#1 Kid A

Recently, Pitchfork Media made an ordered list of the top albums of the Naughties. Rather than degenerate into some pretentious diatribe about how band X had a much better album than Y and how criminal it is that The National band Z were not included in the top 20, I’m going to pseudo review the top 20 albums save the ones I really really doubt I will enjoy. And by pseudo review, I will talk about what it means to me.

Because I am elitist, I will start from number 1.

I was a very late convert to Radiohead, mostly because the indie community at large goes gaga over every little thing they do and I am suspicious of that. As it turns out, the indie community was right and Radiohead is just plain awesome. I started off with OK Computer and, on advice, quickly gave The Bends and In Rainbows a decent go. I loved all of them.

Some months later I decided to give the, somewhat maligned, middle albums. I gave them all the once over and decided that the other ones were better and didn’t touch them for a few months. Then some new guys started at work with whom I could have conversations about music. When the topic of Radiohead came up one of them stated confidently that Kid A was their finest album. I doubted him then and still doubt him now. But I gave it some more listens and thought it wasn’t terrible (It was at this time when my love for Amnesiac became pronounced).

I don’t really understand why this album is so revered. There are things I really like; the first couple minutes of Everything In Its Right Place and The National Anthem for example, and Morning Bell is just gorgeous (But I prefer the Amnesiac version!) and Idioteque is fantastic. I just find that at times the album seems self indulgent and even boring. Maybe I just don’t get it.

Advertisement