albums of the decade - 2. Radiohead - Kid A

2. Radiohead - Kid A (2000)

This started everything for me. Music. Discussion. Friends. Yea, I was a Radiohead fan in school. We wore plain clothes though and we ate the occasional burger. We wore black sometimes, but that was mainly restricted to the 'other kids'. I used to talk about this and Jay-Z and The Strokes and stuff. I think everyone knows enough about Kid A to put up with some shit puns. "The anti-commerical album that your Auntie would hate" Or; "The Grandfather of rocktronica that's more paranoid than your Grandmother" It's hard to say what it means to me exactly, my music writing days are coming to an end. I pressed play in 2000 and 'Everything In Its Right Place' came raining down on me, it was amazing, it's like Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons in music form. Fuck, I'm listening now and it feels like I'm having the most addictive thing known to animals; it's crazy. 'Kid A' is the next song and that's the most progressive, cute song on the album. 'The National Anthem' still blows my mind with the brass and 'How To Disappear Completely' is one of the most beautiful songs ever written. 'Optimistic' is vintage Radiohead and then 'In Limbo' breaks out into 'Idioteque' and bang - Beats, paranoia, dark being beautiful. 'Morning Bell' smells like potassium in a chemistry lesson, it's dangerous but contagious and 'Motion Picture Soundtrack' rounds the album off like a Disney Film. I'm writing this like it's my album if the decade but it's for my head definitely and the one above has so much heart, it just about clinches it.