Artistic transitions are hard. Nay, next to impossible. Especially when loads of money and stardom are involved, the overwhelming majority of bands come apart at the seams or hit a creative wall they never manage to scale. As much as I love certain bands, I don't believe most of them ever do anything as interesting as the work of their initial heyday. Radiohead is special in that they created some of the most interesting music of 1990's, then overcame incredible pressures to create music that was just as good but markedly different from the stuff that made them famous.

• Everything in Its Right Place

• The National Anthem
• How To Disappear Completely
• Optimistic
• In Limbo
• Morning Bell
• Motion Picture Soundtrack

Like a lot of fans and critics, when I first heard 2000's Kid A I didn't know what to think. Radiohead had been pretty quiet after they finished the promotional tour for OK Computer, long enough to fan rumors of an impending break-up. That was pretty close to the truth. Radiohead isn't one of those bands that leans on a single creative individual to determine its direction. It's actually a collection of artists who are talented in their own right, as evidenced by the precision and overall complexity of their live shows. Kid A is the result of a band of friends and professionals putting a lot of new ideas together in their own time. Those looking for a sharp, intense album like OK Computer were disappointed, but the artistry of Kid A can't be denied. So much of it, from the incorporation of jazz to the quiet murmurs in between tracks, shouldn't work. The album succeeds on nothing short of uncanny focus.

• Packd Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box
• Pyramid Song
• I Might Be Wrong
• Knives Out
• Morning Bell (Amnesiac)
• Hunting Bears

Strictly speaking, the 2001 follow-up Amnesiac isn't a completely separate album from Kid A. The songs on the album were recorded at the same time as Kid A's and many carry musical motifs featured in early work. One track, "Morning Bell", is just a different version of one from Kid A. In one respect, I think the most accessible tracks from both albums could be pushed together to make a cohesive album, but I can see why the band decided to mix them with more experimental tunes. Noodling is still noodling, and there's plenty of that going on in both records, but those weird interludes serve as signposts denoting both Kid A and Amnesiac as only incidentally commercial albums.

Kid A and Amnesiac are a launch pad for Radiohead. 2000-2001 is the time when they stopped being a rock band and while the work on those albums isn't as stunning as previous endeavors, it serves as a necessary turning point in the career of a band that almost ceased to be. Next week, I'll conclude my analysis of Radiohead's career thus far by examining whether or not the band was really treading water on Hail to the Thief and why exactly In Rainbows is the most important jazz record of the 21st century.