CD Odyssey Disc 815: Radiohead

Season’s greetings! I’ve been away for a couple of days visiting family for Christmas. When Sheila and I take a road trip it is our tradition to each choose four CDs to take with us. Here are the CDs that I chose to take this time:

·         Ramones “Anthology,Disc 1”

·         Gang Starr “Hard to Earn”

·         Frank Turner “Tape Deck Heart”

·         Sharon Jones “100 Days, 100 Nights”

Sheila chose these four:

• The Who “Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy”
• Soundtrack “Saturday Night Fever”
• The Pogues “If I Should Fall from Grace with God”
• Tom Waits “Mule Variations”

The trip was over before we got to Sharon Jones and Tom Waits. While on a ferry I also took the opportunity to just sit and listen to my next album up for review. I would have preferred Sharon Jones or Tom Waits.

Disc 815 is….Kid A

Artist: Radiohead

Year of Release: 2000

What’s up with the Cover? Computer generated mountains? Sound waves? A landscape depicting the terrain on Thom Yorke’s home planet?

How I Came To Know It: I knew about Radiohead dating back to their debut album because of my friend Greg, but it was another friend (Anthony) who introduced me to this album years ago when I was visiting him in Vancouver. I remember really disliking it back then and over the years very little has changed.

How It Stacks Up:  We have seven Radiohead albums (all of them except 2011’s “King of Limbs”). Of the seven I really dislike three of them. “Kid A” is one of those, but benefits from me disliking two others even more, so I’ll rank it fifth. Since this is (mercifully) my last Radiohead review, here is the full recap:

1. The Bends: 4 stars (reviewed back at Disc 316)
2. Pablo Honey: 4 stars (reviewed back at Disc 223)
3. OK Computer: 3 stars (reviewed back at Disc 541)
4. In Rainbows: 2 stars (reviewed back at Disc 597)
5. Kid A: 2 stars (reviewed right here)
6. Hail to the Thief: 2 stars (reviewed back at Disc 214)
7. Amnesiac: 1 star (reviewed back at Disc 432)

Ratings: 2 stars

“Kid A” is the album where Radiohead made a conscious decision to fundamentally change their approach to music. I like to think of it as the album where they decided that they would rather be clever than listenable.

Ideally you can be both clever and listenable, but “Kid A” pushed that theory past its limits. The album descends into electronica mood music. These are occasionally punctuated by groovy beats, which I enjoyed, and jazz constructs, which I did not.

The production fades in and out of clarity, and gives you the feeling that you’re listening a radio station at the edge of its broadcast range, with the signal sometimes being disrupted by static, and sometimes coming through clearly. A few songs in I wasn’t sure which I preferred – I guess I was hoping it would cut out entirely.

There is so much I want to like about Radiohead. Clearly these guys understand music: how it is constructed, how melody works and how to blend different sounds in new and interesting ways to your ear. On “Kid A” they take traditional rock and R&B constructions and then deconstruct them into something new. Unfortunately, while this can be intellectually interesting, it doesn’t make for listenable music.

A good example is the third song on the album, “The National Anthem.” It starts off with a pretty solid groove, and after the two meandering and mostly pointless tracks that precede it, gave me some hope that things were about to get better. That hope was quickly dashed as the song progressed, as it worked in fuzzy jazz trumpet. The fuzzy trumpet then slowly morphs into screechy jazz trumpet before becoming fuzzy again. Then the song was over, leaving me wonder what the hell was the point.

The next track “How To Disappear Completely” has a beautiful atmospheric structure that evokes a genuine feeling of disconnect and isolation. Like “A National Anthem,” this song is about six minutes long and feels like it should end after about four, but at least the song genuinely made me feel something.

Obviously embarrassed that they had just made a proper song with human feelings, Radiohead retreats almost immediately back into the alien landscape of their minds with “Treefingers.” I assume this is music that a planet of tree people would play for one another when they want to relax – kind of like people playing whale sounds to help them sleep. “Treefingers” didn’t help me sleep or relax – it made me fidget, as I resisted the urge to break the Odyssey rules and skip to the next song.

The most appropriately titled track on the album is “Idioteque” which I assume is the kind of dance club where the songs from “Kid A” would be played. With its pseudo-beat box sound, it is hard to tell if Radiohead is deliberately mocking its audience for dancing to this stuff, or are just having a hard time knowing how to make Terrans happy. At least the Dead Milkmen had the common courtesy to include lyrics on “Instant Club Hit” that made it clear they have no respect for people who will “dance to anything.” With Radiohead you get the feeling they are just a bunch of aliens that have put is in a cage and are piping in different sounds to see how we’ll react.

When “Kid A” came out most critics loved it, and I can understand why. It displays a skill and understanding of musical forms that is impressive. So impressive, it made it impossible for me to honestly give it only 1 star. I really wanted to, though.

Best tracks:  How To Disappear Completely