Are there really people who think this is a concept album?

I was thought that it was about a man going through an existential crisis, and falling into an endless pit of depression while the world collapses in the backround that ends with the protagonist killing himself, after all the chaos as settled.

I think it makes perfect sense.

I thought they just pulled random lyrics out of a hat for Kid A. I don't think the lyrics are really supposed to gel and create some overarching theme.

That's the downward spiral user.

it's 100% not a concept album. it fools people into thinking it is because it flows so well/is so cohesive

...

>Most of the lyrics mean next to nothing

Why is that something bad? Why are you always searching for meaning in everything you listen?

You're not a critic, just an idiot.

No I'm not a critic. It's one of my favorites actually, I never said it was bad. Just that it's not a concept album.

Is this the one where he says sorry for fucking another woman than his wife?

>Why are you always searching for meaning in everything you listen?
wew lad. Have fun with your music that stands for nothing but "sounds good"

Idk what your definition of "concept album" is if Kid A doesn't fit.

Kid A and Amnesiac are two concept albums that explore a very specific feeling. Other works that explore this feeling include Infinite Jest, Groundhog Day, and The Darjeeling Ltd (to a degree).

The feeling is universal in all beings; a deep, unsettling anxiety about the nature of existence. About how being is just a sequence of urges to be relieved only for more urges to arise, seemingly forever.

(In buddhism, they would describe this feeling in terms of samsara, the near infinite cycles of birth and rebirth into suffering.)

With Kid A/Amnesiac, the focus is on the feeling of being trapped in a rut or cycle with no end in sight. In Kid A specifically, the focus is how the being trapped in this cycle becomes numb to it, and just drifts through this limbo-like state ad infinitium wondering when he'll be free. In Amnesiac, the focus is more on the anxieties the being feels when he becomes more aware of this cycle of tensions/release, urge/relief, etc.

They are both, in every sense of the term, concept albums. And Thom/Ed basically explained all this in interviews a few times over in the early 2000s.

Yeah I guess thats true, but Kid A feels more like a story.

no..

this

hid a what?

Music doesn't need anything else, if it's good enough.
What do you think when you listen to Bach? Or do you?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_music

Kill yourself.

Do people actually care about lyrics?

I'm just happy I'm not a native English speaker so I just like the music for the music.
Enjoy being a pleb.

Cool ideas, but I can't find any of those interviews. I did, however, find this:

"The mistake is to assume we had that level of a plot. Unfortunately, we had no plot. We had fifty things on a blackboard, and we just kept throwing them out and adding more." -Thom Yorke on Kid A, December 14th 2000 (Rolling Stone)

I'll spend a little time digging for them later tonight, but that being said, that's very similar to the way miyazaki described the making of Spirited Away, but to say that movie isn't about anything specific is pretty foolish.

The fact is, a lot of great art is made without explicit intention. It's just the artist following a feeling and seeing where that takes them. Eventually, they arrive at an end result. I think that's what they were trying to say in that quote.

So does concept album imply that the track listing must follow a narrative or can it be literally about a concept

The second. A concept album doesn't have to be a story (although it can be) it really is just an album that has an overarching concept. Look at Dark Side of the Moon: no real story, but it's a clear concept album about all the things that drive people towards insanity, at the end realizing that's kinda how everyone is (there's no dark side of the moon, really).

Kid A definitely doesn't have a narrative, whether or not the songs support a single concept is what's up to debate in this thread.

It adds another layer to the music and makes it that much more enjoyable.

yeah that's seriously something that struck me about this thread. Sure, on a hip hop album, or any album for that matter, the lyrics matter, but that doesn't mean in any way that the lyrics are the main aspect that alludes to the concept/meaning of the music.

Why would the artist just give you the juice like that? It makes no sense. It's like these ppl are listening to the instrumentals waiting for the artist to say "now this is what this is about" with the lyrics...no...

The lyrics were drawn out of a hat.

The majority of them have no meaning and are just used as textures for the tracks.

Did they use the same hat trick with Amnesiac? The lyrics on Amnesiac are abstract but seem more genuine than on Kid A

I think

"I'm lost at sea
don't bother me
I've lost my way
I've lost my way
You're living in a fantasy world"

is the meaning of the album. at least it invokes that feeling for me. Or maybe it's a person's life cycle, after all the album ends with "I'll see you in the next life."

Everything in it's right place is fertilization and being in the womb.
Kid A is early childhood. It's bouncy and fun. And you can't remember much just like you can't understand the lyrics.
The National Anthem is the early and initial optimism you have once you start learning about the world, and gathering information about other people.
How to disappear completely is about being a teenager and experiencing dissatisfaction with oneself, feeling of depression, feeling like you've been lied to the whole time, that life is a fucking mess and you're no different.
Optimistic is maybe coming to terms with and a young adulthood and understanding that life is a rollercoaster and for better or worse you just have to try the best you can.
In Limbo is the theme for the album I think, an over-arching sense of loneliness and despair that permeates your entire life.
Idioteque is the middle age, the knowledge that life isn't just a shitshow and that there are good and bad people that create the reality that we live in. It's also the impending feeling that the world is going to end soon, which happens to just about everyone. You look at the past, you look at the present, and then you worry about the future.
Morning Bell is probably about old age. Forgetfulness, making a will, losing the ability to do what you used to do. and hatred for the next generation.
Exit music is death.

>Kid A and Amnesiac are two concept albums that explore a very specific feeling.

A Moon Shaped Pool also has a very specific feeling but majority the songs are just unreleased tracks Thom has played live and the tracklist is in alphabetical order. If you want to argue there is a narrative or spiritual reason the songs exist on the album, you are reading into it too much. See

adding to this:

Everything in it's right place is like the miracle that you exist. everything had to be just perfect to be you..

In Limbo really is life. You are hanging in the balance. Before you and after you there is something, but in the middle is life and some kind of awful purgatory.

I don't think anyone is saying it's bad because the lyrics don't matter. It's just a matter of discussion that a considerable amount of people on Cred Forums think it's a concept album, when in fact it isn't (or at least not to me)

>The National Anthem is the early and initial optimism you have once you start learning about the world, and gathering information about other people.

How in the world does that song sound optimistic?

>Exit music is death.
>Exit music
>Exit music
>Exit music

All opinions disregarded.

>exit music

I dun goofed I was thinking motion picture soundtrack. I thought exit music was a great analogy for life but honestly motion picture soundtrack is just as good.

I just thought of this shit sorry my theory isn't airtight. It's my interpretation that I thought of myself. The National Anthem might be more pessimism but the only line that says that is "so alone." so it's just more pessimism I guess.

Why don't you tell me what you think the album is about that you didn't lift from some 15 year old review. You won't find my interpretation elsewhere because I just thought of it.

>yesterday I was sucking on a lemon

the lemon represents society

Not a concept album, but feels close to it.
I'd actually like to think it is, makes it feel fuller and deeper.