Kid A

Radiohead

Kid A

‘Kid A’ is the fourth studio album by Radiohead, first released in October 2000 via Parlophone.

Burnt out after recording and promoting Radiohead’s acclaimed 1997 album ‘OK Computer,’ songwriter Thom Yorke envisioned a radical change in direction for their next album. Incorporating influences from krautrock, jazz, 20th-century classical music and the electronic music of Warp artists, Radiohead replaced their three-guitar line-up with synthesisers, drum machines, the ondes Martenot, string orchestras and brass instruments.

They recorded ‘Kid A’ with producer Nigel Godrich in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucestershire, and their hometown Oxford. The sessions produced over 20 finished tracks; Radiohead saved many of them for their subsequent album, ‘Amnesiac,’ released the following year.

Kid A initially divided critics, surprised by Radiohead’s change in direction, but it was named one of the best albums of 2000 by numerous publications. Like its predecessor OK Computer, it won a Grammy for Best Alternative Album and a nomination for Album of the Year. In 2006, Time named Kid A one of the 100 best albums of all time, calling it “the weirdest album to ever sell a million copies.” At the turn of the decade, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and the Times ranked Kid A the greatest album of the 2000s. In 2012, Rolling Stone ranked Kid A number 67 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.