Radiohead released the experimental 2000 album Kid A.
The album followed the enormous success of OK Computer and marked a major change in the band’s sound. Radiohead moved away from conventional guitar-rock structures, using synthesizers, drum machines, electronic processing, orchestral arrangements, and jazz-influenced ideas. Thom Yorke’s lyrics also became more fragmented and impressionistic.
Kid A was recorded primarily in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucestershire, and Oxfordshire, with production by Nigel Godrich. It debuted at number one in several countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States. Tracks such as “Everything in Its Right Place,” “The National Anthem,” and “Idioteque” became central examples of Radiohead’s experimental period.
Listeners sometimes treat Kid A as a conventional studio follow-up to OK Computer, but its importance lies in its deliberate break with that album’s guitar-led approach. Radiohead followed it quickly with Amnesiac in 2001; the two albums drew from related recording sessions but are separate releases.