Kid A is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on October 2, 2000 by Parlophone. It was recorded with their producer, Nigel Godrich, in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucestershire and their hometown of Oxford.
After the stress of promoting Radiohead’s 1997 album OK Computer, the songwriter, Thom Yorke, wanted to depart from rock music. Drawing influence from electronic music, ambient music, krautrock, jazz and 20th-century classical music, Radiohead used instruments such as modular synthesisers, the ondes Martenot, brass and strings. They processed guitar sounds, incorporated samples and loops, and manipulated their recordings with software. Yorke wrote impersonal and abstract lyrics, cutting up phrases and assembling them at random.
In a departure from industry practice, Radiohead released no singles or music videos and conducted few interviews and photoshoots. Instead, they released short animated “blips”, and became one of the first major acts to use the internet for promotion. Bootlegs of early performances were shared on filesharing services, and Kid A was leaked before release. In 2000, Radiohead toured Europe in a custom-built tent without corporate logos.
Kid A debuted at the top of the UK Albums Chart and became Radiohead’s first number-one album on the Billboard 200 in the US, where it sold more than 207,000 copies in its first week. Its departure from Radiohead’s earlier sound divided listeners, and some dismissed it as pretentious, deliberately obscure, or derivative. However, it later attracted acclaim; at the end of the decade, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and the Times ranked Kid A the greatest album of the 2000s, and in 2020 Rolling Stone ranked it number 20 on its updated list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”. Like OK Computer, it won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. It has been certified platinum in Australia, Canada, France, Japan, the US and the UK.
A second album of material from the sessions, Amnesiac, was released eight months later. Kid A Mnesia, an anniversary reissue compiling Kid A, Amnesiac and previously unreleased material, was released in 2021.
“Everything in Its Right Place” 4:11
“Kid A” 4:44
“The National Anthem” 5:51
“How to Disappear Completely” 5:56
“Treefingers” 3:42
“Optimistic” 5:15
“In Limbo” 3:31
“Idioteque” 5:09
“Morning Bell” 4:35
“Motion Picture Soundtrack” 7:01
Untitled hidden track 0:52
John Lubbock – conducting
Jonny Greenwood – scoring
Horns on “The National Anthem”
Andy Bush – trumpet
Steve Hamilton – alto saxophone (credited simply as “alto”)
Martin Hathaway – alto saxophone (etc.)
Andy Hamilton – tenor saxophone
Mark Lockheart – tenor saxophone
Stan Harrison – baritone saxophone
Liam Kerkman – trombone
Mike Kearsey – bass trombone
Henry Binns – rhythm sampling on “The National Anthem”
Nigel Godrich – production, engineering, mixing
Radiohead – production
Gerard Navarro – production assistance, additional engineering
Graeme Stewart – additional engineering
OK Computer is the third studio album by English rock band Radiohead, released on May 21, 1997 on EMI subsidiaries Parlophone and Capitol Records. The members of Radiohead self-produced the album with Nigel Godrich, an arrangement they have used for their subsequent albums. Other than the song “Lucky”, recorded in 1995, Radiohead recorded OK Computer in Oxfordshire and Bath between 1996 and early 1997, mostly in the historic mansion St Catherine’s Court. The band distanced themselves from the guitar-centred, lyrically introspective style of their previous album, The Bends. OK Computer’s abstract lyrics, densely layered sound and eclectic influences laid the groundwork for Radiohead’s later, more experimental work.
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