John Mayer's acoustic “Kid A” cover gets a release

John Mayer's cover of “Kid A”, part of his live show for a few years, is getting a proper release. From next month, buyers of his album Heavier Things at participating shops will be handed a free five-song bonus disc with “Kid A” on it.

He tells MTV News the recording happened almost by accident, while he was making Room for Squares, his 2001 album. With the producer, John Alagia, away for a weekend, he and the engineer Jeff Juliano started playing around, and the track was done in an hour and a half or two.

Where Radiohead's version is built from loops and electronic tones, Mayer's is acoustic, and the words can be made out. He chose it, he says, because the tune was there but deliberately hidden, as if a robot were singing it.

if you're gonna do a cover, leave the song somewhere different than where you picked it up.

John Mayer¹