 Radiohead changes direction, embraces new elements, and causes strangeness, but Kid A has its moments of notoriety in its musical revolution. RADIOHEAD - KID A (2000) With influences from electronic music, jazz, and post-rock, as well as experiments in minimalist arrangements, Radiohead's 4th studio album, Kid A, moves away from the three-guitar line and embraces synthesizers, drum machines, and string instruments to create an atmospheric environment in its tracks. Released in 2000, and produced by Nigel Godrich, this work from the British band is a clear change of direction after the previous three albums and difficult to access for the general public, although appealing to hardcore fans, especially for the group's courage in revolutionizing its musical structure as a response to the superficial mainstream. "Everything in Its Right Place" opens the album with the strangeness of electronic loops, defining an abstract and hostile environment with its melody trying to fit into a moving puzzle in the mind, while the title track ("Kid A") introduces an innocent atmosphere with its gentle instrumentation, like a music box that suddenly gives way to Yorke's computerized voice in its somewhat disturbing digital effect; with the vehemence of the bass, "The National Anthem" sounds as if it has emerged from a rehearsal in its electronic conception drawn by the sound of a gaping world; "everyone is scared," Yorke cites, once again with his transformed voice, but the jazz-linked instrumentation and the dragging guitar disturb the environment in a way that generates distress. "How to Disappear Completely" gains an interesting orchestration in the band's first fitting entry, which seems to float in dimensional waves trying to disappear completely, even if for a short period of creative absence; "this is not happening, I'm not here…," reveals the protagonist, already absent in his sudden escape in ascending melodies, leading the listener to a calm and gleaming environment in the instrumental "Treefingers", guided through space like dust in the wind in its deep meditation. "Optimistic" values the individual's actions in their return to earth, emphasizing that "trying the best you can is enough" in an accelerated rhythm that gains the presence of a simple and effective chorus in the experimental way the instrumentation echoes; already lost on his path, "In Limbo" shows that there is nowhere to hide while the guitar riff descends in its programmed scale to limbo, where the traveler tries to find some comfort, even if artificially (fantasized). In "Idioteque", two pieces (one by Paul Lansky and the other by Arthur Kreiger) come together in an electronic dance where the protagonist feels welcomed by the pulsating transformation of the festive atmosphere: "Here I am allowed; everything, all the time…," he says after raising his enthusiasm: "I'll laugh until my head explodes…," Yorke anticipates in his enjoyment on the album, as he calmly tries to break free from constraints in "Morning Bell," while "Motion Picture Soundtrack" introduces a nostalgic atmosphere to return the traveler to his destination, as he returns to reality and bids farewell to someone special accompanied by a sound that makes the listener reflect; "I'll see you in the next life…," Yorke concludes, with his feet on the ground and his mind in space. ★★★½ (out of 5 stars) Radiohead Collection (9 Studio Albums): Pablo Honey (1993), The Bends (1995), OK Computer (1997), Kid A (2000), Amnesiac (2001), Hail to the Thief (2003), In Rainbows (2007), The King of Limbs (2011), and A Moon Shaped Pool (2016). |
