Richard BodinWARNING: I initally wrote this article in 2005. This is based on Fan theory which has since proven to be untrue. The artwork was more inspired by the balkans wars at the time. More information here. I will come back to this article for update and deeper dive into it at some point in the future. Stay tuned. – Richard
According to Thom Yorke, Kid A is an album about cloning. The strange cover, created by the duo Stanley Donwood & Dr Tchock, which at first glance seems to evoke everything but cloning, is hiding its true meaning…
At first glance, the Kid A cover looks like strange mountains created with 3D imagery. An apocalyptic landscape marked by the contrast between the white and slightly bluish mountains and a dark sky tinged with red. The whole thing perfectly mirrors the content of the album: dark and ethereal music…
But here’s the thing: apparently, according to Thom Yorke, Kid A is about cloning… So, if we look closely, we should find clues on the cover. And when we look… we find:
First of all, by observing the cover on the right side, we can see the profile of a person. Two peaks form the nose and chin, and shaded areas suggest the eye and eyebrow.
Now, if we look at the opposite side of the cover, we’ll notice the same profile repeated twice. Two clones…
Taking this idea a step further, we can measure the gap between the two profiles of the two clones on the left side. It’s about 16 millimeters, give or take… So, if we have two copies of Kid A, the experiment to try is to play both copies with an interval of 16 seconds and some change (16.7 seconds, to be exact). The offset is so well-timed that the result is flawless from the beginning to the end of the album. The lyrics, riffs, and melodies respond to each other and interlock perfectly. Kid A is cloned. Try it…
I don’t know who figured this out, or if it was all intentional, but it only adds to the mysteries surrounding this dark yet excellent album by Radiohead.
