Maps of Music

Kid A (2000)

Where the lyrics of Kid A take you, and where it was really made.

Radiohead released no singles for this album, and its first public play was at a Manhattan IMAX theatre.

Key places

First sessions in Paris (2000)

Recording site Guillaume Tell Studios (Paris) — Radiohead began work at this Paris studio in January 1999, before their own studio was finished. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Two unproductive weeks in Copenhagen (2000)

Recording site Medley Studios — The band spent two weeks at this Copenhagen studio in March, and the sessions produced no finished work. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Band's own barn studio in Oxfordshire (2000)

Recording site Radiohead studio (Oxfordshire) — Radiohead converted a barn in Oxfordshire into their own recording studio after OK Computer, and later moved their sessions there. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Strings recorded in a 12th-century church (2000)

Recording site Dorchester Abbey — The orchestral strings for How to Disappear Completely were recorded at this 12th-century church near the band's Oxfordshire studio. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Kid A: fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead
• Released 2 October 2000 by Parlophone
• Recorded with producer Nigel Godrich in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire
• Departs from the band's earlier sound and draws on electronic music, krautrock, jazz and 20th-century classical music
• Uses a wider range of instruments and effects than before
• Thom Yorke's lyrics are abstract, with phrases cut up and assembled at random
• No singles released; few interviews and photoshoots; short animations used instead
• Second album from the same sessions: Amnesiac (2001)

Background

• Followed OK Computer (1997), after which the members suffered burnout
• Yorke became ill and grew hostile to the music media
• Listened almost exclusively to Warp artists such as Aphex Twin and Autechre
• Wanted his voice used as an instrument rather than in a leading role
• Considered changing the band's name
• Bought a house in Cornwall; the first song he wrote was Everything in Its Right Place
• Guitarist Ed O'Brien had hoped for short, melodic guitar songs, but Yorke rejected melody for the album

Recording

• Bought a barn in Oxfordshire after OK Computer and converted it into a recording studio
• Began work at Guillaume Tell Studios, Paris, in January 1999
• Two weeks at Medley Studios, Copenhagen, were unproductive; about 50 reels of tape resulted
• Resumed in April at a mansion in Batsford Park, Gloucestershire
• Moved to the newly completed Oxfordshire studio in September
• In January 2000 the band split into two groups at Godrich's suggestion
• On 19 April 2000 Yorke announced on the band's website that recording had finished
• Over 20 songs were finished; half were saved for Amnesiac
• Strings for How to Disappear Completely were recorded at Dorchester Abbey
• Album mastered by Chris Blair at Abbey Road Studios, London

Cover

• Artwork created by Yorke with Stanley Donwood, who had worked with the band since the 1994 EP My Iron Lung
• First time the pair used paint; canvases measured six square feet
• Yorke photographed the paintings and edited them in Photoshop
• Cover mountain image came from the Worldwatch Institute website
• Red swimming pool on the spine and disc was inspired by the 1988 graphic novel Brought to Light

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Disc 1

Disc 2

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985.
• The members met while attending Abingdon School, a private boys' school in Abingdon.
• The band was first called On a Friday, and signed to EMI in December 1991 under the name Radiohead.

Members

• Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Jonny Greenwood (guitar, keyboards), Colin Greenwood (bass), Ed O'Brien (guitar, backing vocals), Philip Selway (drums).
• Nigel Godrich (producer) and Stanley Donwood (cover artist) have worked with the band since 1994.

Career

• Debut album Pablo Honey (1993); The Bends (1995); OK Computer (1997) is considered a landmark record.
• Kid A (2000) marked a dramatic change in style, incorporating electronic music, jazz and krautrock.
• In Rainbows (2007) was self-released as a pay-what-you-want download.
• Over 30 million albums sold by 2011; six Grammy Awards, four Ivor Novello Awards.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Spin described it as the most anticipated rock record since Nirvana's In Utero (1993)
• Some critics dismissed it as pretentious, derivative or wilfully obscure
• The Irish Times called it deliberately abstruse and panned its lack of conventional song structures
• Melody Maker critic Mark Beaumont called it self-congratulatory and said about 60 songs were started with no clue how to finish them
• Rolling Stone published a piece mocking Kid A as humourless, derivative and lacking in songs
• AllMusic gave it a favourable review but said it was never as visionary as OK Computer
• Pitchfork's Brent DiCrescenzo gave it a perfect score
• Metacritic score of 80 from 24 reviews, indicating generally favourable reviews

Reappraisal

• Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and The Times ranked it the greatest album of the 2000s
• Rolling Stone ranked it number 20 on its 2020 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
• Pitchfork readers voted it the greatest album of the previous 25 years in 2021
• Rolling Stone named it the second-greatest album of the century so far in 2025
• Won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album and was nominated for Album of the Year

Records

• Debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, selling 55,000 copies on its first day
• Debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling more than 207,000 copies in its first week
• Radiohead's first US number-one album
• Number one in Canada, France, Ireland and New Zealand at debut
• Certified platinum in the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, France and Japan
• 310,000 copies sold in the UK by June 2001
• More than 1.5 million digital copies sold as of May 2016

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album was leaked online three weeks before release and shared on the Napster peer-to-peer service.
• Radiohead released no singles, and the album's first public play came at the IMAX theatre in Lincoln Square, Manhattan, on 5 September 2000.
• Cover painter Stanley Donwood's bear characters, from stories he made for his children, appeared in the promotional material.
• Radiohead rearranged the Kid A songs for live performance, with O'Brien saying the band put the human element back into them.
• Radiohead toured the Mediterranean in mid-2000, and a Barcelona concert was posted on Napster the next day.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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