Radiohead - Kid A

Kid A was Radiohead's fourth album and the sound of a band burning down its own blueprint. Released on XL Recordings in 2000, it followed the guitar heroics of OK Computer with something colder and stranger: modular synths, Ondes Martenot, brass, and treated vocals in place of anthems. Recorded with Nigel Godrich across sessions in Paris, Copenhagen, and Gloucestershire, it split critics on arrival and now sits among the most influential records of its era.

The album refuses easy footholds. "Everything in Its Right Place" opens on woozy electric piano, "Idioteque" builds a panic attack out of jittery breakbeats, and "The National Anthem" collapses into free jazz horns. Thom Yorke's lyrics dissolve into fragments, but the emotional weight, dread, awe, isolation, comes through with startling clarity.

A pivotal turn that dragged rock toward electronic music, this XL double LP restores a genuine landmark. Alien, beautiful, and endlessly rewarding.