Radiohead - OK Computer
Listen to a condensed audio version of this review by Greg
I can remember watching MTV in the 1980s and early 90s. Besides the radio, it was the place I went, to “find” new music. It was the place I went, to find “any” music really. Aside from the radio, the only other place I became turned on to new music, was to go to the record store and sift through hundreds of records, tapes and CD’s, usually making purchases based off the album’s cover art. It was that simple.
On one day in late 1993, I can remember getting home from school, throwing my backpack into the coat closet, and I mean “throwing” it like I wanted it to disappear, running into the den and immediately going to channel 53, which on my cable network was MTV. Better known as Music Television for those of you born after the late 90s. By ’93 the grunge scene had cemented its place as the most successful running rock genre for that time. I was very much into this scene but can remember by ’93 growing tired of a lot of the copycat bands that were appearing.
As I turned on MTV, the VJ was introducing a video by a new band of out the UK called Radiohead. The song was Creep. Ok, I was up for some new music. I have a fond memory of hearing the opening riff, and then the opening verse and chorus and pointing the beat-up JVC remote control at the TV and changing the channel while saying out loud (in a room full of no one, mind you), “NO THANKS”!!
It is important to recognize that at this point, besides my lack of desire for more grunge, the band Radiohead had really yet to shine. In fact, they were a few years away from blasting the cover off the baseball by releasing an album that would defy the “grunge” label and in many ways, create their own genre of music.
On May 21st, 1997, a rock band with some reasonable commercial success out of the UK, Radiohead that is, released their third studio album, OK Computer. The album illustrates what it is like and what it will “be” like eventually to live in a world where Computers rule. Technology and computers certainly played an important, dominant role in society in 1997, but nothing like it is today, in 2021. For the band I believe was truly ahead of their time, writing lyrics to music that showcased the eventual downward spiral of society, where social media essentially runs the planet. The writing is a message that all this capitalism has not led to survival of the fittest, but more led to emotional isolation and political illness.
I can honestly say this band did not fully appear on my radar as being “Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame” worthy until I heard this album in 2005. I was bowling with some friends of mine. One of them handed me a compact disc, with no writing on it. He told me to play it immediately when I got into my car. Well, I did, and the rest is history.
The majority of OK Computer was recorded in a large castle in the English countryside, named St. Catherine’s Court. Believe it or not, the castle was owned at the time by actress (can we still use the term “actress” or is everyone just called an “actor” now? How do we distinguish between male and female?.....anyways…) the castle was owned by Jane Seymour, better known for playing the lead role in a long running 90s television show, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Some of you may know her better from her small role in the movie, Wedding Crashers. She played the wife of Christopher Walken’s character Secretary Cleary, named Kathleen. If you have never seen Wedding Crashers, drop everything right now and go watch. Radiohead self-produced the album with Westminster born producer and musician, Nigel Godrich.
Days after hearing this album, I went back and purchased the band’s first two albums, which I grew fonder of, but none of their albums compares to OK Computer. NONE of them.
The album starts off with Airbag, a song lead singer and rhythm guitarist Thom Yorke said was literally written about an airbag in a car that saved his life. Yorke was involved in a car accident and lamented about how he was “amazed that I survived. An airbag saved my life”. As much as this album is a “shot” at technology and computers, it is ironic that it is technology that really saved his life. Similar to every other track on this record, the drumbeats are not typical. An average drummer like me cannot air drum to this, let alone play along for real. If you do not know what I am talking about, just listen. You will not hear any standard 8th note groove, where anyone on the planet can tap their foot along and mimic when the bass drum will be struck and when the snare will be. This intrigued me more.
Paranoid Android is the second track. This song was the first single released from the album. Yorke is clearing writing about someone he dislikes. “When I am king, you will be the first against the wall”. With your opinion of no consequence at all”. As fast beat, dark and drab as the song starts, it takes a turn and gets even darker, until dropping into an anthemic, “swing your hands back and forth” like lyrical sing-along. “Rain down, Rain down. Come on and rain down on me”. I was definitely one of those guys at their live show. As the anthem slows, feeling almost like a pagan religious worship experience, the main riff picks back up and the song takes you deep into their effect-laden guitar sound coupled with about 800 other instruments in the background.
I think Subterranean Homesick Alien is the song that made me stop and go, “wow”. I can remember driving on the Massachusetts Turnpike, looking up at the streetlights, lined up in a symmetrical pattern that looked like one light continuing as I continued to drive. No, I was not impaired (despite me just leaving a bowling alley). This album just makes me feel like I am. This song feels like the soundtrack to your life if you were to ever be abducted by aliens. But instead of a dark feeling, an overwhelming sensation of peace overcomes you.
Exit Music (For A Film), the album’s fourth track, was actually written for the 1996 film, Romeo + Juliet, starring Claire Danes. It is played at the end of the movie during the ending credits, just as Dane’s character holds a revolver to her head and the movie fades to black. This song is genuinely amazing. Since it was written and recorded well before OK Computer, Yorke later said the track shaped the direction for the rest of the album.
If the record’s first four tracks do not grab you, well, try listening to Let Down. Although the writing continues to follow more of a depressing narrative, the music is exceptional. Once again, you hear the computerized synthesizer sound, mixed on top of acoustic and electric guitars. This could almost pass as a U2 stadium anthem. You know the song where you stand with your arms folded, listening to yet another song that sounds just like all the others, but then you find yourself closing your eyes and dancing along with the groove, because these guys know how to hook you. Even when they are not trying.
Karma Police, arguably the album’s most popular track by die hard Radiohead fans presents the Mike Tysonesque, knockout punch that finally turns the lights out. This is usually the band’s closing number in many of their live performances. Picture yourself driving your car or listening to this on your phone, and finally waving the white flag, going, “OK, what the hell are these guys up to? How does a band write stuff like this”?
“Karma police
I've given all I can
It's not enough
I've given all I can
But we're still on the payroll
This is what you'll get
This is what you'll get
This is what you'll get
When you mess with us”
As the song rolls to a conclusion, you hear what you can imagine would sound like a hand being placed on a vinyl record to slow it down, similar to a DJ scratch but slower, softer and darker. I remember for a split second thinking the CD my friend gave me was damaged.
Fitter Happier takes a gigantic left turn (as if the album has not done that already) by playing what mimics a robotic sounding voice from 1980s and 1990s computers when technology was being developed enabling them to sound as if they were “talking” to you.
Fitter Happier, as strange as it is, is not so much a song, but more of a checklist of how to "better" yourself in the way society encourages. However, these ways also restrain you and complicate your life. It is an endless cycle in many ways. The ultimate message, I believe, is that you lose your truth of self when you are in search of someone else's goals.
Skipping ahead a bit (forgive me) the album presents additional punches with No Surprises, Lucky and The Tourist. These three tracks are quite arguably the album’s strongest. I would debate the first four are up there with some of the band’s greatest, but that is what is so great about OK Computer.
Not that it is too important, but I think relevant to mention, Rolling Stone Magazine listed OK Computer at #42 on the “Top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time”. If you have some doubts about this entire list, look it up for yourself. Although some of the albums I enjoy more than others with higher rankings, Rolling Stone does a respectful job at describing why each album is ranked where they are. When you look at the diversity of many of these albums, it is impressive to see an album by a 90s UK rock band to be among greats such as David Bowie, Dr. Dre, Joni Mitchell, Wu-Tang Clan, The Beatles and Miles Davis. I give Rolling Stone credit for not simply including several rock albums from the same genre and decade.
Either way, music is about interpretation. And I am hoping you do not interpret this review as a cry for more rock n’ roll. As much as rock music has shaped my life, I am more attracted to the way music affects the individual, regardless of genre. It is about how it moves you, rather than coming in 1st place or 47th place. I kind of get it now why the several of the members of Radiohead were a no show at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction in 2019. It was never about the fame or the fortune.
I went back and listened to the band’s first two albums in greater detail. They are both influential and fantastic. But there is something quite different about OK Computer that I think changed the face of music, both popular music and alternative, independent music. Their constant innovation puts this album and the band atop my list for one of the best bands to come out of the 1990s.
Pick up a copy of OK Computer today. Or whet your appetite with any of their other albums both before and after. For each one is genuinely unique in their own way.