THERE ARE TWO COLORS IN MY HEAD
THERE ARE TWO COLORS IN MY HEAD
WHAT,
WHAT WAS THAT YOU TRIED TO SAY ?
Kid A
is the fourth
studio album
by the English
rock band
released on
October 2nd 2000
by Parlophone.
It was recorded with
their producer,
Nigel Godrich,
in Paris,
Copenhagen,
Gloucestershire
and
Oxfordshire.
Departing from their earlier sound,
Radiohead
incorporated influences
from electronic music,
krautrock,
jazz
and
20th-century classical music,
with a wider range
of instruments and effects.
The singer,
Thom Yorke,
wrote abstract lyrics,
cutting up phrases
and assembling them
at random.
In a departure from
industry practice,
Radiohead
released no singles
and conducted
few interviews
and photoshoots.
Instead,
they released
short animations
and became one
of the first major acts
to use the internet
for promotion.
Bootlegs
of early performances
were shared on
filesharing services,
and Kid A
was leaked
before release.
In 2000,
Radiohead
toured Europe
in a custom-built tent
without corporate sponsors.
Kid A
debuted at number one
on the
UK Albums Chart
and became
Radiohead's
first number-one album
on the
US Billboard 200.
It was certified
platinum in the UK,
the US,
Australia,
Canada,
France and Japan.
Its new sound
divided listeners,
and some dismissed it
as pretentious,
derivative or
willfully obscure.
However,
it was later named
one of the greatest albums
by numerous publications;
Rolling Stone,
Pitchfork
and
The Times
ranked it the
greatest album of
the 2000s,
and in 2020
Rolling Stone ranked it
number 20
on its updated list
of the
500 Greatest Albums
of All Time.
Kid A
won the Grammy Award
for Best
Alternative Album
and was
nominated for
the Grammy Award
for Album of the Year.
Radiohead
released a second album
of material from the sessions,
Amnesiac,
in 2001.
In 2021,
they released
Kid A Mnesia,
an anniversary reissue
compiling
Kid A,
Amnesiac
and previously
unreleased material.
Background
Following the critical
and commercial success
of their 1997 album
OK Computer,
the members of
Radiohead
suffered burnout.
The songwriter,
Thom Yorke,
became ill,
describing himself as
"a complete fucking mess ... completely unhinged".
He was troubled by
new acts he felt were
imitating Radiohead
and became hostile
to the music media.
He told The Observer:
"I always used to use music
as a way of moving on
and dealing with things,
and I sort of felt like
that the thing that
helped me deal with things
had been sold to the
highest bidder and I
was simply
doing its bidding.
And I couldn't handle that."
Yorke suffered from
writer's block
and could not finish
writing songs on guitar.
He became disillusioned with the
"mythology"
of rock music,
feeling the genre had
"run its course".
He began to listen
almost exclusively to
the electronic music
Yorke bought a house in Cornwall
and spent his time walking the cliffs
and drawing,
restricting his musical activity
to playing the grand piano
he had recently bought.
"Everything in Its Right Place"
was the first song he wrote.
The guitarist Ed O'Brien
had hoped Radiohead's
fourth album would
comprise short,
melodic guitar songs,
but Yorke said:
"There was no chance of the album
sounding like that.
I'd completely had it with melody.
I just wanted rhythm.
All melodies to me
were pure embarrassment."
O'Brien also considered
inviting the hip-hop artist
Dr. Dre to collaborate
on the album,
but felt this was far-fetched.
The bassist,
Colin Greenwood,
said other guitar bands
were trying to do similar things,
and so Radiohead
had to change
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