'Kid A' + 'Amnesiac' = 'KID A MNESIA': It's Raining Radiohead Reissues & Releases

Two iconic Radiohead albums turn 21 this year, with both Kid A and Amnesiac recorded during the same sessions back in 1999 and 2000. 

While initially released a year apart due to the output in these sessions being deemed too dense to work as a double album, the power of these hallowed releases are combining in 2021, with both set to be reissued alongside a third album KID A MNESIA comprising of unreleased material from the Kid A/Amnesiac recordings.

Bringing together both Kid A and Amnesiac, KID A MNESIA also will come bearing a horde of sonic goodies, including alternate versions and elements of both albums' tracks and B-sides, as well as an unreleased studio recording of Follow Me Around and the never-before-heard If You Say The Word, which has also been officially released as a digital single.

Back in 2009, Kid A scored a collector's edition reissue, with the album's 20th anniversary last year also marked by an extended version of the track Treefingers. But despite the fact that Radiohead have gone down down the anniversary path before, including in 2017 for their abstract hit OK Computer, it's been just over five years now since actual new material has been gifted, with 2016's A Moon Shaped Pool marking the group's last new release outside of its members' non-Radiohead creative pursuits.

KID A MNESIA will not only grant the wishes of many a Radiohead fan longing for new songs to tickle their ears, it'll also offer a chance for punters to scoop up some limited edition vinyl, limited numbered edition cassette tapes and two art books by frontman Thom Yorke and Radiohead artist Stanley Donwood, visually cataloguing the artworks created in the Kid A and Amnesiac sessions.

Building substantially on the experimental groundwork laid by the group's hit 1997 album OK Computer, Kid A and Amnesiac radically explored tinges of electronica, ambience, jazz and unique instrumentation, with the inclusion on the former particularly initially alienating some critics and listeners who had expected a closer follow-up to the band's previous outing. But then along came Pitchfork's game-changing 10.0 review in 2000 that irrevocably altered the narrative, with the album hitting #1 on the Billboard 200 chart while also unwittingly kickstarting an industry-wide rethink around album marketing strategies. 

The 21st anniversary celebration that is KID A MNESIA will unveil officially on Friday 5 November, with pre-orders and pre-saves live here.