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i'm interested in hearing your personal interpretation of kid a

 

i've read the one saying it's about the birth of the first atomic bomb and the post apocalyptic world of a nuclear holocaust (optimistic and idioteque especially fit here)

 

i'm more inclined to believing it's about life from before birth (everything in its right place) to birth (kid a - in utero) to living (wandering between chaos and bliss) to death and reincarnation (the end of motion picture soundtrack "i will see you in the next life" > pause-death > the instrumental symbolizing reincarnation) idk

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I don't think Kid A's not meant to be about anything, it's just the sound of a band ripping themselves apart, and not allowing themselves to be consumed by anything superficial at all. Kid A is the bare minimum; no guitars, no brands on tour, no colour, no flash production. Not even the songs are songs, they're slogans, phrases and ideas and jumbled up that Thom hasn't bothered unscrambling to make sense of.

 

People often ask what's caused this "nakedness", if you like. The two most common theories I've heard are that the album's about a natural disaster and starting from scratch, or that it's about the very first clone, who has no memory, but has to build a life.

 

I just think it's the reaction of them coming off the OK Computer tour, and thinking "you know what? This sucks". Kid A, for me, is the sound of Radiohead abandoning everything that they were depressed to hell with: fame, guitars and making sense of their emotions.

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Well I accept that theory too but actually they spent much more time tweeking the songs during the Kid Amnesiac sessions. Proper stripped down would be a guy and a guitar. And the scarce lyrics make it open for interpation. But yeah it is clearly very anti OK Computer.

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Well I accept that theory too but actually they spent much more time tweeking the songs during the Kid Amnesiac sessions. Proper stripped down would be a guy and a guitar. And the scarce lyrics make it open for interpation. But yeah it is clearly very anti OK Computer.

 

Just because they tweeked it, doesn't mean it's the bare minimum that it needs to be. And one guy and a guitar isn't the bare minimum needed to create that album, given that it's rhythmically their strongest record.

 

Amnesiac is trying to remember what the hell happened on the last album. Kid A is getting undressed, Amnesiac is finding your clothes. (Hail to the Thief is burning your clothes).

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:computer:

 

(Just to be clear, the lengths to which I'm making comparisons and extended metaphors about what the Radiohead albums mean is exaggerated. My sole point is that no one sits down and decides to write an album about something so specific. Themes just happen. People should just accept that there is no fictional plot in Kid A, the same as Viva or MX does not follow a narrative, they are just albums that mean something to the real world lives of the musicians involved. Which was what I was trying to say about the sound of Kid A.)

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this quickly escalated to a typical pretentious RH discussion. let's leave it at albums then :sad:

 

What I was trying to say was simply that I don't think Kid A is about "the birth of the first atomic bomb and the post apocalyptic world of a nuclear holocaust". I just think it relates to how the musicians who made it felt at the time. If that's pretentious, so be it.

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What I was trying to say was simply that I don't think Kid A is about "the birth of the first atomic bomb and the post apocalyptic world of a nuclear holocaust". I just think it relates to how the musicians who made it felt at the time. If that's pretentious, so be it.

 

OK :)

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Pretty sad you can't appreciate them. Amnesiac, to me, is genius.

 

Too bad you just focus on the negative. I never said I don't appreciate Amnesiac.

 

The stuff I love - Packt, Pyramid Song, I Might Be Wrong, even the weird ones - Pulk/Pull, Spinning Plates are just mind blowing and I consider them some of their greatest ever.

 

I just don't like when they mix acoustic and electronic, experimental stuff on the same album, because the acoustic ones end up being inferior. The same goes for Hail To The Thief. But In Rainbows is fairly acoustic and I just love it, so it is not absolute.

 

I would have put songs like Kinetic and Amazing Sounds Of Orgy on Amnesiac instead of Knives Out, Morning Bell/Amnesiac etc, then it would have been perfect.

 

TKOL is just OK.

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Amnesiac is trying to remember what the hell happened on the last album. Kid A is getting undressed, Amnesiac is finding your clothes. (Hail to the Thief is burning your clothes).

 

Ooh, ooh! My turn!

 

In Rainbows is throwing off those clothes in the heat of sexual passion.

 

King of Limbs Is going shopping for new ones to look fuckin' deck while dancing in black and white.

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Ooh, ooh! My turn!

 

In Rainbows is throwing off those clothes in the heat of sexual passion.

 

King of Limbs Is going shopping for new ones to look fuckin' deck while dancing in black and white.

 

Amok is wearing a dress instead.

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Ooh, ooh! My turn!

 

In Rainbows is throwing off those clothes in the heat of sexual passion.

 

King of Limbs Is going shopping for new ones to look fuckin' deck while dancing in black and white.

:surprised:

 

Naturally, Pablo Honey was burning the clothes your mother bought you in an angsty fashion and OK Computer was buying new clothes but with no logos.

 

And thus we have deciphered the miracle that is Radio Head.

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