I walked out of work that day and found a copy of the new CD tucked under my wiper, a gift from my future wife -- best ride home ever! Those opening notes still transport me...

I remember everything about my first listen of what's now the album that has meant the most to me over the course of my life. I bought it at midnight at a weird little gas station in Cedar Falls, Iowa ("The Music Station") that had cheap gas and sold CDs, and would be open at midnight on album release days. I drove around in my white 94 Toyota Camry with my little yellow discman connected via a tape adapter and fired up the new album from my favorite band. I had heard some of the Napster leaks, and I was already a trip hop and electronica guy from the 90s so while I had the same "what the hell is this?" reaction that everyone else did, for me it was only positive.

The atmosphere of the entire record is so immersive, and the punctuation marks of "The National Anthem" and "Idioteque" were so other-worldly; I couldn't get the volume loud enough (sorry young Dave's ears.) I was immediately obsessed, and the rest of the album only got deeper and weirder and more beautiful. When the public criticism ("Where are the guitars?!?") was so divided, I felt like I was in on some kind of secret wavelength that connected the band to fans of Kid A. It felt like a culmination of Thom's lyrics on "Subterranean Homesick Alien": "Take on board your beautiful ship … show me the world as I love to see it." I have yet to get off that ship, including Jonny's latest work on the One Battle After Another score.

I had forgotten that a few of the tracks were leaked on Napster several months before the album was released and the hullabaloo & early publicity helped propel the album to #1 on the Billboard charts.

This "game" they released with Kid A Mnesia a few years back is a rewarding way to spend an hour or so wandering around.