Idioteque
| "Idioteque" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Radiohead | |
| from the album Kid A | |
| Released | 2 October 2000 |
| Recorded | January 1999–April 2000 |
| Genre | Electronica, IDM, experimental |
| Length | 5:09 |
| Label |
Parlophone Capitol |
| Songwriter(s) | Radiohead, Paul Lansky, Arthur Kreiger |
| Producer(s) | Nigel Godrich and Radiohead |
| Kid A track listing | |
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"Idioteque" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, featured as the eighth track from their 2000 album Kid A. Although never released as a single as with all other songs on the album, it has since become one of the band's most famous and popular songs amongst critics and fans. The song has been played at nearly every concert since 2000. The song is listed at #8 on Pitchfork Media's top 500 songs of the 2000s, and ranked #56 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of the 2000s.
In 2008, the song was featured on Radiohead: The Best Of, a compilation album.
According to Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, "Idioteque wasn't my idea at all; it was Jonny's. Jonny handed me this DAT that he'd... he'd gone into our studio for the afternoon... and, um, the DAT was like 50 minutes long, and I sat there and listened to this 50 minutes. And some of it was just "what?", but then there was this section of about 40 seconds long in the middle of it that was absolute genius, and I just cut that up and that was it...". Musically, Idioteque is driven by a repeating electronic beat and a four-chord synth progression sampled from an experimental computer music piece Mild und Leise recorded by Paul Lansky in 1973.
Idioteque contains some of Thom Yorke's most heavily analyzed lyrics. Yorke does not directly explain them, but "Idioteque" has been described by others as an "apocalyptic" song, with possible references to natural disaster, war and technological breakdown. Many fans interpret "Idioteque" as having something to do with climate change, an issue on which Yorke is outspoken and has admitted inspired subsequent songs, such as 2003's "Sail to the Moon" and those on his 2006 solo album The Eraser.
Several of the "Idioteque" lyrics (as well as those of certain other songs from the period) are audibly different in live performance. Some of the lyrics, like others on Kid A, were created from cutting up phrases and drawing them from a hat.
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