
Rather than return to a straight ahead guitar sound after OK Computer, Radiohead went further down the experimental rabbit hole, embracing samplers, sequencers and, to the eternal dismay of drummer Phil Selway, a drum machine. The album opens with the heavily Cuisinarted voice of Thom Yorke declaring “Yesterday I woke up sucking on a lemon,” and only gets cheerier from there. Melodies bob and weave behind walls of dissonance, but they are there, and when they resolve there are many moments of hard-earned beauty. Kid A is the opposite of easy listening, and the weirdest album to ever sell a million copies, but it’s also a testament to just how complicated pop music can be.