Radiohead- OK Computer

I was nowhere near ready for OK Computer, or really Radiohead in general when I first heard this album. When I first heard it in 2002 or 2003 I bashed it as alien music and derided its followers as pretenders who merely claimed to like the album because it was en vogue. At the time I was listening to Nevermind, Weezer’s Blue Album, and Muse’s Origin of Symmetry. The former two albums showed why I was still nowhere near ready for OK Computer. Yet, the latter showed that I had made my first step. Many people (albeit incorrectly) accuse Muse of being Radiohead wannabes. There are certainly similarities between the two. The fact that I had embraced Muse, a more poppy, happier cousin of Radiohead was a sign of what was soon to come. As time progressed I also began listening to more somber, or as my friends called it, depressing music like Alice in Chains and Smashing Pumpkins. Yet I still grew increasingly peeved every time I would hear about Radiohead or OK Computer until around 2004.

Everyone knows what it’s like - you hear the song once, and you say to yourself “hey that song’s not too bad.” Then you hear it again a week or two later, completely at random. This time you say to yourself “man, I actually like this song.” Then a month or two go by and you hear it for a third time. By then you know that it’s no coincidence (but an act of God) that you keep hearing this song, and you frantically seek out a pen and paper to write down some lyrics. It would make for a great story if I could only remember the date that I almost got into an accident by reaching for a pen and a Chipotle napkin to scribble (my handwriting is bad even when I’m not driving and writing at the same time) down the lyrics to “Karma Police” while driving on a fairly busy road. It was a smashing success. Not only did I not manage to kill anyone in the process, but I found the song that spent most of 2007 in first place on my greatest songs list. I guess everybody has a unique story of when they fell in love with OK Computer.

Unlike some of my other reviews I don’t really have to go into detail about what makes this album amazing. Just go to Google, type OK Computer and you will probably find 139 million glowing reviews of the most critically acclaimed album of the last 25 years. If you are reading this review and are a fan of good music, there is a 99.9% chance that you love this album, because honestly, who doesn’t? If you check out the album on Amazon, you will find that 87% of people who have rated this album gave it 5 stars. You’ve got to assume that the remaining 13% were listening to the Spice Girls when OK Computer came out in 1997 and are listening to Rihanna or Daughtry today.

There are so many reasons why this album is the classic that it is. First, it offers unique, biting commentary on our increasingly cold, mechanical world. Indeed, I think what makes this album grow in grandeur with time, is the fact that all its predictions are slowly materializing. Half of Radiohead’s bleak picture of the world is conveyed through smart and wity lyrics. For myself though, it is really the other half - the intensely desolate and yet epic atmosphere - that makes this album. I believe that even without any words that the message of doom and decay could be conveyed impeccably by the uniquely disturbing texture of the music. The guitars, drums, and eerie synthesizers scream mechanization, detachment, and gloom. Yet this album could not have reached the epic level that it did, without the strange, robotic, and melancholy lyrics of Thom Yorke, who delivers the last touch to this larger-than-life album.

1. Airbag- 6.0

2. Paranoid Android- 9.8

3. Subterranean Homesick Alien- 7.3

4. Exit Music- 6.6

5. Let Down- 8.0

6. Karma Police- 10

7. Electioneering- 7.6

8. Climbing Up the Walls- 7.8

9. No Surprises- 8.8

10. Lucky- 9.5

11. The Tourist- 6.7

Overall Score: 9.9- An incredibly bleak and accurate assessment of humanity

Updated: 07/03/08