Radiohead: Kid A - Page 2

pyramid song.

i had heard them play it on their kid a tour (yeah, that one where they played three shows in north america), but at the time, i was just pissed that they didn't play my favorite song by them (at that point) which was "exit music (for a film)." i got the amnesiac rip the day it came out, almost exactly three months before the album came out. during the course of that day, i listened to the album at least a dozen times. the next day? just as many. i actually burnt the cd from the mp3s (a no-no for me and any self-respecting person with a cd-burner but okay since i planned on buying the album the second it came out anyway) and it was the only cd i brought to work. i still have vague memories of sitting in a basement over the fusion fiber splicer, with nothing but a small work lamp and amnesiac going through my head over and over and over.. (this was before my days on head-fi though, so i was using some stock sony ones. ew. )

i'm not exactly sure what drew me into that album so deeply. to this day, no album ever made me so obsessed with it so quickly. also, i think that since i have gotten into audio and headphones, i appreciate the album in a different way. right now, it's probably because when i put the album on i can hear the violins during "pyamid song" and feel air between the jazzy instrument display in "life in a glass house." i also love the fact that i was able to bring it to the headroom world tour and got to hear it on the orpheus. i also think it's a really great burn-in cd, with many great electronic effects extending deep into both high and low frequencies.

for a long time i pegged it as my favorite album of all time. not too sure about that nowadays, but "pyramid song" remains as my favorite song of all time.

nothing to fear.
nothing to doubt.

aphex twin is cool, get the james d album

Thom at the BSB concerts are soundboard recordings... absolutely great performance and audio quality.

Radiohead is amazing to see live. Lots of energy and precision.

damn I want to see radiohead live. Unfortunatly, they came to Pittsburgh a few months before I started loving their music. You think they'll ever tour again?

Anyway, I have some soundboard dmb recordings. KILLER. Thanks gloco!

To appreciate Kid A and Insomniac, you have to let go of your attachment to their previous albums. It was very hard for me to fully appreciate them in their own right when they first came out. They are challenging albums, no doubt, and require A LOT of spins to fully "get it". (And how many major artists in their position would have the cojones to make these two records? Not many. For that alone, they deserve credit.)

But after so many spins, it all makes perfect sense to me now. To me, these two albums are exactly what Joy Division would have made if Ian had lived. If Joy Division had had the chance to release say 3 more albums, they would have then been followed by albums closely resembling Kid A and Insomniac.

Back on topic-- the basic "problem" with these albums is that they should have been condensed into one. Each album has unnecessary filler material ("gee--look how much time we spent in the studio"-- who cares?). Between the two albums is the best thing they've ever done and are likely to do. These albums will live on in the Radiohead "cannon".

Well that's my .02 anyway.

Mark

taoster,
well said. never had the opportunity to say this before, but thats a cool handle

mark,

i agree that both kid a and amnesiac were completely unexpected: while spending time with kid a and seeing it in a few different ways (something i think the album entices the listener to do, a big part of its greatness), there's the understanding of how it grew out of ok computer (organic and synthetic both in lyrics, structure, and sound). but after loving ok computer kid a was a startling listen, i loved it immediately. amnesiac is the same way in terms of not being expected and in retrospect having a place, but my initial listens of that album were hardly enjoyable or challenging (looking back, i just didn't have the mindset for it).

as for condesing the two, we're on opposite sides of the pole. kid a is complete and whole and an experience. "everything in its right place" and all that, but just listen to "kid a" (the track) a few times and, to these ears, it embodies parts making up a whole.

one of the many ways to look at kid a is madness with a freaky sense of logic... amnesiac shares that but in a very different way. amnesiac and it's b-sides are an interesting set of works, kid a is just great, great work.

woo hoo, long overdue musical discussion
carlo.

Try Autechre's Tri Repetae and the Twin's RDJ album. Both those artists have strongly different sounds at different points in their development. You need to listen to a lot more electronica if you can't even see the strong similarity between Radiohead and a lot of IDM artists.

Kid-A is a classic because most of its tracks are good, and none of it is half-assed. It's just every song on other CDs is a great example of the genre. On Kid-A, the electronica pieces aren't so much bad as they are just average in terms of electronica thrown right next to AMAZING rock songs. So, IMO, Kid-A is inconsistent, but never flat out bad.

'sall good.

dfdsfsdcd

Edited by bob111 - 4/28/11 at 9:23pm

People, take a moment to really reflect on the gift bob111 has given us. What were you doing in 2002? He has given us a golden opportunity to appreciate how far we've come, where we've been, what our lives have amounted to these long 8 years.

 

Oh yeah. bob111, if you didn't get it, this thread is from 2002. Check the date on the post above yours, and never trust this site's terrible search engine. I think that's the longest dead necro-bump I've seen, but I could be wrong.

Edited by Head Injury - 7/3/10 at 9:40pm