Happy Birthday to one of my favorite Radiohead albums of all-time. It's' hard to believe the most anticipated album in Radiohead's career is officially ten-years old today. I still remember the day I listened to it for the first time. The opening piano-riff to Everything In It's Right Place, Thom's looped-voice exclaming "kid-a...kid-a.." followed by Thom's incredible vocals when singing "Everthing... Everything..." Yes, this could as well be the soundtrack to the 21st century. The new millennium. The age of the unknown. For all of us lucky enough to be alive during the turn of the millennium it really is something remarkable on it's own. Radiohead's opening track speaks volumes without saying much. Sometimes songs don't need to be understood in order to connect with you. Everything In It's Right Place connected with me because of it's full of raw-emotion. I could hear Thom's voice inside my head. We love to believe everything IS in it's right place, but this song is something of a reminder of that and not just a statement. The title track that follows Kid A opens with a what sounds like a music-box. Thom's voice is distorted and one can barely understand what he is saying. Again I find myself lost in this sea of the unknown. Where will you lead us? Are we there yet? Can we see the shore up ahead? One can lose themselves while listening to this song. I feel as if I am lifted from the ground and taken over a desolated land of nothingness. Perhaps the album cover congers up the imagery in my head. The cold, lonely place where intelligent life once roamed the earth. We might spot a polar bear on occasion but there really is nothing here to see anymore. The National Anthem is a call to arms. The song gives me a feeling of resistance. Resistance from the way things are. Not necessarily a resistance one thinks about but more of a collective resistance in regards to everything we as humans are currently doing. Perhaps a spiritual one. This coming long after we've almost given up hope. We will follow that distorted bass-riff wherever it leads us. "Everyone around here... is holding on". The horns emphasize the urgency in the song. The climax is where we need to be. Lost among the many sounds of horns coming from all directions. How To Dissappear Completely the fourth track on Kid A is one of the saddest songs in the album. It feels like someone standing in a crowd full of people but feeling completely alone. It feels like someone stuck in a cubicle for eight hours a day. If feels like someone standing on the edge of a bridge somewhere... Contemplating. "This isn't happening"... It feels like someone thinking of a loved one on a rainy day. The song connects with those of us who for some reason find ourselves in places we never imagined we would. Not feeling completely fulfilled with how things turned out in our lives. The following song is Treefingers. This is the bridge. The elevator. The spaceship. Treefingers will transport us all to where we need to go. During the trip we will slightly forget where we were but will accept where we will be. No questions asked. The ambient sounds coming into our ears will soothe and comfort us until we get there. And now: Optimistic. We have arrived. "If you try the best you can... the best you can is good enough" The song sees the world through a microscope. The big picture. Human kind. Evolution. What have we done to get here? Is this good enough? Has history shown us to be of good moral character? Are we monsters? Is Religion good? Are we in a prison? Have we made any progress? Will we end up the same as the dinosaurs? Is there anything we need to be doing in order to avoid human extinction? As long as we are optimistic, everything will be ok. In Limbo is the jungle. The jungle in our minds. We are "lost at sea, don't bother me" "We are living in a fantasy world" Unlike Optimistic, In Limbo leads us to believe we are ALREADY there. We made it. This is the point where we can't make a distinction between the genius and the insane. Perhaps they are one in the same. Next we have Idioteque. "Who's In bunker?" brings imagery of being in-hiding. In exile. Maybe from the rest of the world. From reality? From the scary things. "This is really happening" Yes, the nightmare we were afraid would one day come is actually here. "Take the money and run" the markets have collapsed. Capitalism went the way of the Roman empire. We made it this far, now we need to have "women and children first". The Titanic is going down. This world we find ourselves in has taken us to this point and now we must deal with the consequences. "Here I'm allowed, everything all of the time" Perhaps referring to the money being taken by those so-called "institutions" we all feel are overseeing it on a daily basis. Sadly, nobody is hitting the panic-button this time around. Morning Bell is the place we are trapped-in. The place in our minds we'd rather not be in. We should be happy, but we're not. We have it all. The house. The wife/husband. The white-picket fence. The kids. Or maybe we should "cut the kids in half", not literally but metaphorically by stating that maybe that will make us happier. "Light another candle". Many people light candles in remembrance of their lost loved ones. Others simply light candles when their power is out. We are in the dark. We can't see where we are going. The suburbs. The homeless shelter. The apartment complex. We can all relate being in a place and not being able to see where we will go from there. The Album ends with Motion Picture Soundtrack. The song itself is the perfect ending to such an amazing album. It brings up feelings of being lonely. Broken-hearted. "I think you're crazy.... maybe" The relationship between two lovers. The feeling gets old. We survived. Maybe not just the end of a relationship between two lovers but that between us all... The point where we all part ways. The end of human existence. Meeting people is easy. Saying goodbye on the other hand.... "I will see you in the next life".
Thanks for taking the time to read this. It reads like a random rant with lots of grammar errors because well, it probably is just that. But my honest opinion it is. Images, thoughts and feelings that flow through my head when I listen to this incredible album. I would like to know what Kid A means to you too.
I was listening to this album while I wrote this. You should listen to it today.
Saludos!
-SSA
