Kid A Mnesia

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Kid A Mnesia
Cover art of Kid A Mnesia Radiohead.jpeg
Compilation album by
Released5 November 2021 (2021-11-05)
RecordedJanuary 1999 – April 2000
Studio
  • Guillaume Tell, Paris
  • Medley, Copenhagen
  • Unnamed studio, Oxford, England
Genre
Length128:01
LabelXL
Producer
Radiohead chronology
MiniDiscs [Hacked]
(2019)
Kid A Mnesia
(2021)
Singles from Kid A Mnesia
  1. "If You Say the Word"
    Released: 7 September 2021
  2. "Follow Me Around"
    Released: 1 November 2021

Kid A Mnesia is a reissue of the albums Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001) by the English rock band Radiohead. It also includes a bonus disc, Kid Amnesiae, comprising previously unreleased material. It was released on 5 November 2021 on XL Recordings.

Kid A Mnesia was promoted with a campaign on the social network TikTok, followed by singles and music videos for the previously unreleased tracks "If You Say the Word" and "Follow Me Around". It was released to critical acclaim, though reaction to the bonus material was mixed. It entered the top 10 of several album charts around the world, and topped the UK Independent Albums Chart and the US Billboard Top Alternative Albums and Top Rock Albums charts. Kid A Mnesia Exhibition, an interactive experience with music and artwork from the albums, was released in November 2021 for PlayStation 5, macOS and Windows.

Background[]

Radiohead and producer Nigel Godrich recorded Kid A and Amnesiac simultaneously in 1999 and 2000 in studios in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucester and Oxford.[1] Departing from Radiohead's earlier guitar-led sound, the albums featured more diverse instrumentation, including the ondes Martenot, programmed electronic beats, strings, and jazz horns.[2] Radiohead considered releasing the work as a double album, but felt the material was too dense.[3]

The albums divided fans and critics, but later attracted wide acclaim.[4][5] At the turn of the decade, Rolling Stone,[6] Pitchfork[7] and the Times[8] ranked Kid A the greatest album of the 2000s. Kid A was ranked at number 20 in the 2020 edition of Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list,[9] and Amnesiac at number 320 in the 2012 edition.[10]

Content[]

Kid A Mnesia contains the albums Kid A and Amnesiac, plus a third disc, Kid Amnesiae, comprising previously unreleased material from the Kid A and Amnesiac recording sessions.[11] The albums are not remastered.[12] The "deluxe" edition also contains an art book plus Kid Amnesiette, a cassette edition with five B-sides.[13]

"Like Spinning Plates ('Why Us?' Version)" is a piano arrangement of the song "Like Spinning Plates".[14] "If You Say the Word" features "delicate" fingerpicking, a "foreboding groove", "chiming" percussion and ondes Martenot.[15] "Follow Me Around" is a solo acoustic guitar performance by Yorke, with a "soaring" chorus[14] and references to Margaret Thatcher.[16] "Pulk/Pull (True Love Waits Version)" is a "harsh, industrial" version of "True Love Waits",[17] a song Radiohead did not complete until 2016;[14] deciding the arrangement did not fit, Radiohead instead used it to create the track "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" on Amnesiac.[17] Kid Amnesiae also includes alternative versions of "Morning Bell" and the B-sides "Fog" and "Fast-Track",[11] and isolated string tracks from "How to Disappear Completely" and "Pyramid Song".[16]

Promotion and release[]

On 1 April 2021, Radiohead joined the social media platform TikTok and began posting short videos featuring their character Chieftain Mews.[18] Over the course of several months, they posted more than 30 videos. In early September, Radiohead posted a comedic video in which Yorke and Radiohead artist Stanley Donwood discussed the channel's declining engagement.[18]

Kid A Mnesia was released in vinyl, CD, cassette and digital versions.[13] Yorke and Donwood also produced two art books detailing the creative process of the albums.[13] Radiohead announced the reissue on 7 September 2021, and released a digital single, the previously unreleased track "If You Say the Word".[19] A music video for "If You Say the Word" was released on 23 September; directed by Kasper Häggström, it follows two men who capture people in the forest and bring them to London to become office workers.[20] "Follow Me Around" was released on 1 November, with a music video starring Guy Pearce as a man avoiding a drone following him in his home.[21] In October 2021, Donwood and Yorke curated an exhibition of Kid A artwork at Christie's headquarters in London.[22]

Kid A Mnesia Exhibition[]

Radiohead planned to create an art installation based on the albums, but this was canceled due to logistical problems and the COVID-19 pandemic.[23] Instead, Radiohead released a digital experience, Kid A Mnesia Exhibition, released in November for PlayStation 5, macOS and Windows.[23] It was developed over two years by Radiohead with Namethemachine, Arbitrarily Good Productions and Epic Games.[23] It received positive reviews, with critics praising its intersection of music, art and technology.[24][25][26]

Reception[]

Professional ratings
Kid A Mnesia
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic97/100[27]
Review scores
SourceRating
Classic Rock[28]
Exclaim!10/10[29]
The Line of Best Fit9/10[30]
Mojo[31]
NME[32]
Paste5.5/10[33]
Pitchfork9.2/10[34]
Rolling Stone[35]
Uncut[36]
Under the Radar[37]

On the review aggregator website Metacritic, Kid A Mnesia has a score of 97 out of 100 based on 10 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Mojo critic noted the influence of Kid A and Amnesiac on subsequent acts that had blended rock and electronic music.[16]

The Kid Amnesiae bonus disc drew praise. In the Times, Jonathan Dean said it was the reissue's "real gem"; he praised the "stunning" alternative version of "Like Spinning Plates", saying it demonstrated "a band hellbent on challenging what people thought they were", and "Follow Me Around", describing it as "a brilliant song made at the wrong time, by a band who had moved on".[14] NME critic Andrew Trendell wrote that the bonus disc "feels like as much a complete album as you could hope for ... [It] not only offers a mood piece, but also a companion and secret history behind the making of two essential, landmark records."[11] In the Guardian, critic Phil Mongredien praised it as "a fascinating companion piece for two classic albums".[38]

Pitchfork critic Jayson Greene found that Kid Amnesiae lacked the "revelatory quality" of the bonus material included in Radiohead's 2017 OK Computer reissue OKNOTOK 1997 2017. He felt there was "no bolt-from-the-blue alternate history that redefines our understanding of the band".[34] Paste critic Saby Reyes-Kulkarni found the reissue disappointing, writing that the bonus disc comprises "an assortment of half-baked leftovers".[33]

Track listing[]

All tracks are written by Radiohead (Colin Greenwood, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Philip Selway, Thom Yorke), except where noted.

Kid A
No.TitleLength
1."Everything in Its Right Place"4:11
2."Kid A"4:44
3."The National Anthem"5:51
4."How to Disappear Completely"5:56
5."Treefingers"3:42
6."Optimistic"5:15
7."In Limbo"3:31
8."Idioteque" (Radiohead, Paul Lansky, Arthur Kreiger)5:09
9."Morning Bell"4:35
10."Motion Picture Soundtrack" (song ends at 3:20; includes an untitled hidden track from 4:17 until 5:09, followed by 1:52 of silence)7:01
Total length:49:57
Amnesiac
No.TitleLength
11."Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box"4:00
12."Pyramid Song"4:49
13."Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors"4:07
14."You and Whose Army?"3:11
15."I Might Be Wrong"4:54
16."Knives Out"4:15
17."Morning Bell/Amnesiac"3:14
18."Dollars and Cents"4:52
19."Hunting Bears"2:01
20."Like Spinning Plates"3:57
21."Life in a Glasshouse"4:34
Total length:43:57
Kid Amnesiae
No.TitleLength
22."Like Spinning Plates" ('Why Us?' Version)5:04
23."Untitled v1"1:48
24."Fog" (Again Again Version)2:25
25."If You Say the Word"4:22
26."Follow Me Around"5:19
27."Pulk/Pull" (True Love Waits Version)2:46
28."Untitled v2"0:46
29."The Morning Bell" (In the Dark Version)2:00
30."Pyramid Strings"1:18
31."Alt. Fast Track"1:32
32."Untitled v3"1:16
33."How to Disappear into Strings"5:32
Total length:34:08
Cassette Two (Some B Sides)/Japanese bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
1."Kinetic" (from "Pyramid Song" single)4:06
2."Fast-Track" (from "Pyramid Song" single)3:17
3."Cuttooth" (from "Knives Out" single)5:24
4."The Amazing Sounds of Orgy" (from "Pyramid Song" single)3:38
5."Trans-Atlantic Drawl" (from "Pyramid Song" single)3:02
Total length:19:27

Notes[]

  • "Idioteque" contains two samples from the Odyssey record First Recordings – Electronic Music Winners (1976): Paul Lansky's "Mild und Leise" and Arthur Kreiger's "Short Piece".

Personnel[]

Radiohead[]

Additional musicians[]

  • Orchestra of St John's – strings
  • Horns on "The National Anthem"
    • Andy Bush – trumpet
    • Steve Hamilton – alto saxophone (credited simply as "alto")
    • Martin Hathaway – alto saxophone (etc.)
    • Andy Hamilton – tenor saxophone
    • Mark Lockheart – tenor saxophone
    • Stan Harrison – baritone saxophone
    • Liam Kerkman – trombone
    • Mike Kearsey – bass trombone
  • Henry Binns – rhythm sampling on "The National Anthem"
  • The Humphrey Lyttelton Band ("Life in a Glasshouse")

Technical personnel[]

  • Nigel Godrich – production, engineering, mixing
  • Radiohead – production
  • Dan Grech-Marguerat – engineering (track 21)
  • Chris Blair – mastering (tracks 1-10)
  • Bob Ludwig – mastering (tracks 12-21)
  • Gerard Navarro – production assistance, engineering assistance
  • Graeme Stewart – engineering assistance

Artwork[]

  • Stanley Donwood – pictures, design ("Landscapes, Knives and Glue")
  • Tchocky – pictures ("Landscapes, Knives and Glue")

Charts[]

Chart performance for Kid A Mnesia
Chart (2021) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[39] 3
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[40] 31
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[41] 9
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[42] 17
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[43] 34
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[44] 11
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[45] 6
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[46] 29
French Albums (SNEP)[47] 42
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[48] 7
Irish Albums (OCC)[49] 3
Italian Albums (FIMI)[50] 29
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[51] 7
Japanese Hot Albums (Billboard Japan)[52] 14
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[53] 5
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[54] 23
Portuguese Albums (AFP)[55] 8
Scottish Albums (OCC)[56] 3
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[57] 24
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[58] 10
UK Albums (OCC)[59] 4
UK Independent Albums (OCC)[60] 1
US Billboard 200[61] 12
US Independent Albums (Billboard)[62] 2
US Top Alternative Albums (Billboard)[63] 1
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[64] 1

References[]

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  2. ^ Eccleston, Danny (1 October 2000). "Q Magazine – October 2000 – By Danny Eccleston". Q.
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