'Kid A' & 'Amnesiac'

These albums are two pretty important ones for me. They're not my favorites nor do I consider them vital toward my personal music soundtrack.

I like OK Computer and In Rainbows much better, but these two hold their place. They're Radiohead's Revolver and Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Or, is OK Computer their Revolver? They're more important to Radiohead than they are to me. And that's OK.

Kid A was released in 2000 and, as a bookend, Amnesiac was released in June 2001. Less than a year apart and both go together.

Here are some of the things said by Radiohead about these albums:

"We had to come to grips with starting a song from scratch in the studio and making it into something, rather than playing it live, rehearsing it and then getting a good take of a live performance. None of us played that much guitar on these records. Suddenly we were presented with the opportunity and the freedom to approach the music the way Massive Attackk does: as a collective, working on sounds, rather than with each person in the band playing a prescribed role. It was quite hard work for us to adjust to the fact that some of us might not necessarily be playing our usual instrument on a track, or even playing any instrument at all. Once you get over your insecurities, then it's great."

What?

"They are separate because they cannot run in a straight line with each other. They cancel each other out as overall finished things... In some weird way, I think Amnesiac gives another take on Kid A, a form of explanation. Something traumatic is happening in Kid A… this is looking back at it, trying to piece together what has happened."

"I think the artwork is the best way of explaining it. The artwork to Kid A was all in the distance. The fires were all going on the other side of the hill. With Amnesiac, you're actually in the forest while the fire's happening."

As if they were smoking crack.

"I read that the gnostics believe when we are born we are forced to forget where we have come from in order to deal with the trauma of arriving in this life. I thought this was really fascinating. It's like the river of forgetfulness. It may have been recorded at same time... but it comes from a different place I think. It sounds like finding an old chest in someone's attic with all these notes and maps and drawings and descriptions of going to a place you cannot remember. That's what I think anyway."

I'm convinced that Radiohead are just messing with us.