Radiohead

So, I can't stop listening to "Kid A." I'm not really sure what it is about the album that keeps me so interested but I've heard it like 8-10 times in the past week.

I think a big part of it stems from Chuck Klosterman’s essay in Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs where he, in an admittedly far-fetched fashion, says that the album parallels the events of 9/11. With all the conspiracy theories out there, I think it’s easy to dismiss such a claim, but the points he makes (like the lyric, “Vultures circling the dead” or just the feelings that the different songs connote) create a pretty convincing argument.

It’s also easy to dismiss all comments as speculative, which is fine, but it’s kind of cool to look (or, listen, right?) at things from an unusual perspective.

I’ve really grown to like Radiohead lately. Things got off to a bit of a rocky start after hearing “Creep” in Rock Band (and hating it), but luckily I have several friends who kept telling me to listenlistenlisten to them and it finally stuck. I’ve really only heard each album once (and I haven’t even heard “Pablo Honey”) so I’m not really in a position to deem one album better than another. I don’t think “Kid A” is necessarily Radiohead’s best album. I started listening to the beginning of “Hail to the Thief” today and the songs are so cool. They’re upbeat and fun to listen to and unique from so much of the other stuff I’ve heard.

But I think that’s where “Kid A” separates itself.

Maybe it’s just because of Klosterman’s essay, but I think I’m taking this album as a whole thing as opposed to merely a series of tracks. I should probably do that more often. Unless it’s a distinct concept album, I think my first thought is to judge albums by individual songs, rather than as a whole product.

I’m able to take “Kid A” and its story of the alienated, lonely protagonist, and listen to it as a continuous story. Maybe it’s this unique element – or maybe it’s just the distinctly different feel to each song – that makes me love this album, but whatever it is, it works for me.