KID A

How do one start to review one of the greatest album ever released? The first time I listen to this album I was a little suprised because I expected to hear something like OK Computer/The Bends, but this was something totally different. It took some spins before I got it, and when it did the music just crawled under my skin and stayed there, its still there 7 years after its release. I keep playing this album on a regular basis and I never seem to get tired of it.

After the sucess they had with OK Computer a lot of people expected a follow up to that, and im sure they could have released an OK Computer v.2 if they wanted, but instead they created an album where they have no desire to please any critics or have any radio respect, and is more concentrated on just making good music that the fans will like, and trying something new in the process.

Trying to describe this brilliant music is hard, but I will give it a try.

Kid A is different: Free flowing, ambient, mostly electronic and recorded using computer based software. Their sounds is the sound of nighttime. Very often when I listen to this album I feel im in a big city at night, looking out my apartment window. Its raining. Its spooky. Its dark.

There are many moments of greatness on this album, small parts like a driving bassline, a fragmented vocal rhythm, a movie sample that just works, a synth cord or anything else that change the music completely. Just when you think "The National Anthem" is about to finish, a huge explosion of freestyle jazz suddenly appear and blow you away.

There are no singles on this album, atleast not in the true meaning of the word. Its an album that you listen to from start to end. The track order is excellent and it just make sense. One can really feel that they have put all their love and passion into this album.

To say Kid A is ahead of it's time is a understatement. This album is proof of the huge payoff of unrestrained artistic expression, breaking the rules of how an album or genre should sound like. Its allso proof that boxing in any great artist into any one genre is only a backwards way of looking at music that denies the potential to do something greatest.

Its perhaps not an album for everyone, but it is extremely rewarding if you do love it.

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