Kid A (Radiohead) (2000):
Any attempt at following up the massive Ok Computer would prove to be a task so consider Kid A the reverse of that album, the opposite image staring out of the mirror. If Radiohead ended the previous decade on the cusp of drawing art and technology together then they entered the new one showing withdrawal symptoms. This is a sharp withdrawal, an acute understanding of how pyrotechnics work and maneuvered for an effect that ironically comes to the same conclusions. It opens with Everything in its Right Place, a fitting last kiss goodbye yet it emits warmth and loneliness in buckets. The title track threads minimalism to a new high because up to then bands hadn’t figured out how to assimilate so many technological gains in music into a simple, humane body of work. And yet for all the triumphant artificial intelligence (The National Anthem) there is enough of the human touch to keep things vitally in check (Optimistic, Idioteque).
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