Kid A Mnesia | ||||
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Compilation album by | ||||
Released | 5 November 2021 | |||
Recorded | 4 January 1999 – 18 April 2000 | |||
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Genre | ||||
Length | 1:28:01 | |||
Label | XL | |||
Producer |
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Radiohead chronology | ||||
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Singles from Kid A Mnesia | ||||
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Kid A Mnesia is a reissue compiling 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 acclaim, though reaction to the bonus material was mixed. It entered the top 10 of several national album charts 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 the same month for PlayStation 5, macOS and Windows.
Kid A Mnesia contains the Radiohead albums Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001), plus a third disc, Kid Amnesiae, comprising previously unreleased material from the Kid A and Amnesiac recording sessions. [1] The albums are not remastered. [2] The "deluxe" edition also contains an art book and Kid Amnesiette, a cassette edition with five B-sides. [3] Radiohead recorded Kid A and Amnesiac simultaneously in 1999 and 2000. [4] They originally considered releasing them as a double album, but felt the material was too dense. [5]
"Like Spinning Plates ('Why Us?' Version)" is a piano arrangement of the electronic song "Like Spinning Plates". [6] "If You Say the Word" features "delicate" fingerpicking, a "foreboding groove", "chiming" percussion and ondes Martenot. [7] "Follow Me Around" is a solo acoustic guitar performance by Thom Yorke, with a "soaring" chorus and references to Margaret Thatcher. [6] "Pulk/Pull (True Love Waits Version)" is a "harsh, industrial" version of another song, "True Love Waits", which Radiohead used to create the Amnesiac track "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors". [8] Kid Amnesiae also includes alternative versions of "Morning Bell" and the B-sides "Fog" and "Fast-Track", [1] and isolated string tracks from "How to Disappear Completely" and "Pyramid Song". [9]
On 1 April 2021, Radiohead joined the social media platform TikTok and began posting short videos featuring their character Chieftain Mews. [10] 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's cover artist, Stanley Donwood, discussed the channel's declining engagement. [10]
Radiohead announced Kid A Mnesia on 7 September 2021, and released a digital single, the previously unreleased track "If You Say the Word". [11] 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. [12] "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. [13] Radiohead released Kid A Mnesia merchandise including a bone china tea set, [14] and Yorke and Donwood produced two art books detailing the creative process of the albums. [3] In October 2021, Donwood and Yorke curated an exhibition of Kid A artwork at Christie's headquarters in London. [15]
Kid A Mnesia was released in vinyl, CD, cassette and digital versions. [3] It reached number one on the UK Independent Albums Chart, number one the American Billboard Top Alternative Albums and Top Rock Albums charts, and the top ten of several other national charts.[ citation needed ]
Radiohead planned to create an art installation based on the albums, but this was canceled due to logistical problems and the COVID-19 pandemic. [16] Instead, a digital experience, Kid A Mnesia Exhibition, was released in November as a free download for PlayStation 5, macOS and Windows. [16] It was developed over two years by Radiohead with Namethemachine, Arbitrarily Good Productions and Epic Games. [16] It received positive reviews for its intersection of music, art and technology. [17] [18] [19]
Kid A Mnesia | |
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Aggregate scores | |
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 97/100 [20] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
Classic Rock | [21] |
Exclaim! | 10/10 [22] |
The Line of Best Fit | 9/10 [23] |
Mojo | [24] |
NME | [25] |
Paste | 5.5/10 [26] |
Pitchfork | 9.2/10 [27] |
Rolling Stone | [28] |
Uncut | [29] |
Under the Radar | [30] |
On the review aggregator website Metacritic, Kid A Mnesia has a score of 97 out of 100 based on 10 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". [20] The Mojo critic Danny Eccleston noted the influence of Kid A and Amnesiac on subsequent acts that had blended rock and electronic music. [9] In Rolling Stone , Rob Sheffield wrote that Kid A Mnesia was "a stunning collection making the case for both albums as twin halves of the same musical statement ... a monument of Radiohead’s bravest, boldest music". [28]
The Kid Amnesiae bonus disc drew praise. In the Times , Jonathan Dean said it was the reissue's "real gem". He praised the alternative version of "Like Spinning Plates", saying it demonstrated "a band hellbent on challenging what people thought they were", and described "Follow Me Around" as "a brilliant song made at the wrong time, by a band who had moved on". [6] The 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." [1] In The Guardian , Phil Mongredien praised it as "a fascinating companion piece for two classic albums". [31]
The Pitchfork critic Jayson Greene found the bonus disc lacked the "revelatory quality" of the bonus material included in Radiohead's 2017 OK Computer reissue OKNOTOK 1997 2017 , with no "bolt-from-the-blue alternate history that redefines our understanding of the band". [27] The Paste critic Saby Reyes-Kulkarni found the reissue disappointing, with "an assortment of half-baked leftovers". [26]
All tracks are written by Radiohead (Colin Greenwood, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Philip Selway, Thom Yorke), except where noted
No. | Title | Length |
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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 |
No. | Title | Length |
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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 |
No. | Title | Length |
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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 |
Chart (2021) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian Albums (ARIA) [32] | 3 |
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) [33] | 31 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [34] | 9 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) [35] | 17 |
Canadian Albums (Billboard) [36] | 34 |
Danish Albums (Hitlisten) [37] | 11 |
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [38] | 6 |
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista) [39] | 29 |
French Albums (SNEP) [40] | 42 |
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [41] | 7 |
Irish Albums (OCC) [42] | 3 |
Italian Albums (FIMI) [43] | 29 |
Japanese Albums (Oricon) [44] | 7 |
Japanese Hot Albums ( Billboard Japan ) [45] | 14 |
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) [46] | 5 |
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) [47] | 23 |
Portuguese Albums (AFP) [48] | 8 |
Scottish Albums (OCC) [49] | 3 |
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE) [50] | 24 |
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [51] | 10 |
UK Albums (OCC) [52] | 4 |
UK Independent Albums (OCC) [53] | 1 |
US Billboard 200 [54] | 12 |
US Independent Albums (Billboard) [55] | 2 |
US Top Alternative Albums (Billboard) [56] | 1 |
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard) [57] | 1 |
Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. They comprise Thom Yorke ; brothers Jonny Greenwood and Colin Greenwood (bass); Ed O'Brien ; and Philip Selway. They have worked with the producer Nigel Godrich and the cover artist Stanley Donwood since 1994. Radiohead's experimental approach is credited with advancing the sound of alternative rock.
Kid A is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 2 October 2000 by Parlophone. It was recorded with their producer, Nigel Godrich, in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. Departing from their earlier sound, Radiohead incorporated influences from electronic music, krautrock, jazz and 20th-century classical music, with a wider range of instruments and effects. The singer, Thom Yorke, wrote impersonal and abstract lyrics, cutting up phrases and assembling them at random.
Amnesiac is the fifth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 30 May 2001 by EMI. It was recorded with the producer Nigel Godrich in the same sessions as Radiohead's previous album Kid A (2000). Radiohead split the work in two as they felt it was too dense for a double album. As with Kid A, Amnesiac incorporates influences from electronic music, 20th-century classical music, jazz and krautrock. The final track, "Life in a Glasshouse", is a collaboration with the jazz trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton and his band.
The Bends is the second studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 13 March 1995 by Parlophone. It was produced by John Leckie, with extra production by Radiohead, Nigel Godrich and Jim Warren. The Bends combines guitar songs and ballads, with more restrained arrangements and cryptic lyrics than Radiohead's debut album, Pablo Honey (1993).
Hail to the Thief is the sixth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was released on 9 June 2003 through Parlophone internationally and a day later through Capitol Records in the United States. It was the last album released under Radiohead's record contract with EMI, the parent company of Parlophone and Capitol.
Dan Rickwood, known professionally as Stanley Donwood, is an English artist and writer. Since 1994, he has created all the artwork for the rock band Radiohead with their singer, Thom Yorke, plus Yorke's other projects, including Atoms for Peace and the Smile. In 2002, the pair won a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package for the album 2001 Radiohead Amnesiac. Donwood also creates artwork for Glastonbury Festival, and has published books of short stories and a memoir.
"Follow Me Around" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 1 November 2021 as the second single from their compilation album Kid A Mnesia. It features the singer, Thom Yorke, on acoustic guitar, with lyrics expressing paranoia and dread.
"Pyramid Song" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released as the lead single from their fifth studio album, Amnesiac (2001), in May 2001. It features piano, strings, an unusual "shuffling" rhythm and lyrics inspired by the Egyptian underworld and ideas of cyclical time.
The Eraser is the debut solo album by the English musician Thom Yorke, released on 10 July 2006 through XL Recordings. It was produced by Nigel Godrich, the longtime producer for Yorke's band Radiohead.
In Rainbows is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was self-released on 10 October 2007 as a pay-what-you-want download, followed by a retail release internationally through XL Recordings on 3 December 2007 and in North America through TBD Records on 1 January 2008. It was Radiohead's first release after their recording contract with EMI ended with their album Hail to the Thief (2003).
The King of Limbs is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was self-released on 18 February 2011 as a download, followed by a physical release on 28 March through XL Recordings internationally and TBD Records in North America.
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A Moon Shaped Pool is the ninth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was released digitally on 8 May 2016, with a retail release on 17 June 2016 through XL Recordings. It was produced by Radiohead's longtime collaborator Nigel Godrich.
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Anima is the third studio album by the English musician Thom Yorke, released on 27 June 2019 through XL Recordings. It was produced by Yorke's longtime collaborator Nigel Godrich.
The Smile are an English rock band comprising the Radiohead members Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood with Tom Skinner (drums). Critics likened them to Radiohead, with more jazz, krautrock and progressive rock influences and a looser, wilder sound.
"If You Say the Word" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 7 September 2021 as the first single from the compilation Kid A Mnesia. It was recorded during the joint sessions for Radiohead's albums Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001), but remained unreleased until 2021.
Kid A Mnesia Exhibition is a 2021 exploration game published by Epic Games for macOS, Windows and PlayStation 5. It serves as a digital exhibition of music and artwork created for the Radiohead albums Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001). It was developed by Namethemachine, Arbitrarily Good Productions and Epic Games in collaboration with the Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, Radiohead's producer Nigel Godrich and the Radiohead cover artist Stanley Donwood.
A Light for Attracting Attention is the debut studio album by the English rock band the Smile. It was released digitally through XL Recordings on 13 May 2022, with a retail release on 17 June.