History Music / KidA

* BreatherEpisode: "Treefingers" is a calm, ambient interlude that's sandwiched between a depressing ballad and a straight-up hard rocker.

It received praise for [[GenreBusting introducing rock listeners to more experimental music styles]] such as IDM, {{Ambient}} music & freeform jazz, and while [[NewSoundAlbum its new sound]] [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks alienated some]], it is recognized to this day as one of the best albums of the 2000s if not of all time. On Magazine/RollingStone's Top 500 albums list, ''Kid A'' not only got the highest ranking of a Radiohead album but also the highest ranking of a 21st century album -- at '''''#67'''''. [[note]]Made even more awesome since its ranking before the 2012 update was ''#428'', which indicates a jump of '''361 spots'''.[[/note]] It was followed six months later by another album called ''Amnesiac'', featuring tracks culled from the same recording sessions as ''Kid A''.

* TitleTrack: "Kid A", yet the AlbumTitleDrop is heard in "Everything In Its Right Place"

* BreatherEpisode: "Treefingers" is a calm Ambient piece that's sandwiched between a depressing ballad and a straight-up hard rocker.

* LastNoteNightmare: Every song save for "Treefingers" and "Motion Picture Soundtrack" sounds haunting.

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/radiohead_kida_albumart_159.jpg]]

-->''"I'm not here, this isn't happening."''
--->--'''How to Disappear Completely'''

It received praise for [[GenreBusting introducing rock listeners to more experimental music styles]] such as IDM, {{Ambient}} music & freeform jazz, and while [[NewSoundAlbum its new sound]] [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks alienated some]], it is recognized to this day as one of the best albums of the 2000s if not of all time. On Rolling Stone's top 500 albums list, ''Kid A'' not only got the highest ranking of a Radiohead album but also the highest ranking of a 21st century album -- at '''''#67'''''. [[note]]Made even more awesome since its ranking before the 2012 update was ''#428'', which indicates a jump of '''361 spots'''.[[/note]] It was followed six months later by another album called ''Amnesiac'', featuring tracks culled from the same recording sessions as ''Kid A''.

!! Every trope in its right place:

* ArcWords: Interestingly enough, the lyrics for most tracks on this album as well as ''Amnesiac'' and ''Hail to the Thief'' became this. Lyrics from all three albums appeared cryptically (and usually slightly altered) in the the Radiohead website's "maze" section.
** Phrases that would appear in ''Amnesiac'' and ''Hail to the Thief'' appeared in this album's hidden booklet. (For example, [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e4/Kid_A_Hidden_booklet.gif here]] you can see the phrase "you and your cronies," which later became a lyric in "You and Whose Army?")

* LastNoteNightmare: Every song save for "Treefingers" and "Motion Picture Soundtrack."

* ShoutOut: According to Stanley Donwood, the red swimming pool that appears on the spine of the CD case, the CD and in the booklet's artwork is a reference to the Creator/AlanMoore / Bill Sienkiewicz comic ''Brought to Light'', in which the CIA measures the deaths caused by its state-sponsored terrorism using the equivalent number of 50-gallon swimming pools filled with human blood. Donwood found the image horrifying, and was haunted by it throughout the ''Kid A''[=/=]''Amnesiac'' sessions.

** Nearly literal example: Some of the lyrics on ''Kid A'' came from Thom picking random words and phrases out of a hat. The most Egregious example would probably be "Morning Bell:"
-->"Where'd you park the car? / Where'd you park the car? / Clothes are on the lawn with the furniture / And I might as well / I might as well / Sleepy jack the fire drill / Round and round and round and round and round and round and round..."

-->I slipped away / I slipped on a little white lie / We've got heads on sticks / We've got ventriloquists / Standing in the shadows at the end of my bed / The rats and the children follow me out of town, etc.
** From "Idioteque:"
-->Who's in a bunker? / Women and children first and the children first and the children / I laugh until my head comes off / Swallow 'till I burst / Who's in a bunker? / I have seen too much / You haven't seen enough / You haven't seen it / Laugh until my head comes off / Women and children first and the children first and the children / Here I'm alive / Everything all of the time.

'''''Kid A''''' is the fourth album released by AlternativeRock band Music/{{Radiohead}} in fall 2000. Despite not having any music videos or singles, the album saw outstanding commercial success, [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome debuting at #1 in the USA]] and becoming platinum in the UK during opening week. (Not surprising, considering the campaign the album was using and the hype that was made after their previous album ''Music/OKComputer''.) It has currently sold a total of four million copies[[note]]even though this is half of what ''OK Computer'' sold[[/note]]. Radiohead won its second Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album, and received a second Album of the Year nomination.

It received praise for [[GenreBusting introducing rock listeners to more experimental music styles]] such as IDM, ambient music & freeform jazz, and while [[NewSoundAlbum its new sound]] [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks alienated some]], it is recognized to this day as one of the best albums of the 2000s if not of all time. On Rolling Stone's top 500 albums list, ''Kid A'' not only got the highest ranking of a Radiohead album but also the highest ranking of a 21st century album--at '''''#67'''''.[[note]]Made even more awesome since its ranking before the 2012 update was ''#428'', which indicates a jump of '''361 spots'''.[[/note]] It was followed six months later by another album called ''Amnesiac'', featuring tracks culled from the same recording sessions as ''Kid A''.

# "Everything In Its Right Place" (4:11)

# "How To Disappear Completely" (5:56)

* AlbumTitleDrop [=/=] SubliminalSeduction: The intro to "Everything its Right Place" features a distorted voice saying "Kid A." [[MindScrew It says the same thing when you play it backwards.]]

** Phrases that would appear in ''Amnesiac'' and ''Hail to the Thief'' appeared in this album's hidden booklet. (For example, [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e4/Kid_A_Hidden_booklet.gif here]] you can see the phrase "you and your cronies", which later became a lyric in "You and Whose Army?".)
* BittersweetEnding: The final track "Motion Picture Soundtrack", which is one of the most simultaneously [[TearJerker heartbreaking]] and [[SweetDreamsFuel uplifting]] songs of all time.
* BreatherEpisode: "Treefingers" is a calm Ambient piece that's sandwiched between a depressing ballad and a straight-up hard rocker.
* BrokenRecord [=/=] LoopedLyrics: "Everything In Its Right Place". '''ALL OF IT.'''

* ConceptAlbum: Due to popular fan interpretation, as with most of Radiohead's albums.
** ''Kid A'' and ''Music/{{Amnesiac}}'' are suspect, too. The theorizing stems mostly from Thom's suggestion that the former could be about the first human clone, but he denies any intentional meaning. The two albums are clearly counterparts with similar themes (they were recorded at the same time) and it doesn't hurt the concept album theory that the genetically modified bear characters recurred throughout the "blips" of ''Kid A'' and ''Amnesiac'', and a track on Amnesiac was named after them ("Hunting Bears").

** When bootlegs of early live performances of ''Kid A'' songs made their way to the internet, the members of the band were both surprised and pleased when fans at concerts already knew the words to these new songs that had only been played once or twice previous. Colin Greenwood told a BBC reporter:
-->"We played in Barcelona and the next day the entire performance was up on Napster. Three weeks later when we got to play in Israel the audience knew the words to all the new songs and it was wonderful."
* DrivenToSuicide: "Motion Picture Soundtrack" (maybe).
** [[BookEnds The first and last lines sort of intertwine]]; the first line ("red wine and sleeping pills") could mean that the narrator is trying to kill themselves[[note]]the combination of these drugs can be lethal when enough is consumed[[/note]]. The last line ("I will see you in the next life") could mean that the narrator is dying and will finally find his lover in the afterlife.

* FadingIntoTheNextSong: The phasing synth sound at the end of "Kid A" continues into the very beginning of "The National Anthem", and the heavily processed, screechy violin-like loop at the end of "Idioteque" leads into "Morning Bell."
* GriefSong: "In Limbo".
* IndecipherableLyrics: "Kid A".
* InTheStyleOf: Hard as it may be to imagine, the arrangement of "Motion Picture Soundtrack" was [[http://radiohead1.tripod.com/songs/album/motionpic.htm inspired]] by the soundtracks of 1950s {{Disney}} films.

* LastNoteNightmare: Every song save for "Treefingers" and "Motion Picture Soundtrack".

* LoopedLyrics: "The National Anthem"

* NothingIsScarier: Nobody knows what the horrible thing that this album represented to Thom was, or the horrible thing that inspired the song "Kid A".
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: As documented in ''Meeting People Is Easy'', Thom Yorke suffered a major case of this during the ''OK Computer'' tour, which led to a long period of writers block and the urge to seek a brand new approach. The words to "How to Disappear Completely" stem from this period.
* {{Sampling}}: "Idioteque" uses samples from Paul Lansky's "Mild und Liese" and Arthur Krieger's "Short Piece".

** Other samples floating through the album include the echo-laden snippet of an orchestral performance that appears in the noisy conclusion of "The National Anthem", all of "Treefingers" (which was created by Thom sampling Ed's guitar improvisations and processing them until they didn't sound like a guitar) and the looped jam at the end of "Optimistic"

* ShoutOut: According to Stanley Donwood, the red swimming pool that appears on the spine of the CD case, the CD and in the booklet's artwork is a reference to the AlanMoore[=/=]Bill Sienkiewicz comic ''Brought to Light'', in which the CIA measures the deaths caused by its state-sponsored terrorism using the equivalent number of 50-gallon swimming pools filled with human blood. Donwood found the image horrifying, and was haunted by it throughout the ''Kid A''[=/=]''Amnesiac'' sessions.
** "How to Disappear Completely" pays homage to both Music/{{U2}} ("the Liffey" that Thom floats down runs through U2's hometown of Dublin) and Music/{{REM}} (saying "I'm not here, this isn't happening" is a meditative exercise that Michael Stipe recommended to Thom Yorke).
* SingleStanzaSong: "Kid A".
* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: Took the spacey electronic sounds of ''OK Computer'' and practically created a wholly experimental sound of electronica, while retaining the ProgressiveRock elements from before ("How to Disappear Completely", "Optimistic", "In Limbo", "Morning Bell").
* SoundtrackDissonance: "The National Anthem" doesn't sound like a national anthem at all.
* TakeThat: The additional artwork booklet that was hidden under the CD tray of early pressings includes a demonic-looking portrait of TonyBlair and RoomFullOfCrazy-styled text warning about demagoguery and betrayal.
* WordSaladLyrics:
** Nearly literal example: some of the lyrics on Kid A came from Thom picking random words and phrases out of a hat. The most Egregious example would probably be "Morning Bell":

** "Kid A", which was apparently created by Jonny on the piano while Thom talked through what he was playing, Jonny processing his voice with an ondes Martenot to produce the melody. There's definite Pied Piper imagery in the song and futuristic elements.
-->I slipped away/I slipped on a little white lie/We've got heads on sticks/We've got ventriloquists/Standing in the shadows at the end of my bed/The rats and the children follow me out of town, etc.,

-->Who's in a bunker?/Women and children first and the children first and the children/I laugh until my head comes off/Swallow 'till I burst/Who's in a bunker?/I have seen too much/You haven't seen enough/You haven't seen it/Laugh until my head comes off/Women and children first and the children first and the children/Here I'm alive/everything all of the time

-->''"[[TheStinger I will see you... in the next life.]]"''
----

-->''"[[TheStinger I will see you... in the next life.]]"''

-->Who's in a bunker?/Women and children first and the children first and the children/I laugh until my head comes off/Swallow 'till I burst/Who's in a bunker?/I have seen too much/You haven't seen enough/You haven't seen it/Laugh until my head comes off/Women and children first and the children first and the children/Here I'm alive/everything all of the time

!!Tropes:

** ''Kid A'' and ''Amnesiac'' are suspect, too. The theorizing stems mostly from Thom's suggestion that the former could be about the first human clone, but he denies any intentional meaning. The two albums are clearly counterparts with similar themes (they were recorded at the same time) and it doesn't hurt the concept album theory that the genetically modified bear characters recurred throughout the "blips" of ''Kid A'' and ''Amnesiac'', and a track on Amnesiac was named after them ("Hunting Bears").

* CreatorBreakdown: As documented in ''Meeting People Is Easy'', Thom Yorke suffered a major case of this during the ''OK Computer'' tour, which led to a long period of writers block and the urge to seek a brand new approach. The words to "How to Disappear Completely" stem from this period.

** When bootlegs of early live performances of Kid A songs made their way to the internet, the members of the band were both surprised and pleased when fans at concerts already knew the words to these new songs that had only been played once or twice previous. Colin Greenwood told a BBC reporter:

It received praise for [[GenreBusting introducing rock listeners to more experimental music]], and while [[NewSoundAlbum its new sound]] [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks alienated some]], it is recognized to this day as one of the best albums of the 2000s if not of all time. On Rolling Stone's top 500 albums list, ''Kid A'' not only got the highest ranking of a Radiohead album but also the highest ranking of a 21st century album--at '''''#67'''''.[[note]]Made even more awesome since its ranking before the 2012 update was ''#428'', which indicates a jump of '''361 spots'''.[[/note]] It was followed six months later by another album called ''Amnesiac'', featuring tracks culled from the same recording sessions as ''Kid A''.

It received praise for [[GenreBusting introducing rock listeners to more experimental music]], and while [[NewSoundAlbum its new sound]] [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks alienated some]], it is recognized to this day as one of the best albums of the 2000s if not of all time. On Rolling Stone's top 500 albums list, ''Kid A'' not only got the highest ranking of a Radiohead album but also the highest ranking of a 21st century album--at '''''#67'''''.[[note]]Made even more awesome since its ranking before the 2012 update was ''#428'', which indicates a jump of '''361 spots'''.[[/note]]

* MyGreatestFailure: YMMV; some fans of Radiohead during their 1990s heyday believe that this album single-handedly ruined the band.

* CreatorBreakdown: Thom Yorke suffered a massive case of this during the ''OK Computer'' tour, which inspired the lyrics for "How the Disappear Completely".

* TakeThat: The additional artwork booklet that was hidden under the CD tray of early pressings includes a demonic-looking portrait of TonyBlair and

** Various interviews with the band members have hinted that the harp glissandos from "Motion Picture Soundtrack" are sampled and processed from old {{Disney}} films. (Thom compared the moment they appear into the song with the moment a black-and-white movie suddenly switches to colour.)

** Phrases that would appear in ''Amnesiac'' and ''Hail to the Thief'' appeared in this album's hidden booklet.

** Kid A and Amnesiac are suspect, too. The theorizing stems mostly from Thom's suggestion that the former could be about the first human clone, but he denies any intentional meaning. The two albums are clearly counterparts with similar themes (they were recorded at the same time) and it doesn't hurt the concept album theory that the genetically modified bear characters recurred throughout the "blips" of Kid A and Amnesiac, and a track on Amnesiac was named after them ("Hunting Bears").
** Thom has also said that "something traumatic" happened during Kid A and that Amnesiac is "trying to piece together what has happened." Both albums feature artwork of forest fires; for Kid A it's in the distance, while Amnesiac's perspective is from within the forest.

* FadingIntoTheNextSong: The phasing synth sound at the end of "Kid A" continues into the very beginning of "The National Anthem", and the chirping noises at the end of "Idioteque" lead into "Morning Bell."

* MadnessMantra: The TitleTrack off of this album consists, for the most part, of Thom muttering "standing in the shadows at the end of my bed" over and over through a vocoder.

* NothingIsScarier: Nobody knows that the horrible thing that this album represented to Thom was.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: Took the spacey electronic sounds of ''OK Computer'' and practically created a wholly experimental sound of electronica.

** "Kid A", which was apparently created by Jonny on the piano while Thom talked through what he was playing (and used vocal distortion to make the song a bit creepier). There's definite Pied Piper imagery in the song and futuristic elements.

It received praise for [[GenreBusting introducing rock listeners to more experimental music]], and while [[NewSoundAlbum its new sound]] [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks alienated some]], it is recognized to this day as one of the best albums of the 2000s if not of all time. On Rolling Stone's top 500 albums list, ''Kid A'' not only got the highest ranking of a Radiohead album but also the highest ranking of a 21st century album--at '''''#67'''''.[[note]]Made even more awesome since its previous ranking was ''#428'', which indicates a jump of '''361 spots'''.[[/note]]

It received praise for [[GenreBusting introducing rock listeners to more experimental music]], and while [[NewSoundAlbum its new sound]] [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks alienated some]], it is recognized to this day as one of the best albums of the 2000s if not of all time. On Rolling Stone's top 500 albums list, ''Kid A'' not only got the highest ranking of a Radiohead album but also the highest ranking of a 21st century album--at '''''#67'''''.

** [[TearJerker Damn.]]

* BittersweetEnding: "Motion Picture Soundtrack", which is one of the most simultaneously [[TearJerker heartbreaking]] and [[SweetDreamsFuel uplifting]] songs of all time.
* BrokenRecord: "Everything In Its Right Place". '''ALL OF IT.'''

* NothingIsScarier: Nobody knows that the horrible thing that this album represented to Thom was.