I'll never forget the day that
Kid A dropped. I think it was October 3, 2005 in the US...maybe the 5th? Not entirely sure, I guess.
But I remember racing out of school to get it/listen to it, I remember that the leaves in Chicago were on the ground, I remember what the sunset looked like that night, I remember that I hated the album like nothing else the first time through.
Actually, I hated it pretty good (minus "How To Disappear Completely" and "Optimistic") for a while. I listened to it 9 times that night, the last time on headphones with the "secret" booklet next to me as I sat on the floor, hooked up to a discman while using my then old-as-dirt computer to try to figure out (via 28K, no less) what the fuck this album was supposed to be.
Nothing I found online illuminated it for me, but listening to it on headphones sure did. That autumn alone, I listened to this album at least 200 times (and I spun plenty of
All That You Can't Leave Behind when it came out three weeks later...in addition to all my other musical interests at the time; ATD-I, anyone?), both with headphones and without them...though I fucked up some speakers pretty badly without 'em a few times.
Kid A changed everything I thought I knew or understood about music, and I've not been even remotely the same since.
I remember my review for the school paper (I was a Senior and the editor of the entertainment section) was excessively laudatory, and I gave the album a score I still stand by and my highest of all-time (for a contemporary release): 9.75 out of 10.
In case you're curious, I gave the U2 album an 8; but that was too generous and I just wanted to get kids to buy the motherfucker. Looking back, I'd give it what I think is a more fair score of either 7 or 7.25.
Sorry for going on. Yeah....this album kicks ass and doesn't even bother to take names. That's how much it owns. In fact...it just might own your face off, if you're not careful.