Ok Computer

This is a mysterious record. In 1996 I'd heard 'The Bends' and thought 'very pretty ballads' and 'the lad's got a way with words' but euughhh they sound like a Boston tribute band when they plug the guitars in. 'Street Spirit' certainly seemed to point somewhere else - the song construction and atmosphere just seemed to float rather than jump up and down.A year later, Radiohead were on tv doing 'Paranoid Android'. My head nearly fell off. 6 and a half minutes of yelling, screaming, pleading and whispering within a framework that was more like a beserk mini opera. Where had this come from? Where's his voice going? What's that guitar doing? Panic? Vomit? Crackling pigskin? As Thom Yorke, who was suddenly singing like a choirboy on the edge of a nervous breakdown wanted to know - 'WHAT'S THIS?'Good question mate. What it - and the rest of the album - seemed to be was one of those creative leaps forward that popular culture can suddenly and inexplicably take. Maybe the band themselves didn't know where it had come from. Yorke in particular seemed totally dazed. Especially when this record overflowing with anger, resentment, disappointment, confrontation, not to mention alien abduction, car crashes, plane crashes, the growing of wings, unborn chicken voices, handshakes of carbon monoxide, girls with Hitler hairdo's and 7/8 time signatures became the pop sensation of the decade. 'WHAT'S THIS'? must have been the question joining the rest of the babble in his brain as he and his band of Oxford schoolpals shot off into the bedlamosphere.In a way it was incredibly refreshing. Lumpen ladrock ruled. The fact that complex, highly emotional, thought provoking music could still get the tills ringing must have been a total justification. But how, how for gawd's sake? As Yorke would say - 'tune, tune, tune'. 'No Surprises' 'Karma Police' and 'Let Down' are 3 songs with an unmatched combination of lyrical balefulness and exquisite melody. And yes OK fair cop, there was a feel of stadium rock....the thought of 20,000 frat boys holding lighters and bellowing 'IT'S GONNA BE...A BEEEAAAAAAUUUUUTIFUL DAY' probably had Yorke thinking of doing a Cobain. But the songs and arrangements did go for that majestic landscape thing that has the world's youth closing their eyes, lifting their heads to the sky and forgetting, just for a minute, about their pustules.What you hear now, 10 years later, is a group of people wriggling out of the strait jacket of expectation, refusing the cynical pills the record industry like even more than charlie and trusting themselves to do what they felt was.....necessary. If they felt a song needed 2,000 chords on it - 'Paranoid Android' has still not been properly nailed by any of the You Tube cover merchants - they put 2,000 chords on it. If they felt a track needed a vocoded spoken narrative about going to the gym and cats tied to sticks whilst a voice drones on about space launches, they jolly well went and did it.That it was all lapped up by the public speaks volumes for the band - and the public. Pink Floyd? Oh come on. Did they ever do a decent tune or spit a lyric like 'kicking screaming gucci little piggy'? Nah. This is the sound of Radiohead.....though it's not a sound, rather an attitude. Hear it again on the opening of Kid A. Did you expect solo electric piano and cut up voices? No? Never mind here it is. Hear it again on 'National Anthem'. Did you expect jazz chaos over a banging bass riff? No? Never mind, here it is. Hear it again on 'Jigsaw...'. Did you expect a pop dynamic even the Sky Sports footie editors can use on their net bulging montages? No? Never mind here it is.Whether or not this is 'the greatest album ever made' is irrelevant. It's simply OK Computer by Radiohead.. And that's OK by me.

I was 17 when I first heard OK Computer, and at first its greatness didn't hit me. I was a fan of the more simple pleasures and straight forward directness of Oasis, and Radiohead in comparison seemed lightweight and pretentious. The southern middle-class students versus the gruff northern everymen.Then one night I listened to it on my headphones. All the interlocking textures suddenly jumped out at me; Thom Yorke's wonderfully melancholic falsetto; Jonny Greenwood's sublime guitar work; the soaring harmonies; the frosty soundscapes. I realised that OK Computer was a work of immense quality by a band who knew exactly what they wanted, and would not compromise in achieving it.Its influences are clear; the White Album, Pet Sounds, Dark Side of the Moon, yet it also sounds nothing like them. It's beautiful and innovative, the antithesis of the derivative Britpop juggernaut that was engulfing Britain at the time of its 1997 release. The album has it all; highly accomplished musicianship, creative depth and complex lyrics, all arching around themes of alienation and modern malaise.Radiohead's quest for musical development went even further after this release, incorporating electronica and the avant-garde on next album Kid A, but it is here on OK Computer that they truly reached their songwriting apex. The complex epic of 'Paranoid Android', conjoining at least three distinct sections; the lush dream pop of 'No Surprises'; the emotive depth of 'Karma Police'; the grand scale of closer 'The Tourist'.OK Computer is simply an astonishing listen, and one I return to time and time again. The magnum opus of perhaps the most creative and influential band since the Beatles, and is without doubt my favourite album of all time.

I bought this, basically, on the strength of their previous record's last song, "Street Spirit (Fade Out)", which I adored immediately, and favored over the often a bit too "college rock"-y sound of the other songs of the album, as well as that on their first record. The heavy electronic treatment of Mr. Greenwood's guitar on "Paranoid Android" reassured me quickly that this was indeed something else, and it was rather soon clear that the game changed with this album. The experimentation of sound, the guitars in particular, reminded me of progressive rock bands from the past, but here the guitar almost works against the songs, providing an unease and a nervous edge which complement the lyrics about isolation, and it is filling up all the space that is left by the other sounds, making the music feel trapped. The only time when I lose my 100% interest is when "Fitter, Happier" plays. It works for me almost like an intermission, and perhaps that's what it is! It is certainly needed, because there are a lot of things going on, and concentration is a must. For those who can stay concentrated there is an award waiting.

So I'm one of those suckers who is buying vinyl and at these prices no wonder my eyes water constantly. However in this case OK Computer is the first piece of vinyl that I feel moved to review. It is pressed on 2 discs and, if your turntable is decent enough, it will simply amaze you. The quality is superb and gives a fresh experience to what is a familiar album. The percussion, dynamics and sense of space delights.Also as a by product the album is obviously split into 4 chunks and these also work in a beautiful way. Take side 2, Exit Music - Let Down - Karma Police. Starting with a casually strummed guitar and cavernous voice and ending with a buzzing electric death cry the journey through those 3 songs is sublime. It has made me appreciate the music much more than the casual CD experience.