Kid A - Over-rated?

[Termite Man]

what was interesting about kid a was the shock factor - the fact that the band went directly against what their fans wanted of them, ie to make another ok computer. i'd been a fan of the bends and ok computer, but had become thoroughly sick of the band when their popularity was at its height - i remember seeing them at wembley arena and hating it. they were just overblown and running on empty. i loved the fact that kid a shattered that completely - making the band much smaller in terms of the songs, bringing much more space and imagination into their songwriting. i remember being disappointed by amnesiac to begin with, as it was too guitary after kid a. but now it's the one i return to, mostly for 'pyramid song', which i think is probably the best thing radiohead have ever done.

This is pretty much sums up Kid A for me . It's a very good record for Radiohead to do but compare it with other people who were doing a similar thing to Kid A's music but much better it's not as good as some people seem to think !

 

[clandestino]

This is pretty much sums up Kid A for me . It's a very good record for Radiohead to do but compare it with other people who were doing a similar thing to Kid A's music but much better it's not as good as some people seem to think !

that's usually the point made by people who don't rate kid a. it probably is an entry-level record for a certain type of indie fan (myself included possibly). what would you recommend as further listening then? who was doing something similar but much better? specific albums if you could please.

 

[LDR]

Super Furry Animals possibly?

 

[Flashman]

The Great Eastern was released that year and pisses on it from a great height.

 

[clandestino]

they're not really relevant are they? the delgadoes and sfa are just two other indie groups (albeit very good ones) - they weren't blurring any boundaries as radiohead were on kid a.

sorry, i'll make my question more specific. which electronic/experimental acts that radiohead were apparently aping should i listen to?

 

[tangerinedream]

S'allright, even good, but I don't see it as ground breaking in any other sense than for Radioshed themselves - in other words not really groundbreaking. Really like some of it, other bits just find boring, like a less interesting version of an autechre album and strangely given akira's post, like morning bell least of all.

Now, I have much the same opinion of amnesiac, but think it is perhaps a moderately richer album, and I genuinely like Hail to the tea leaf, which is probably the first radiohead record I would say I genuinelly and wholeheartedly like.

 

[tangerinedream]

they weren't blurring any boundaries as radiohead were on kid a.

See, I've never understood why that seems to be the basis of the critical praise for R'shed. Let's take Calexico as an example (who I am listening to now, well Gotan Project) and we have a sumptious blend of Latin, Country, with Sound Collages and hints of alternative or 'post' rock with a strangely almost gothic lyrical twist.
Yet they aren't hailed as the 'world's greatest ever band, ever' despite being just as, if not more acomplished musically and equally politically aware and 'right on' - This goes I think, for a number of groups.

I'm not suggesting you are promoting this view of R'shed Ianw, just exploring the comment in it's wider journalistic context.

And I think Kid A sounds like something a bit like an Authecre/BoC collaboration, but not quite as good. You could imagine it as a remix of a more 'traditional' R'shed album by the above.

I'm not dissing it per se, it's got some fantastic music on, but there is much that is equally if not more merititious (I've made that up I think - have I?) of the praise and exposure afforded to Radiosheds every move.

 

[poului]

xrdsgxergre3rd

I thought everyone (pitchfork sodding media aside) hated Kid A?


Well, at least it might convince some people to listen to Brian Eno.

 

[maya]

JARRE, JEAN-MICHEL Les Granges Brulees (OST)

Somewhere right now Thom Yorke is blushing, now that this 1973 soundtrack has been reissued. Well, that's our speculation anyway, 'cause the main theme sounds SO MUCH like a Radiohead song (which one, we haven't quite figured out. Not "Paranoid Android" but close.) At any rate, this was either a big inspiration to Radiohead or it's just a marvellous coincidence. You'll hear it for yourself we're sure. Thom certainly needs to hear this if he hasn't already (as we suspect). And it's not just the melody of this soundtrack's main leit motif, but the singing voice itself. A French female doing wordless ah ah ahs -- play it back to back with Radiohead and you'll swear it's Mr. Yorke's famous falsetto.

 

[clandestino]

Yet they aren't hailed as the 'world's greatest ever band, ever' despite being just as, if not more acomplished musically and equally politically aware and 'right on' - This goes I think, for a number of groups.

I'm not suggesting you are promoting this view of R'shed Ianw, just exploring the comment in it's wider journalistic context.

And I think Kid A sounds like something a bit like an Authecre/BoC collaboration, but not quite as good. You could imagine it as a remix of a more 'traditional' R'shed album by the above.

i think the point with radiohead is that they found huge popularity by being a relatively straightforward rock act before ditching it all for something more experimental. which is why they're hailed as being greatest band ever blah blah - they simply had more attention. i love calexico, but what they're doing feels like more of a natural blend to me. there's an obvious link between post rock and morricone soundtracks - it just needed someone to make the link.

i've listened to both autecre and boc. i like the former - especially live, i thought they were superb (which was pre kid a, incidentally), while the latter leave me cold. i don't hear any drama in them at all. i guess what's interesting about kid a is precisely what turns you off. that it's a link between traditional rock/indie and electronica. add the rock elements and you're non plussed. take them away and i'm not bothered. that's just a matter of what you prefer really i guess.

 

[clandestino]

recommend an autecre album then. i don't own any and maybe i should.

 

[LDR]

When you guys talk of boc do you mean the Blue Oyster Cult?

 

[akirajoel]

Boards of Canada

 

[Flavour]

Kid A.

It's alright, I like Everything In it's right place & Idioteque...


but


at the end of the day






It's not a giant alien force more violent & sick than anything you can imagine

 

[tangerinedream]

recommend an autecre album then. i don't own any and maybe i should.

I've got untilted (the newest one) and confeld. I like em both, just really glitchy and sometime very non musical stuff that works a treat when your head is all scrambled up.

The texture of Kid A remind me of something like BoC but with a more solid sheen to them, rather than a faded deckchair kind of fabric.

 

[akirajoel]

It's not a giant alien force more violent & sick than anything you can imagine

Oooh! Whos that by? Sounds good...

 

[tangerinedream]

Boards of Canada

Barons of Constancy.

 

[tangerinedream]

Oooh! Whos that by? Sounds good...

That fake Alec Empire bloke off Nathen Barley.

 

[Negativland]

If only it didn't have Thom Yorke's innefectual whining all over it might be halfway to being half decent. They've got better since, they are now half decent.

 

[Flavour]

Oooh! Whos that by? Sounds good...

Venetian Snares

A 3" inch CD with one 15 minute song... "a giant alien force more violent & sick than anything you can imagine"...

GET IT

 

[tangerinedream]

Venetian Snares

A 3" inch CD with one 15 minute song... "a giant alien force more violent & sick than anything you can imagine"...

GET IT

Oh, they are good. Just got into them, through my mate.

 

[clandestino]

I've got untilted (the newest one) and confeld. I like em both, just really glitchy and sometime very non musical stuff that works a treat when your head is all scrambled up.

i'll check them out. i loved mum, didn't like squarepusher. that should give you an idea of where my head is at regarding electronica. that said, i also love plastikman, but i find that pure percussive stuff very musical, even though essentially there's no music on there at all of course.

 

[clandestino]

Venetian Snares

A 3" inch CD with one 15 minute song... "a giant alien force more violent & sick than anything you can imagine"...

GET IT

i've heard of them - they're meant to be excellent.

*fires up limewire*

 

[tangerinedream]

i'll check them out. i loved mum, didn't like squarepusher. that should give you an idea of where my head is at regarding electronica. that said, i also love plastikman, but i find that pure percussive stuff very musical, even though essentially there's no music on there at all of course.

I find that off all my albums, the autechre ones get the most 'I don't like that' responses. You know the sort of disquieting clicky bits at the beginning of Amnesiac, that's Authecre esque that is.

Post rock and Morricone - GYBE!

Start a thread - Akirajoel

Gybe v Radioshed

 

[tangerinedream]

i've heard of them - they're meant to be excellent.

*fires up limewire*

Go to the download this! thread on here, lovely set on there.

 

[exosculate]

I like it - I like most of their stuff tbh.

 

[killer b]

Go to the download this! thread on here, lovely set on there.

yep. you can get more of his stuff, without having to worry about breaking any copyright laws, from here too.

 

[tangerinedream]

yep. you can get more of his stuff, without having to worry about breaking any copyright laws, from here too.

Yeah, top thread mr b. Good work fella

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

that's usually the point made by people who don't rate kid a. it probably is an entry-level record for a certain type of indie fan (myself included possibly). what would you recommend as further listening then? who was doing something similar but much better? specific albums if you could please.

Get 'Soup' by Bola. Or 'Skampler,' the Skam records sampler (I think there were two actually.)

 

[Termite Man]

that's usually the point made by people who don't rate kid a. it probably is an entry-level record for a certain type of indie fan (myself included possibly). what would you recommend as further listening then? who was doing something similar but much better? specific albums if you could please.

I think kid a is good , just not as good as a lot of people seem to think , as for giving examples of the stuff that was better I can't really remember now because it's so long since I heard kid a or what comparisons I made .