FYM wishes a Happy 10th Birthday to two great and very different albums: Kid A by Radiohead and White Pony by Deftones.
Kid A
What is there to say about Kid A that hasn't already been said? It was named the greatest album of the 00's decade by both Rolling Stone and Pitchfork, which is pretty remarkable as it came out in 2000 and fended off a decade's worth of great albums to still nab that #1 spot. Creating a successful follow-up to an album as monumental as 1997's OK Computer was pretty much like asking Radiohead to climb Mt. Everest with no Sherpas and wearing only cargo shorts, but they successfully got to the top and mounted a bigger flag up there than anybody had before.
Radiohead succeeded with Kid A by throwing conventional rock album rules completely out the window. But then again, maybe in a way Kid A is an ultimate rock album. Back when the original rock & roll albums were made by people like Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and all the way through to bands like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, they were all using guitars and drumsets and equipment in recording studios that were the most modern and technologically advanced at the time. When the 21st century hit and Radiohead was recording Kid A, guitars, and traditional drums and verse/chorus/verse songwriting were very 20th century concepts and things of the past. Kid A was recorded using computers, synthesizers, and some of the most modern technology available, just like how The Beatles and Pink Floyd and all the others used to best tools at the time too. In that sense, the sound of Kid A is the truest sound of rock and roll today.
Kid A made Radiohead an even better live band than they were before, and the album's best song, "The National Anthem", has been a chills-inducing highlight of their live show ever since the album's release:
White Pony
Deftones' White Pony, which was originally released in June 2000 but was rereleased on October 3 2000 with bonus tracks, could have easily been unnoticeably swept under the rug at the time of its release. It was unfairly lumped together with countless rap-metal goons that were staggeringly popular at the time. But White Pony, made by a band who were outspokenly into good music that their peers probably had never heard of like Björk and various shoegaze bands, beat the odds and became a successful album thanks to the dreamy, ethereal singles "Change (In the House of Flies)" and "Digital Bath". Its unique ambient feel has given White Pony a replayable quality that most other album of the same era and the same genre definitely do not have.
(Photo above taken by our resident Boston Beer Guide: Jeff 'Brew Daddy' Preussner, while attending Deftones live in Boston with Alice in Chains)
White Pony closing track "Pink Maggit" has always been a personal favorite and still racks up a large amount of plays since 2000:
1 comment:
Great picture. I want that shirt.
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