Radiohead- Kid A (2000)

This album caused quite a stir when it was released. Suddenly Radiohead, that interesting yet still radio friendly band who had become ubiquitous throughout much of the ‘90s- no bad thing- had released a difficult, experimental, jazzy album full of weird time signatures and general oddness. The general reaction was, well, stunned. I liked it at the time, a lot, but in context it was hard just to listen to on its own terms.

Interestingly, this album represents a real and permanent stylistic shift for the band, pointing vaguely forward to their future work. And today, twenty years later, it’s REALLY good, an album with depth and weirdness that never becomes boring as it always goes over your head. It sounds like late Portishead, Tristram Cary, Krautrock, David Bowie’s last album, Captain Beefheart, various tunes I’ve heard on Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone, and no doubt a load of avant-garde artists I’ve never heard of. 

More importantly, though, it’s just a transcendently brilliant album. Only twenty years later, as the shock has dissipated, is it clear just what an extraordinary soundscape this is.