KID A

Kid A is a very interesting album, and a very unique one as well. Add another halvstar, really.

But most of all, it is uneven. Both stylisitally and quality-wise. The variation is incredible, we have electronic and up-tempo songs such as "Kid A" and "Everything in its right place", the ambient and experimental "Treefingers", and the more usual OK Computer-sounding "How to disappear completely." And it works, in places. "Everything in its right place", my favourite track on the album, with rather disturbing vocals from Thom Yorke. Pretty experimental, with tape loops and electronic sounds, sort of like what you might get if you mix kratrock with indie-pop. But darker.

Kid A is, almost more than any other album i know, a "collection of songs" rather than a smoothly running album, like OK Computer. That is because there are so many stylistical changes throughout that the only real common denominator is the lust for experimentation and Thom Yorke's uniquely desperate singing (at it's most desperate sounding in "idiotheque"). The spirit is really admirable, but sometimes the songwriting can appear as rather lazy and the mood is not as dark and hollow as it was on OK Computer.

Not entirely unsuccesful, and i definitely wouldn't have wanted the band to go on making OK Computer over and over again, but the later efforts (which i haven't yet heard) might be a bit more mature and refined, with a better balance if experimentation and songwriting. In my ears, OK Computer just feels a lot more honest. Still, a good album. Recommended for all who have already heard OK Computer.