Radiohead
Kid A

Release Date: 2000 | Tracklist

We live in a society where objectivity is dead. Experimental music is considered “amazing” regardless of its musical quality and craftsmanship. If I wanted to make an album that a consensus of sputnikmusic would view as great, I would scrap together the most unorganized nonsense possible then just say “well merzbow and deathgrips did it why cant I”. When an artist creates experimental music, one must consider the reason for experimenting. Are they trying to challenge the listener with unique and creative ideas? Or are they being a pretentious douchecanoe that just calls their music "experimental" because they have zero talent? In the case of Radiohead’s “Kid A”, everyone pretends it’s the former, but it’s really the latter. Kid A is self absorbed gobbeldy gook garbage with nonsense lyrics literally picked out of a hat. Kid A SUCKS and is stupid.

It’s time we admit something about Kid A. This album exists just as a shock piece, with little actual thought being put into making quality art. A rock band making an experimental electronic album is a novel idea but the end result is not a 5 star album, or a 4 star album, or honestly even a 2.5 star album. The idea itself is interesting but let’s be real here. This album contains some of the most repetitive, boring, half-assed, and incoherent songs imaginable. “Motion Picture Soundtrack” is one of the weakest and most uninteresting songs ever by a major rock band. “Optimistic” and “Idiotesque” are by far the two best tracks here, and they are still half-baked ideas that lack the “it” factor that makes a song memorable. This reminds me a lot of Kanye West’s first draft of DONDA that he played in the Mercedes Benz Stadium (not the good one, the one where half the songs lacked drums or bass and were just monotonous loops). All the songs are just too minimal, too unfinished, too directionless to truly enjoy. At least other experimental bands like Death Grips make captivating music with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Here the songs are absolutely fucking tedious and take way too long just to go nowhere. OK Computer is overrated too but at least it had a direction and some substance, this album really just has nothing to offer the listener besides spooky sounds and mumbo jumbo lyrics. Kid A is an attempt to experiment without actually providing anything of substance.

Overall this album is boring, tiresome, and its reputation far outweighs any musical value it may offer. A few "OK" songs lost in a sea of garbage filler does not make for a classic. The cult like attitude that surrounds this album is pretentious and holds no weight. If I wanted to listen to good experimental music id listen to aphex twin and if I wanted to listen to good rock music I could think of 10000 better albums than kid a (at least 3 of them by radiohead). This is diet Yeezus made by white folk minus all the fun and energy that made yeezus great. Virgins like Brent DiCrescenzo think is a classic but its not its stupid and honestly if you wanted to listen to a good radiohead album just do yourself a favor and listen to king of limbs or pablo honey. Im not even sure if id classify those albums as "good" but at least i didnt feel like i wasted my time listening to them unlike kid A. This is based and a fact.

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4.4 superb

Rank: #2 for 2000