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How Thom Yorke’s Breakdown Created Radiohead’s “KID A”

Poetic Wax | September 1, 2025



After touring to support OK Computer, Radiohead was at a breaking point. Thom Yorke more so than the rest of the band. And as they approached the album that would follow, he fell into a slump. He couldn’t write, he couldn’t create, and he was spiraling toward complete destruction. Then something miraculous happened. One song formed out of snippets he began to collect after a period of throwing everything away, and suddenly everything came together. This is the story of KID A, and how Thom Yorke’s breakdown led to a major breakthrough.

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CHAPTERS:
0:00 The Story of KID A
2:49 The Crushing Weight of OK Computer
5:27 Thom Yorke’s Breakdown and the Search for Something New
7:48 How Everything In Its Right Place Made Things Click
11:02 The Writing and Recording of Kid A
12:52 The Transformation from OK Computer to Kid A
14.45 Beyond Kid A

CLIP REFERENCES:
Radiohead Reflections on Kid A (2001 Documentary) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7-wTWhp5UU
Thom Yorke and Ed O’Brien Discuss Making Kid A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufYHw6vLv7o
Radiohead: Kid A Canadian TV Special Presentation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw_0e5rErtM
Paranoid Android Music Video: https://youtu.be/fHiGbolFFGw?si=5fzDp9frk6ScfVBH

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Written by Poetic Wax

Comments

This post currently has 38 comments.

  10. @sorreltyree

    September 1, 2025 at 8:39 pm

    I got Pablo Honey as a teenager (I graduated high school in 2006) and without a sense of timeline or even what the lyrics were, since I couldn´t make sense of most of what I was hearing, I explored Radiohead songs found through buying songs for an ipod nano and picking whatever from youtube suggestions. Some years later I bought Moon Shaped Pool from a record store (as a CD, I don´t have a record player), hyped from what friends on tumblr were saying about the lead up to that album's release. So it was years of listening to songs without context of what album they came from, when Radiohead wrote them, what the lyrics were or meant, and just integrating them into my life. I'd sing bits and pieces I'd deciphered while walking through Tacoma on agonizingly long trips on my flat feet trying to get home. More recently, I spent a week or so listening to every album in order of release, watched snippets of old interviews, and watched music videos I hadn't seen before. Two decades of listening and the sound is just part of me now, and I couldn't say what to even think of it, just that I don´t want to be without it.

  13. @leepearson7860

    September 1, 2025 at 8:39 pm

    In 1999 i had a nervous breakdown..ruined me completely…it took me 25 years to get back to normal; i tired everything nothing work..but better now…going to learn to drive 🚗 a car.

  15. @davidgerard4369

    September 1, 2025 at 8:39 pm

    As a big Radiohead fan, I want you to know that I find 'KId-A' to be my LEAST FAVORITE ALBUM BY THEM. Despite "Everything In Its Right Place", I find it to be a muddled, overwrought mess. And the fact that other music critics exalted KA only cemented my dislike. OK Computer was a masterpiece, the KA sequel, Amnesiac is TEN TIMES THE ALBUM KID-A could ever be. The whole "this collection of tunes were the afterthoughts of Kid-A" assessment is bullocks: Amnesiac is just a better album, period. More variegation, more memorable tunes, more incisive lyricism, just damn better. And unlike Kid-A, virtually every track on Amnesiac is impressive, making it a more successful 'concept album' by any standard.

  17. @AY-uf4oz

    September 1, 2025 at 8:39 pm

    This is what true artists do, not rest on their laurels and try to move their music on. It would have been easy and simple to make another album like OK Computer, which would have satisfied most of their fans, and made tons of money. Many if not bands would have done so. It takes courage and true artistry to want to completely move away from the sound that made you successful in order to attempt something completely new and different, trusting that you will be able to bring your true fans with you in that endeavor. Kid A succeeds brilliantly in that regard.

  18. @MikeGervasi

    September 1, 2025 at 8:39 pm

    Every album from Pablo Honey to Kid A was them answering "HOW can they top this?". After Kid A it's been just a band that's proved itself doing what they want. "How To Disappear Completely" was advice Michael Stipe gave Thom at the time.

  21. @tekbluesome8957

    September 1, 2025 at 8:39 pm

    everything after Ok Computer is difficult to listen to like many records sometimes they require multiple listens before you can appreciate them, other records no matter how many times you listen you just cant get into it, personally I struggled with Kid A & Amnesiac while there are moments both records have interesting moments they are a struggle to sit through & it just doesnt work

  31. @jamesd.6979

    September 1, 2025 at 8:39 pm

    @9:25.. Crazy anecdote I just found out a couple weeks ago, I think all of you guys in the comments will definitely appreciate this.

    While touring OK Computer, at some point Radiohead played some shows with REM and the two bands developed a very friendly report. REM had already gone through and come out of the other side of what Radiohead was still working through at the time (ie the perceived "overnight" success).

    REM's record Monster was released like 3 years earlier, and at the time it was absolutely relevatory. Monster was equally as critically acclaimed as OK Computer, and the members of REM also had a difficult time navigating this newfound extreme level of fame. They were one of the only bands at the time who could truly comprehend and appreciate what Radiohead was dealing with post-OK Computer.

    Anyway, Michael Stipe and Thom Yorke would become friendly to the extent that they would sometimes speak over the phone. Yorke was expressing how overwhelmed he felt and Stipe offered up some advice. He told Thom to repeat a mantra to himself when he was really struggling: "I'm not here. This isn't happening".

    It was so meaningful to Thom that he developed an entire song around it, and as I'm certain you realize by now that song is called 'How to Disappear Completely".

    Such an awesome story!

  34. @IlPersona

    September 1, 2025 at 8:39 pm

    Found your channel and subscribed today. Outstanding story, can’t wait for more. I’m here for Radiohead but sure looks like you’ve got a few nice other ones too. 🙂

Comments are closed.

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