History is Over
Throughline Episode: Radiohead and the fraying of society.
Re-posting a Throughline episode from 2021 on Radiohead and the creation of their albums Kid A and Amnesiac.
NPR’s Throughline does a spectacular job of telling a story in three parts.
I am not the biggest Radiohead fan, although I have great admiration for the band and their creativity.
Here is the episode in its entirety:
This is from the Throughline page:
As the end of the 20th century approached, Radiohead took to the recording studio to capture the sound of a society that felt like it was fraying at the edges. Many people had high hopes for the new millennium, but for others, a low hum of anxiety lurked just beneath the surface as the world changed rapidly and fears of a Y2K meltdown loomed.
Amidst all the unease, the famed British band began recording their highly anticipated follow-ups to their career-changing album OK Computer. Those two albums, Kid A and Amnesiac, released in 2000 and 2001, were entrancing and eerie — they documented the struggle to redefine humanity, recalibrate, and get a grip on an uncertain world. In this episode, we travel back to the turn of the millennium with Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood and the music of Kid A and Amnesiac.
Check out the full interview at NPR Music.
If you want to read more:
The Searchers: Radiohead's Unquiet Revolution, by Alex Ross