Fifteen years ago, Radiohead released Kid A. It is not hyperbolic to say it changed the face of music, and it definitely changed the face of Radiohead. The album is a demarcation point for the band. They were popular before that, sure. “Creep” put them on the map. OK Computer is a great, much loved album. Kid A, though, was a statement. It reconfigured Radiohead into something decidedly more eerie, more ethereal.
This was not without intent. Past interviews with Thom Yorke see him clearly state that he felt unmoored after OK Computer. More pressingly, he felt rock music was dead, or at least was deserving to die. He declared that rock had “run its course” and noted that he was only listening to electronic music. Yorke decided a change of direction was needed for Radiohead, and for his own sanity. They weren’t going to be a rock band anymore.
There are different designations given to Kid A. Wikipedia alone declares it to be electronica, experimental rock, post-rock, and electronic rock. It’s a decidedly different sound, but it’s also fantastic. From the very opening moment of “Everything In Its Right Place” to the final moments of “Motion Picture Soundtrack” it’s a fascinating, wonderful listen. The move to more electronic music didn’t completely divorce Radiohead from force and brash loudness in their music. “National Anthem” can attest to that, with its cacophony of horns. Nobody is here to call Kid A anything other than one of the best albums of the 2000s. On the other hand, it also has to be held accountable for what it hath wrought.
Kid A was not a one-off change of direction for Yorke and company to clear their heads. It was just the start; they have only gone further in that direction, taking a brief respite to sound slightly more human on In Rainbows. But for the most part, the band’s songs have gotten more and more abstract and distant. Their most recent album, The King of Limbs, is so ethereal, so ghostly, it might as well not exist at all. Even as somebody who loves Radiohead, their sound has gotten, frankly, tedious.
Based on Yorke’s other projects, and years of this being Radiohead’s sound, clearly he likes making this kind of music. There is no indication of things changing. This is a shame, because – and now we are almost 20 years removed from this memory – Radiohead was a great rock band. Jonny Greenwood and Ed O’Brien are excellent guitarists. The band has been tired of “Creep” for decades now, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a very good song. Radiohead was, in truth, just as innovative and influential when they were a guitar-laden rock band as they are in their current iteration.
Maybe Yorke was right when he proclaimed rock music has run its course. The arc of popular music in the intervening years would indicate that was, indeed, the case. On the other hand, the electronic music that Radiohead makes now has saturated the market as much as rock music ever did. You could argue that it, in turn, has “run its course.” It would be as notable for Radiohead to make a rock album now as it was for them to make Kid A in 2000. They likely won’t, of course. Those of us who enjoyed Radiohead as a rock band will have to settle for the few records we already have. With Kid A, we gained a lot, but we also lost something.
