The everyone LOVES radiohead thread!

[warehouse]

Swap Amnesiac and Kid A and that's basically where I'm at, too.

Hold up -- so you'd rank Kid A 6th-7th? You've lost your damn mind.

It's not a great record.

When it first came out, I found the high points to be amazing, but the more ambient pieces (title track and Treefingers, specifically), to be meandering pieces that I wanted to like, but didn’t really love. And they were placed early in the album, so it mucked up the flow.

20 years later, and I’ve consumed so much ambient and minimalist stuff that I now count those two tracks as some of my favorite in their catalog. I needed the frames of reference of Eno, Can, Neu!, Budd, etc to fully enjoy them.

Now I love those tracks and couldn’t imagine the album without them. It’s a GREAT record.

It's not for me.

Optimistic and Idioteque are great songs. How to Disappear is solid. Everything in it's Right Place is fine, if a tad long and repetitive.

The rest of the album is totally disposable. I don't enjoy listening to the album (it doesn't flow well at all) or the other tracks that I didn't mention already. But I also don't like ambient minimalist music. So maybe Kid A is GREAT for what it is but what it is isn't for me.

national anthem?

[tragabigzanda]

[Bi_3]

Swap Amnesiac and Kid A and that's basically where I'm at, too.

Hold up -- so you'd rank Kid A 6th-7th? You've lost your damn mind.

It's not a great record.

When it first came out, I found the high points to be amazing, but the more ambient pieces (title track and Treefingers, specifically), to be meandering pieces that I wanted to like, but didn’t really love. And they were placed early in the album, so it mucked up the flow.

20 years later, and I’ve consumed so much ambient and minimalist stuff that I now count those two tracks as some of my favorite in their catalog. I needed the frames of reference of Eno, Can, Neu!, Budd, etc to fully enjoy them.

Now I love those tracks and couldn’t imagine the album without them. It’s a GREAT record.

It's not for me.

Optimistic and Idioteque are great songs. How to Disappear is solid. Everything in it's Right Place is fine, if a tad long and repetitive.

The rest of the album is totally disposable. I don't enjoy listening to the album (it doesn't flow well at all) or the other tracks that I didn't mention already. But I also don't like ambient minimalist music. So maybe Kid A is GREAT for what it is but what it is isn't for me.

Well put good sir. Kid A did nothing for me either

[epilogue]

Swap Amnesiac and Kid A and that's basically where I'm at, too.

Hold up -- so you'd rank Kid A 6th-7th? You've lost your damn mind.

It's not a great record.

When it first came out, I found the high points to be amazing, but the more ambient pieces (title track and Treefingers, specifically), to be meandering pieces that I wanted to like, but didn’t really love. And they were placed early in the album, so it mucked up the flow.

20 years later, and I’ve consumed so much ambient and minimalist stuff that I now count those two tracks as some of my favorite in their catalog. I needed the frames of reference of Eno, Can, Neu!, Budd, etc to fully enjoy them.

Now I love those tracks and couldn’t imagine the album without them. It’s a GREAT record.

It's not for me.

Optimistic and Idioteque are great songs. How to Disappear is solid. Everything in it's Right Place is fine, if a tad long and repetitive.

The rest of the album is totally disposable. I don't enjoy listening to the album (it doesn't flow well at all) or the other tracks that I didn't mention already. But I also don't like ambient minimalist music. So maybe Kid A is GREAT for what it is but what it is isn't for me.

national anthem?

Nah

[Ello Sailor]

Everything in it's Right Place is fine, if a tad long and repetitive.

I'm done with the Joey account until he gets a decent pair of headphones and admits that EiiRP is a masterpiece with mindblowing production.

[warehouse]

thats interesting b/c its probably my favorite song on the album. that horn section is one of my favorite parts in any radiohead song. idioteque is almost universally loved, optimistic and everything in its right place are probably my other favorites. i think part of it is the whole idea of listening from front to back. the song 'kid a' is stuck right in between two of my favorite songs, but i'm not going to skip it. part of it also might be its place in rock n roll history.

[Ello Sailor]

Yeah 'The National Anthem' slaps. That bass tone is worth the price of admission alone. Some of the nastiest shit I've ever heard.

[epilogue]

thats interesting b/c its probably my favorite song on the album. that horn section is one of my favorite parts in any radiohead song. idioteque is almost universally loved, optimistic and everything in its right place are probably my other favorites. i think part of it is the whole idea of listening from front to back. the song 'kid a' is stuck right in between two of my favorite songs, but i'm not going to skip it. part of it also might be its place in rock n roll history.

There's definitely a pretentious and cynical side of me that wants to believe the only reason people love that record is because they were told to. And, as you say, its place in history.

But that's not true or fair. I just think ultimately sometimes things click. And sometimes they find you over time. Kid A still hasn't clicked for me. I'm guessing at this point it never will. It's cool, the band have a ton of great music that I can and do appreciate. I still think they're one of the best bands of all time, just not maybe for some of the same reasons others do.

[Ello Sailor]

It took a while to click for me. For the longest time (pre-In Rainbows) I considered OK Computer to be head and shoulders above everything else, but the gap gradually closed and one day while listening to 'How to Disappear Completely' I realized it was in the running for my fav. Rad Hed record.

Definitely a headphones album. But I guess you could say that about anything with stellar production and layering.

[warehouse]

thats interesting b/c its probably my favorite song on the album. that horn section is one of my favorite parts in any radiohead song. idioteque is almost universally loved, optimistic and everything in its right place are probably my other favorites. i think part of it is the whole idea of listening from front to back. the song 'kid a' is stuck right in between two of my favorite songs, but i'm not going to skip it. part of it also might be its place in rock n roll history.

There's definitely a pretentious and cynical side of me that wants to believe the only reason people love that record is because they were told to. And, as you say, its place in history.

But that's not true or fair. I just think ultimately sometimes things click. And sometimes they find you over time. Kid A still hasn't clicked for me. I'm guessing at this point it never will. It's cool, the band have a ton of great music that I can and do appreciate. I still think they're one of the best bands of all time, just not maybe for some of the same reasons others do.

i hear what you are saying, but i look at it a little differently. i was like 16-17 when kid a and amnesiac came out. these albums kicked the shit out of me. i already loved radiohead, but these releases being so close together and out of left field really made them feel important in the moment. and honestly it still holds up, i listened to idioteque earlier today. i know its a favorite in 'best of' lists, but people like me are partly to blame for that.

[Ello Sailor]

I can't choose between OKC, Kid A and In Rainbows. I'm leaning towards IR, but I'm not sure if that's just because From the Basement left such a mark on me.

[epilogue]

I can't choose between OKC, Kid A and In Rainbows. I'm leaning towards IR, but I'm not sure if that's just because From the Basement left such a mark on me.

OKC and In Rainbows are both brilliant.

[Ello Sailor]

You know what, Joebro? You're all right.

[Norah]

I've come to peace with the fact that Joey is wrong about Kid A.

[epilogue]

thats interesting b/c its probably my favorite song on the album. that horn section is one of my favorite parts in any radiohead song. idioteque is almost universally loved, optimistic and everything in its right place are probably my other favorites. i think part of it is the whole idea of listening from front to back. the song 'kid a' is stuck right in between two of my favorite songs, but i'm not going to skip it. part of it also might be its place in rock n roll history.

There's definitely a pretentious and cynical side of me that wants to believe the only reason people love that record is because they were told to. And, as you say, its place in history.

But that's not true or fair. I just think ultimately sometimes things click. And sometimes they find you over time. Kid A still hasn't clicked for me. I'm guessing at this point it never will. It's cool, the band have a ton of great music that I can and do appreciate. I still think they're one of the best bands of all time, just not maybe for some of the same reasons others do.

i hear what you are saying, but i look at it a little differently. i was like 16-17 when kid a and amnesiac came out. these albums kicked the shit out of me. i already loved radiohead, but these releases being so close together and out of left field really made them feel important in the moment. and honestly it still holds up, i listened to idioteque earlier today. i know its a favorite in 'best of' lists, but people like me are partly to blame for that.

Amnesiac totally clicks for me and has since first listen. I really love that album.

[epilogue]

I've come to peace with the fact that Joey is wrong about Kid A.

[tragabigzanda]

Top 10 maybe?
Hello Morning
Close Captioned
The Kill
Place/Position
Do You Like Me?
Latest Disgrace
Recap Modotti
Nightshop
Break
Life & Limb

I'd maybe bump Life & Limb for Epic Problem

[VinylGuy]

I haaaated Kid A when it came out...i remember being super interested on a new album being a huge OKC fan....i was at a record store and you could listen to the albums there and...everrrrythingggg ...wow i was super off...

It took me nearly 10 years to finally get how awesome that album is. Not just when they released it, but the music itself is just too good.

[tragabigzanda]

[epilogue]

I can dig it, joe. There an overtly intellectual sensibility to Kid A that doesn’t really appear on any of their other albums.

Maybe? I don't know, Radiohead have always felt pretty intellectual to me. And that's not something that has ever turned me off about art before. But maybe it's that quality combined with the cold detached quality of Kid A that fights me?

At the end of the day, whatever the reason, I just don't like the songs. I wish I heard what y'all hear and feel what y'all feel. Seems like a wonderful experience.