best album of the year
 Jan 29th, 2001
Advantages:
different
Disadvantages:
none i can see !
Recommendable:
Yes
Detailed rating:
Originality
Lyrics
Quality and consistency of tracks
How does it compare to the artist's other releases
Value for Money
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  jimtman
About me:
Member since:29.01.2001
Reviews:5
Members who trust:2
Review rated by 10 Ciao members on average: helpful 
OK, so this album has been reviewed to death, but I must say I love it. The production is superb and it sounds great whether listening to it on headphones or in a surround sound environment. The first two tracks, particularly, blew me away. When I first played "Everything In It's Right Place" on my new discman, I thought that there was a short in the headphone wiring. In the beginning of the song Thom's sampled voice stutters and finally fizzles out and the stereo effect fades in and out. This had me going nuts trying to find a short in my wire. The track "Kid A" really pushes the limits of any sound system. When I played it on my fairly good surround sound stereo, the surround speakers sounded like they were fuzzing out due to a massive frequency overload. I scrambled to my stereo, adjusting equalizers, volume, checking speakers to make sure that they were not blown. I was frantic. Through all manner of tweaking, I finally figured out that both "problems" were, in fact recorded, mixed and produced to sound as such. It seems the joke was on me. Only Radiohead can turn a spectator experience like record-listening into a full blown panic situation. This is just one more example of how Radiohead truly pushes the envelope, not only in songwriting and production, but in the listening experience as well. Thom and crew know that at least 75% of their audience are audiophiles just like me (especially after Nigel's fine production job on OK Computer). I believe they took that carefully into account whem recording this album, so that the paranoia, chaos and panic evident in both form (music) and content (lyrics) would transfer over into the listening experience. There is something very situationist (not to mention punk rock) about this type of antagonism. For those of you familiar with the art critic Walter Benjamin, this is a classic case of the alientation effect at work. For the uninitiated, just note that for an instant, Radiohead managed (in my case at least) to demonstrate, just how dependant on our machines we really are and how one small bug in the system can throw the us all into disarray. Oh yeah, and they exposed ME for the narcissistic-idiot-a**hole-music-snob I really am. And that's s good thing. A little self-critque never hurt anyone.
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![Kid A [VINYL] - Radiohead](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/93354143.jpg)
by (70%):
30.01.2001 13:40
You're thoughts are well written down, but the review sort of ends after you describe track two. Needs paragraphing too.
29.01.2001 14:53
Yeah this is fantastic well done. This is the best opinion I have read in a long time. It would not surprise me if you got the Pullitzer prize, a nice piece of work, well done. U will go far!
29.01.2001 14:52
i completely agree with you!