Three years after conquering the alternative rock world with the landmark
OK Computer,
Radiohead followed with one of the most anticipated albums of the era. And everything changed. 2000's course-shifting
Kid A was a jarring transformation: icy atmospherics, digitized beats, meandering soundscapes, and enough gloom and anxiety to make their previous output almost cheerful in comparison. With their crunchy guitars and snarling attitude seemingly left behind in 1997, the response was swift and divisive: critics either hailed it for its artistry or mourned the loss of their beloved art-rock misfits. Nonetheless, the album hit number one around the world and became widely recognized as one of the most influential and iconic albums of the decade. Eight months later,
Radiohead delivered another dose of existential dread and experimental wizardry with 2001's weirdo sibling,
Amnesiac. Even though listeners had been primed for what was to come, the public still wasn't ready. Recorded during the same sessions (and fully intended as its own entity, not just a B-sides cast-off), the set delved even deeper into the extremes of this new sonic aesthetic, pushing the limits of the average fan's patience with complex time signatures and song structures, stretching themselves even further away from
The Bends. In some respects, the complex
Amnesiac was less harsh and robotic than
Kid A, injecting warmth into the machine with layered production, hypnotic programming, and very human touches like piano, strings, and even a brass band. This jazzy, jam-band-from-the-future approach would become a hallmark of later albums and, when the rest of the music world finally came close to catching up, hindsight revealed
Radiohead to be completely ahead of its time. To celebrate the 20th and 21st anniversaries of these revelatory albums, the quintet created the triple-threat
Kid A Mnesia, which united
Kid A,
Amnesiac, and a third disc of era-extras titled Kid Amnesiae. While most of the inclusions on the bonus compilation are for diehards -- the trio of "Untitled" ideas will be of interest only to the most obsessive -- there's a handful of gems worth seeking out. Longtime fan favorites "If You Say the Word," an updated B-side "Fog (Again Again Version)," and the tender guitar-strummed "Follow Me Around" are the immediate grabs, while the "True Love Waits Version" of "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" and "Like Spinning Plates ('Why Us?' Version)" are different enough to warrant a listen. Meanwhile, "Pyramid Strings" and "How to Disappear Into Strings" isolate those delicate sections from the originals to haunting effect, especially on the latter. As a snapshot of this crucial turning point in the
Radiohead discography,
Kid A Mnesia presents a band taking its first steps into a thrilling new phase, one that would alter their trajectory and push them further into the unknown. ~ Neil Z. Yeung
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