Radiohead - Kid A / Amnesiac Poll

hail to the thief, i'm guessing

x-post

hail to the fraud?

used to be fascinated at just how untraditional Amnesiac was. i mean that thing dicked with expectation, sequence, the whole shebang. it was almost weird in itself that reasonably conventional pieces such as Knives Out and You Might be Wrong were bedfellows to left-field, albeit successful, experiments like Revolving Doors and Like Spinning Plates.

In a way the track 'Kid A' was a manifesto - "You were expecting a rock album, you were WRONG!", except for me it was also the track that made the album scream "WARP RECORDS TRIBUTE!!" at the time and clouded my opinion.

hell, i'm gonna dig Amnesiac out for the first time in years.

am increasingly ambivalent to these guys, but i was a big fan for years, and i think it's important that i occasionally remind myself of that fact.

Has there ever been a studio outtakes / sessions / demos thing released from these albums, y'now for dorks? I wouldn't mind hearing some of these tracks disassembled.

The weird thing I remember was that quote from Yorke saying he'd become embarrassed by melody - both these albums are really melodic in places.

oh is that why he sings all drawn out and moany

The lyric thing too... At first the switch was described as 'gnomic', 'nonsensical', possibly even lazy on Yorke's part, but now listening to old Radiohead sing about car and plane accidents and alien visitations sounds way too transparent, blunt and trite.

He's a decent rather than brilliant lyricist (though he is sometimes a surprisingly funny one), but his oblique cut n paste style suits latter day Radiohead perfectly.

Then again, he was on the Jonathan Ross show, solo piano and singing, some old (pre-KidA) radiohead classic...

Even when HTTF came out I remember some reviews going, "Seriously guys? Still with the weird shit?" Because There There and 2+2=5 seemed to promise "back to rock" (as did some of their interviews iirc) and of course it wasn't.

I think Yorke's rep in the UK press had a lot to do with it as well. The subtext of a lot of the early reviews was that Yorke was being an asshole by refusing to be a rock star, which seems silly now.

Yeah, I recall a bit of this too. There seemed to be this sense that, while they had brought the guitars back and went for a more 'live band' approach on Hail To The Thief that some critics felt the band were still deliberately shying away from "anthemic" material and maybe resented that a little. It was kinda this feeling of "you had the world in the palm of your hands circa OK Computer, what do you mean you didn't want to take that further? are you fucking crazy? why do you not want to be the hugest band in the world!?"

I wonder how the 00's alt/rock/indie landscape would have been affected if Kid A/Amnesiac had never existed or if Radiohead had gone down a more traditional route?

― doglato dozzy (dog latin), Friday, February 14, 2014 12:39 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's difficult to truly say what would have happened if Radiohead had decided to try to make another OK Computer, but I think things definitely would have been different. A lot of people bought and heard Kid A, and I think those that found a lot to enjoy in the work were undoubtedly influenced by it. It's become a highly influential record in its own right. Those that weren't taken in with their new sound started listening to bands like Muse and Coldplay instead. Would Muse and Coldplay have become as big as they did if Radiohead hadn't changed their sound? It's hard to say.

Not that hard.

Kid A, just over Knives Out and Idioteque (obv gonna win)

If anyone hasn't read the hilarious Pitchfork review of 'Kid A':

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6656-kid-a/

Comparing this to other albums is like comparing an aquarium to blue construction paper.

Has there ever been a studio outtakes / sessions / demos thing released from these albums, y'now for dorks? I wouldn't mind hearing some of these tracks disassembled.

― doglato dozzy (dog latin), Friday, February 14, 2014 12:52 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not a far as I know, but there's a couple of things on Amnesiac which give an insight into the recording process. If you play 'Like Spinning Plates' backwards, you get the backing track to a very early electronic version of 'I Will' (which eventually surfaced on Hail To The Thief). The version of 'Morning Bell' on Amnesiac was the first version recorded; the Kid A version being what the song eventually turned into.

There's a lot of material that they had during the Kid A and Amnesiac sessions that were worked on during the sessions and were junked, but later were attempted again for Hail To The Thief and In Rainbows.

Ed O'Brien kept an online diary for a short time during the recording of Kid A and Amnesiac and these are the songs mentioned:-

KID A tracks: 'Everything In Its Right Place', 'Kid A', 'The National Anthem' (working title: 'Everyone'), 'How To Disappear Completely' (working title: 'How To Disappear Completely and Never Be Found'), 'Optimistic', 'In Limbo' (working title: 'Lost At Sea'), 'Idioteque' (referred to as 'Thom & Johnny's Drum Thing'), 'Morning Bell'.

AMNESIAC tracks: 'Pyramid Song' (working title: 'Egyptian Song'), 'You and Whose Army?', 'I Might Be Wrong' (working title: 'Song With No Name'), 'Knives Out' and 'Dollars and Cents'.

B-sides:: 'Fast-track', 'Kinetic', 'Cuttooth'.

early attempts at HAIL TO THE THIEF era tracks: 'I Will' (recorded in an electronic style, was then junked and the backing track flipped backwards to become 'Like Spinning Plates'), 'A Wolf At The Door' (working title: 'Keep The Wolf From The Door'), 'Gagging Order' (working title: 'Move Along').

early attempts at IN RAINBOWS era tracks: 'Up On The Ladder', '4 Minute Warning' (working title: 'Neil Young *9/Bombers').

other tracks mentioned: 'Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses' (working title: 'Reckoner', eventually released as a Thom solo single - has nothing in common with 'Reckoner' from In Rainbows), Follow Me Around (attempted, but junked), True Love Waits (attempted, but junked), Lift (not attempted but mentioned in the diary), Innocent Civilians (written during an "electronic only" session in early 2000 but junked), 'Say The Word' (working title: 'C Minor Song', attempted but junked and remains unreleased), 'Johnny's Scott Walker Song' (attempted but junked).

There was a period of time during Kid A/Amnesiac's recording where they worked on electronic stuff only, which yielded the unreleased 'Innocent Civilians' (as mentioned above), the rhythm track to Backdrifts (which would later appear on Hail To The Thief, Colin and Johnny programmed the first version of 'The Gloaming' (working title: '33.3 Recurring') during this time too.

Stuff they had, but not attempted or mentioned in Ed's Diary: 'Nude' (working title: 'Big Ideas (Don't Get Any)'), of course... played live on the OK Computer but eventually surfaced on In Rainbows.

So yeah, lots of stuff. Very prolific period for the band. Who knows what else they were working on?

Oh god, yeah, and some of the lyrics from 'Cuttooth' appeared in 'Myxomatosis'... It seemed like they had a massive burst of ideas around this time and took a few years to work through them all.

The experience and emotions tied to listening to Kid A are like witnessing the stillborn birth of a child while simultaneously having the opportunity to see her play in the afterlife on Imax.

Jesus christ, that review is just ludicrous.

When the headphones peel off, and it occurs that six men (Nigel Godrich included) created this, it's clear that Radiohead must be the greatest band alive, if not the best since you know who.

who are 'you know who'?

Oh wait, he mentions the white album in the previous paragraph, so he means the Beatles

I guess they probably mean the Beatles, but considering this is circa 2000 pitchfork it might just be Pavement

"Word down Oxford Mensa is that "Kid A" is the result of studio sessions in Gloucestershire where about 60 songs were started that no one had a bloody clue how to finish. Frankly it shows." -(1.5/5, Mark Beaumont, Melody Maker)

Wilson and Alroy's review was also bizarre:

Kid A (2000) *1/2
A cruel trick, Radiohead's Lumpy Gravy. Electronica at its least entertaining, with a few endlessly repeated "atmospheric" samples and synth lines per song ("Everything In Its Right Place"), and almost no guitar or vocals. When Yorke is audible, he's extremely subdued, except on the robotic drum machine-based "Idioteque." There are a couple of songs with rock instrumentation, but they're as dull as the rest ("The National Anthem," in which a sluggish vamp is first augmented and then overwhelmed by amateurish horns). Thirty-some years ago, this might have been avant garde - the attention it's getting today is due solely to the band's rep. I mean, "Treefingers" and the dreary pseudo-classical title track sound like outtakes from Tubular Bells - what's inventive or moving or exciting about that? I never dreamed the band would release such a bland, simpleminded, just plain insipid piece of work. Grammy winner for "Best Alternative Album," whatever that means. (DBW)

As someone that's heard Kid A, Tubular Bells, and Lumpy Gravy dozens of times I cannot for the life of me draw a connection between them

I guess they probably mean the Beatles, but considering this is circa 2000 pitchfork it might just be Pavement

― silverfish, Friday, February 14, 2014 2:27 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

From Select Magazine:

"We will, by now, know that 'Ok Computer' Version 2.0 was never on the cards. But that realisation doesn't quite do justice to how frustrating this LP actually is. Like an aggravating adolescent, 'Kid A' has all the answers to your criticisms. There aren't many songs here. "So?" It doesn't 'say' very much. "Not meant to!"

Like its most obvious forebear, David Bowie's 'Low', what's not present is as important as what's actually here. The main absentees, then, are choruses, coherent lyrics, crescendos and guitars: the very stuffing of 'OK Computer'.

The brilliantly pounding 'National Anthem' underlines how sapped this music is of communality. "Everyone around here/everyone is so near," warbles an untouchable Thom - plastic coating well in place - over a funk-rock brass cacophony.

Tellingly, the other highpoint also comes rock band-shaped. The almost psychedelic gumbo groover 'Optimistic' surveys the capitalist whirl with supreme distance - the perpetrators and victims are even portrayed as other species, as dinosaurs, pigs and fish. Great, too, is the masterfully antiseptic opener 'Everything In Its Right Place', the point where a new musical approach - think To Rococo Rot plus rock intensity - makes most sense.

But while an elliptical masterpiece is within sight, 'Kid A' is finally dragged earthbound by some unfortunate delusions. Ambient electro soundscapes like 'Idioteque' are fine enough. But, really, what do you want for sounding like Aphex Twin circa 1993? A medal?

The knowledge that better stuff is deliberately being held back adds to the frustration. Live performances of 'Knives Out' and 'Egyptian Song' raised expectations to a height that isn't reached here. A couple more 'big' songs and it would have been far easier to herald 'Kid A' as a bona fide Major Work. But Radiohead didn't want that. They've done that. Too much information.

Taken alone, 'Kid A' is a cohesive, resonably successful, sometimes excellent new album which points Radiohead in all sorts of wrong directions.

3/5, Steve Lowe.

I just thought "cool, these guys listen to mille plateaux and autechre" except there's no signature or magic going on here for the 'out' tracks, they just sound like stuff from a c90 'radioheads first electronic jams".

it's amazing, listening back to these again today, how SLOW national anthem and i might be wrong sound compared to their live versions!

yea, that's true. also anyone hear that live album they put out shortly after kid a/amnesiac? i think it was titled "i might be wrong." anyways, i thought it was terrible. ha, i don't even know why brought this up.

the crowd on the version of idioteque on that album is p lovable

I quite liked 'I Might Be Wrong'. More than Hail to the Thief, anyway. The live version of Like Spinning Plates was beautiful. Hm, I think I'll put it on right now, in fact.

i felt like the sound quality was terrible on it, the crowd seemed really loud for professional recording, everything echoed way too much.

Listening to it now, you might be right... I was very young and impressionable when it was released...

I must admit, I do prefer the stripped down Thom'n'piano version of 'Like Spinning Plates' on I Might Be Wrong to the album version, but realise that the song wouldn't have existed in the first place if they hadn't written and recorded it the way they had, by taking a backing track of an early version of 'I Will', flipping it backwards, and working on the song from there.

what other songs do that (the reverse thing)? stone roses "don't stop" i know. Maybe there's a thread for it.

There's been loads! The Stone Roses did a lot of them, but I think only 'Don't Stop' had lyrics to it. There's an album by The Skids where the closing track is the opening track reversed, and The Stranglers had a B-side called 'Yellowcake UF6', which was a track that they were working on which didn't work out called 'Wasting Time' (aka 'Social Secs') which they slowed down and reversed to create a backwards instrumental.

My perfect album, which if call "Kid Amnesiac":

Everything in its right place
Pyramid song
National anthem
You and whose army
How to disappear
Optimistic
In limbo
Idioteque
Dollars and sense
Morning bell
Like spinning plates
Life in a glass house

relistening to 'amnesiac' and remembering how much i liked it at the time. i'd never noticed before, but talk talk must've been a big influence on these guys -- espec. 'laughing stock.'

xposts, and there's that crazy teenage filmstars album that was written backwards and recorded forwards and then reversed post-recording.

or something like that... the whole recording is in reverse, the melodies themselves are not.

i don't really get why anyone would want to remove anything from Kid A.

I was at the public premiere of Kid A. It was at a movie theater in NYC and a label rep from Capitol Records was there to introduce the album to us. The music was accompanied by 3D footage of fish (the label rep said the band had nothing to do with the film). As for the initial impressions of the music, I remember being very surprised by it and kind of waiting for more of a "Radiohead sound" to kick in, but I ended up being completely blown away by it. On the way out, I passed some guy who was asked by a reporter for his opinion and I remember him complaining that there weren't any guitars...

i felt like the sound quality was terrible on it, the crowd seemed really loud for professional recording, everything echoed way too much.

Yeah, this is sadly otm. MTV broadcast some live footage around this time which didn't sound amazing, but was revelatory compared to I Might Be Wrong. A huge missed opportunity.

Just having a late night listen to Amnesiac right now, and I love how the rimshots on 'Dollars and Cents' have so much reverb on them. In fact, I love how the whole track sounds like a bunch of very paranoid people covering 'Lowrider'.

The b-sides and non-album tracks from this era were also terrific. I must have listened to the full-band live version of "true love waits" (with the glockenspiel?) hundreds of times. I think it was my first napster download.

Yeah if the b-sides had been thrown in I'd have a hard time. "Worrywort," "Fog," "Kinetic," "Amazing Sounds of Orgy" all great, and the others are fun too. I even like "Cuttooth."

I love that they crammed all the "trademark" Jonny guitar fuckery into one half of a three-minute b-side.

The experience and emotions tied to listening to Kid A are like witnessing the stillborn birth of a child while simultaneously having the opportunity to see her play in the afterlife on Imax.

I've written before about how Amnesiac became, for me, the soundtrack to having to terminate a pregnancy due to health reasons, so this review is both laughably, horrendously terrible, but also, weirdly OTM for deeply personal reasons no one else would ever guess at.

It took a very long time to be able to listen to Amnesiac without it being a visceral, emotional one-way ticket back to that period of my life. But oddly, despite or because of that experience, I do prefer it of the twins.