Kid A

The band that pushed rock’s boundaries vault clear of them on a stunning reinvention. Texture and agitated beats are prioritized over hooks, while guitars recede to accommodate electronica on a remarkable album. Orchestral ballad “How to Disappear Completely” and the rattling guitars of “Optimistic” are bridges back to OK Computer, but Kid A eludes classification by absorbing ambient techno, classical and jazz as it voices millennial paranoia (“Idioteque”), alienation (“The National Anthem”), and separation (“Morning Bell”). Initially icy and challenging, the album rewards repeated listens as its fractured parts melt into mantric rhythms and slow-surfacing melodies.