Portal:Alternative music/Selected albums/4
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Kid A is the fourth album by the English rock band Radiohead, released in 2000. A commercial success worldwide, Kid A went platinum in its first week of release in the United Kingdom. Despite the lack of an official single or video as publicity, Kid A became the only Radiohead release to debut at #1 in the United States. This success was credited variously to a unique marketing campaign, the early Internet leak of the album, or anticipation after the band's previous album, OK Computer (1997).
Kid A was recorded in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucestershire and Oxford with producer Nigel Godrich. The album's songwriting and recording were experimental for Radiohead, as the band replaced the "anthemic" style of their 1997 album OK Computer with a more electronic sound. Influenced by Krautrock, jazz, and 20th century classical music, Radiohead incorporated a wide range of instruments on Kid A, replacing their older three-guitar arrangement with keyboards, the Ondes martenot, and, on certain compositions, horns and trombones. Kid A also contains more minimal and abstract lyrics than the band's previous work. Singer Thom Yorke has said the album was not intended as "art", but reflects the music they listened to at the time. Original artwork by Stanley Donwood and Yorke, and a series of short animated films called "blips", accompanied the album.
