It begins one night in November of 1997, backstage at NEC Arena in Birmingham, England.
Deploying a mix of criticism, journalism, and personal memoir, Hyden skillfully revisits this enigmatic, alluring LP and investigates the many ways in which Kid A shaped and foreshadowed our world. Some called it an instant classic others, such as the UK music magazine Melody Maker, deemed it "tubby, ostentatious, self-congratulatory… whiny old rubbish." But two decades later, Kid A sounds like nothing less than an overture for the chaos and confusion of the twenty-first century.Īcclaimed rock critic Steven Hyden digs deep into the songs, history, legacy, and mystique of Kid A, outlining the album's pervasive influence and impact on culture in time for its twentieth anniversary in 2020.
Upon its release in 2000, Radiohead's fourth album divided critics. In the end, however, they produced an album that was not only a complete departure from their prior guitar-based rock sound, it was the sound of a new era-and it embodied widespread changes catalyzed by emerging technologies just beginning to take hold of the culture. Instead, they set out to create the future.įor more than a year, they battled writer's block, intra-band disagreements, and crippling self-doubt. But Radiohead didn't want to make another rock record. Their band was widely recognized as the best and most forward-thinking in rock, a rarefied status granting them the time, money, and space to make a masterpiece. In 1999, as the end of an old century loomed, five musicians entered a recording studio in Paris without a deadline. THE MAKING AND MEANING OF RADIOHEAD'S GROUNDBREAKING, CONTROVERSIAL, EPOCHDEFINING ALBUM, KID A.
"In this brilliant book, Steven Hyden goes deep into why Kid A matters-it's the fascinating saga of how the music turned into the symbol of a new cultural era." - Rolling Stone A Rolling Stone-Kirkus Best Music Book of 2020
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