4. RadioheadKid A
I’ve been disappointed over their stance on Israel, so I feel quite conflicted about Radiohead as a band right now, and must at least make a disclaimer that I don’t endorse their political leanings these days. At the same time, it would be almost disingenuous of me not to include a Radiohead album here because they were so formative to me in terms of enticing me away from whatever lowest common denominator guitar music I’d have been listening to at the time and towards more interesting pastures. I guess before I got into Radiohead, I was probably listening to bands like Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Incubus – I can’t fully remember if it came before my nu-metal phase though.
Radiohead are the first band that I really got into whose music I still feel resonates with me now, particularly the run of Kid A, Amnesiac and Hail To The Thief. The first of those meant the most to me and it was through that record that I discovered Aphex Twin and Selected Ambient Works, as well as Boards Of Canada and the early Warp Records catalogue. It was a really important bridge between songwriting and electronics, and I don’t think I’d have been in a position to get into headsier dance music at that point in my musical journey without it. It probably would have had to come through something else that was more accessible to me. As much as the sound, it’s about the overall mood which can resonate with you as a teenager – the whole angsty vibe which speaks to you very directly at that time. The tense, weird, liminal, bleak, but also curious mood that underpins this album has always really stuck with me.
