Album Rating: 5.0

I was only a wee laddie when Kid A dropped but for years people were griefing it

Album Rating: 3.0

In Rainbows>>>>OKC>Bends>Kid A>Pablo>The rest

Album Rating: 4.5

"who gives a fig if the plebs didn't get it straight away"



Nobody got it. The press were scratching their heads and trying to bestow their superiority on us plebs by calling it jazz this or electronic that but they didn't have a fuckin clue.

Album Rating: 3.1

yeah but what I'm saying is, none of that affects the actual... quality of the album? why should I care what anyone else thought about it when it came out or now?

Album Rating: 5.0

it was the initial shock mate

Album Rating: 5.0

once it wore off people realised the album was actually fantastic

Album Rating: 4.5

Zak stop acting like you know literally every Radiohead fan. Claiming that "nobody got it" is actually quite preposterous.

Album Rating: 4.5

I've met 'em all mong. 48 said this was their best album in 2000 after giving it a spin for the first time.

Now I could be wrong but in my eyes there are many, many albums that are harder to grasp & appreciate than any of Radioheads releases, or maybe i haven't 'got' them yet.

Album Rating: 4.5

Name one 'mainstream' album of the past 30yrs that has made a similar jump.

Well if we're only talking 'mainstream' that changes the playing field. Besides Radiohead are on the cusps of mainstream music in 2016. They're a hugely popular band but only my musically inclinced friends really listen to them, as opposed to say Coldplay who are known and listened to be your average joe

Album Rating: 4.0

hadn't heard any Radiohead until a little over a year ago, but Kid A was my introduction and it largely clicked on first listen. I could def see how it'd take people time to warm up to at the time if all they knew was 90s Radiohead though.



before I miss the ranking train, OK Computer > In Rainbows > Kid A > A Moon Shaped Pool >>>>>> The Bends, haven't heard the rest yet

Album Rating: 3.0

OKC was the first Radiohead that clicked, Paranoid Android specifically. I'd heard Creep first and wasn't a big fan.

"Name one 'mainstream' album of the past 30yrs that has made a similar jump."

I'm not sure how "mainstream" it has to be and what exactly you mean by "jump" (different by artist's standards? different for music in general?), but I'm sure at least one of these makes it:
Autechre - Confield/a few others
Bjork - Medulla
The Cure - Disintegration
David Bowie - Outside/Earthling
David Sylvian - Secrets of the Beehive
Deftones - White Pony
Enya - Watermark
Faith No More - The Real Thing/Angel Dust
Fugazi - Red Medicine
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
Joanna Newsom - Ys
Nick Cave - The Good Son
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral/The Fragile
Peter Gabriel - Passion
Talk Talk - The Spirit of Eden

But why the fixation on mainstream? Why it's better because it's mainstream? I don't get your attitude

Album Rating: 5.0

None of the above albums are as drastic as Kid A though

oh the myth. i know it's fashionable to call the likes of kid a or blackstar drastic but they're hardly that. how is kid a drastic? all of it is melodic song music (save for one tranquil ambient piece and the "free jazz" section of The National Anthem). Medulla is just as inaccessible, and don't even get me started on Confield

Album Rating: 5.0

OK Computer to Kid A? I'd say that's pretty fucking drastic

Album Rating: 4.5

Idk altertide, I mean approaching Kid A as one who listens to underground music maybe it's not that out there but compared to mainstream sensibilities (and up to that point Radiohead played mostly music with mainstream appeal) Kid A is pretty damn obtuse. So even if it's not as artistically challenging as some other music it was doubly daring for Radiohead to release that album when they were at the peak of their popularity.

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

Especially with people hailing them as the next U2 given the massive success of Creep, the singles on the Bends, and culminating with the explosion of popularity with Ok Computer. Given that background, deciding to release an album like Kid A, especially with the likes of those first fifteen minutes, Morning Bell, and those lyrics really was probably the most drastic artistic statement of mainstream music in the past couple decades.



Also altertide how could you make that list and not include Nirvana's decision to release In Utero after the massive success of Nevermind? That got more attention than any of the albums you listed and is the closest to a contender for rivaling the Kid A decision. Radiohead is just talked about more on this site than Nirvana, and the band is still around and making albums which obviously solidifies the staying power over time.

fucking lmao at insinuating Autechre is mainstream like Radiohead, David Bowie, and Bjork

are you dumb?