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Radiohead to reissue triple album featuring unreleased gems

JM

by John-Alexander Matsos

JM

by John-Alexander Matsos

Radiohead have announced a re-release of their landmark albums Kid A and Amnesiac, featuring previously unreleased demos and outtakes.

At around 1am this morning (Sydney time), the ever so mysterious Radiohead changed their Facebook profile picture to a simple, three-lined lettering of their name – Radiohead.

What did this mean?

Image: Supplied

Many fans speculated a new album was on its way – after all, the band are notorious for being relatively quiet and enigmatic on social media, usually only reviving their presence when a substantial project is coming out.

Well, this time around, it’s a bit of a this-and-that.

While we don’t exactly have a new Radiohead studio album per say, the band will be releasing a triple-disc set of their acclaimed early naughties releases, Kid A and Amnesiac.

The set will also feature previously unreleased music, including newly released track If You Say The Word, along with outtakes and demos from the recording sessions.

These two albums, especially Kid A, had a huge impact on modern music. In fact, Kid A was voted by Pitchfork to be the greatest album of the 2000s.

Historically significant, the album has become synonymous with ‘drastic career change’. Artists like Kanye West, with his career re-defining albums 808s and Heartbreaks, or the more controversial Yeezus, have retrospectively been dubbed ‘Kid A’s’ for this same reason.

Ever since Radiohead hit big with their smash track, Creep, way back in 1993, they have been working to escape their reputation as a one-hit-wonder, delving further into experimental territory.

We saw this come to a climax with the landmark, legendary album, 1997’s OK Computer, another poll topper of the decade and highly influential record to this day.

But of course, with every major success comes an eventual downfall. As if the band hadn’t had it hard enough already escaping their former one-hit situation, the band now had a worldwide reputation for producing phenomenal progressive rock.

This brought them into a very stressful position, with writer’s block, particularly for lead singer Thom Yorke. This marred their ability to push forward.

So, naturally, the band came up with a strategy: destroy and rebuild.

In October 2000, they released their most controversial record to date.

Gone were the guitars and sweet tenor vocals. In came bizarre electronics, drum machines, and muffled, even alien-like falsetto vocals.

The record was filled with elements of krautrock, IDM, trip-hop and even experimental jazz.

When first presented to their record executives, it simply shocked them, as they feared an imminent career suicide for a band that was now taking home Grammys.

Although it did divide fans, it soon went on to achieve the aforementioned accolades and is now regarded as one of the band’s best efforts – if not their absolute best.

radiohead
Image: NME

While we are talking a lot about Kid A, Amnesiac‘s story is not too different.

It was a record that found its way into the world by boarding the same spaceship – that is, Amnesiac was derived from the intense and highly experimental sessions that birthed Kid A.

The two go hand in hand, making for a beautiful pairing of records which to this day, sound like nothing else on this Earth.

So here we have it – the respective 20th and 21st anniversary re-release of these classic albums

The triple disc set is called KID A MNESIAC and will be available from November 5.

View track list for the bonus disc below.

1. Like Spinning Plates (‘Why Us?’ Version)
2. Untitled V1
3. Fog (Again Again Version)
4. If You Say the Word
5. Follow Me Around
6. Pulk/Pull (True Love Waits Version)
7. Untitled V2
8. The Morning Bell (In the Dark Version)
9. Pyramid Strings
10. Alt. Fast Track
11. Untitled V3
12. How to Disappear Into Strings

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