apparently imported from Colin Greenwood's previous occupation as a software engineer were sounds squeezed out of 8-bit machinery. And noticeably, noises peculiar to the then spawn of video games: picture a horde of pixellated racing bikes accelerating at flag-off. All of this, to my surprise, made a revealingly great deal of musical sense, to a cosmetic effect that I had not previously imagined.
Underlying the synthetic sounds and the thicket of intertwined genres, are vocals, mostly faint and weightless. Upon a second listen or a fifth, they will show themselves to be individually profound, even in isolation; and seem to lead the numbers by themselves, above what is sometimes a deliberate din. Occasionally, they are cut-up and offer vague lyrics.
Everything In Its Right Place, which was originally considered for single release, opens with melancholic, ominous chords that are later joined by a feeble beat, and after, also an obscured human voice, which, after a riff or two, gives way to the first lyrics. The broken vocals and the instrumentals recur in a pattern that may well intend to channel the entrapment within urges that comes with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
The National Anthem employs free-style jazz in a cacophony of many. A trumpet works up a mood of insanity and then degenerates into a nonsensical mode, which is at its best arbitrary, at its worst loud, and like the album's title, meaningless. For irony, the last few seconds in fact sound off a recording of Star-Spangled Banner, which seems to vanish from the air, as if annihilated one instrument at a time.
Optimistic, the only guitar-driven song in the album, is titled ironically, with the lyrics and the tune suggesting surrender. Idioteque is an energetic, guitar-less shout about a forthcoming apocalypse, presumably one of technology. Motion Picture Soundtrack, which has been hailed the most by the album's critics, brings the feel of black-and-white animated clips to the harp and a deep bass.
A song by the name Big Foot - The Kid A Theory, found on Youtube, is said to be something of a lost track of this album. Although it beats me as to why, since its two impressive riffs would have pitched it among their outstanding tracks.
How To Disappear Completely, which has my vote for the best track, reportedly comes from Thom Yorke's need for a break from concert schedules, and is themed on a desire to isolate oneself indiscriminately. An orchestra plays to dirge-like vocals and almost glorifies them, amid percussion and guitar, occasionally loud and off-tune.
It may not have moved the billions, but Kid A is right up my list of favorites. What could really draw you in is the spread of genres that arrive at the same place to make profound and unpredictable sense. While folks have moaned that it only makes gloominess look beautiful, I could use that as a compliment. It's a magnificent black monument that has raised the bars for originality and quality; most contemporary bands will have to make do in its shadow.
Some of the incredibly appealing bits in the album feature the lead Thom Yorke playing the Ondes Martenot: a fairly niche instrument, originally invented to transmit radio signals at custom frequencies; whose variants are more popular than the archetype. Played with the usual array of electronica equipment, it makes for a deep aura to envelope the usual frequencies. In some places, to completely replace the conventional bass and create its own. Sometimes, eerie and funereal, sometimes not quite.
Apparently imported from Colin Greenwood's previous occupation as a software engineer were sounds squeezed out of 8-bit machinery. And noticeably, noises peculiar to the then spawn of video games: picture a horde of pixellated racing bikes accelerating at flag-off. All of this, to my surprise, made a revealingly great deal of musical sense, to a cosmetic effect that I had not previously imagined.Underlying the synthetic sounds and the thicket of intertwined genres, are vocals, mostly faint and weightless. Upon a second listen or a fifth, they will show themselves to be individually profound, even in isolation; and seem to lead the numbers by themselves, above what is sometimes a deliberate din. Occasionally, they are cut-up and offer vague lyrics.
Everything In Its Right Place, which was originally considered for single release, opens with melancholic, ominous chords that are later joined by a feeble beat, and after, also an obscured human voice, which, after a riff or two, gives way to the first lyrics. The broken vocals and the instrumentals recur in a pattern that may well intend to channel the entrapment within urges that comes with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
The National Anthem employs free-style jazz in a cacophony of many. A trumpet works up a mood of insanity and then degenerates into a nonsensical mode, which is at its best arbitrary, at its worst loud, and like the album's title, meaningless. For irony, the last few seconds in fact sound off a recording of Star-Spangled Banner, which seems to vanish from the air, as if annihilated one instrument at a time.
Optimistic, the only guitar-driven song in the album, is titled ironically, with the lyrics and the tune suggesting surrender. Idioteque is an energetic, guitar-less shout about a forthcoming apocalypse, presumably one of technology. Motion Picture Soundtrack, which has been hailed the most by the album's critics, brings the feel of black-and-white animated clips to the harp and a deep bass.
A song by the name Big Foot - The Kid A Theory, found on Youtube, is said to be something of a lost track of this album. Although it beats me as to why, since its two impressive riffs would have pitched it among their outstanding tracks.
How To Disappear Completely, which has my vote for the best track, reportedly comes from Thom Yorke's need for a break from concert schedules, and is themed on a desire to isolate oneself indiscriminately. An orchestra plays to dirge-like vocals and almost glorifies them, amid percussion and guitar, occasionally loud and off-tune.
It may not have moved the billions, but Kid A is right up my list of favorites. What could really draw you in is the spread of genres that arrive at the same place to make profound and unpredictable sense. While folks have moaned that it only makes gloominess look beautiful, I could use that as a compliment. It's a magnificent black monument that has raised the bars for originality and quality; most contemporary bands will have to make do in its shadow.
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