OK Computer by Radiohead has often been hailed by critics as a musical wonder, and most of the music world agree with them. But, is OK Computer even that good?
Interlude
Hey guys, Zeus here. In this blog post I’m actually going to introduce you to a new series that I’m starting in this blog, it’s called the “Why ___ Is A Masterpiece” series. So in this new series I’ll finally be able to to share with you all my love for music and this just feels so amazing. And it’s also incredible to start this series with arguably one of my favourite albums of all time, OK Computer by Radiohead.
Overview
OK Computer is the third album by British band Radiohead, it was produced by producer Nigel Godrich and was released on 21 May 1997. It was nominated for Album of the Year and won Best Alternative Music Album at the 1998 Grammy Awards. It was also nominated for Best British Album at the 1998 Brit Awards.
And for all of you who don’t even know who Radiohead is (shame on you). They are an alternative rock/electronic rock band which was formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire in 1985.
The band consists of singer, Thom Yorke, guitarist Jonny Greenwood, bassists Colin Greenwood, rhythm guitarist Ed O’Brien and last but not least, drummer Philip Selway. Prior to the release of OK Computer, they had already released 2 albums; Pablo Honey and The Bends.
Those 2 albums were also very popular with hits such as Creep from Pablo Honey, Just, Fake Plastic Trees, High And Dry and also Street Spirit (Fade Out) all from The Bends. And so even before starting the album, there was already a bit of pressure on the band to produce a good album
Even despite EMI expecting low sales for the album, OK Computer actually went on and reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and debuted at number 21 on the Billboard 200, Radiohead’s highest album entry on the US charts at the time.
And it was soon certified five times platinum in the UK by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and double platinum in the US by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
The whole album to me has a very overarching and distinctive sound that reeks of dystopia and a very sad sound. But it’s very beautiful that way, and this was the album that introduced me to alternative rock as a genre.
(picture of Radiohead)
Musical Style And Production
So I’m pretty sure most of us here remember and rejoice OK Computer for its electronic and experimental style. At its core OK Computer is an alternative/indie/art rock album. And another thing I would like to mention is the uncanny amount and selection of instruments that the band used for this album.
For example they used a mellotron, strings, electric piano and glockenspiel. And the overall sound of the album is elevated even higher with the album’s lyrics that depict a futuristic world fraught with rampant consumerism, capitalism, social and modern alienation, emotional isolation and political malaise.
And also just overall themes like anti capitalism, dystopia, technology and death. Which just completes this album for me.
And in the words of the band’s singer, Thom Yorke, the starting point for the whole album was inspired by the album Bitches Brew by Miles Davis. In Thom’s words, the album Bitches Brew “It was building something up and watching it fall apart, that’s the beauty of it. It was at the core of what we were trying to do with OK Computer.”
(picture of Thom Yorke)
Songs
The album of OK Computer is a 12 song album, featuring hits like No Surprises, Karma Police, and my favorite Paranoid Android. In the following section of this blog post/music review, I’ll talk about the individual songs, add my personal experiences with them, my opinions on it, about the song’s short background and also my rating. But for a few songs which I find either boring and or feel as though it doesn’t need that much explanation, I’ll keep them as short as I possibly can. Let’s start.
- Airbag 8/10
Airbag is the opening song of OK Computer, but even though it should theoretically be the first song anyone should hear of the album, I actually hadn’t heard or listened to it till the making of this post.And I must admit for an opening song, it already does a great job of capturing the emotion and the overall vibe of the OK Computer album. When I first heard this song I was super tired, and I listened to it at like 1:00 am running on half a chocolate bar.And I must admit for a song I had never heard before, I was pleasantly surprised.And the background of the song is also pretty interesting. The original draft of the lyrics for “Airbag” were written inside a copy of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience that Yorke had also annotated with his own notes. The album’s references to automobiles also references a magazine titled “An airbag saved my life”. - Paranoid Android 9.5/10
As I said before a few paragraph above this one, I love this song and it’s overall my favorite. This song in my opinion is Radiohead’s Bohemian Rhapsody, which makes sense since it was actually inspired by both Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, and Happiness Is A Warm Gun by The Beatles.At the school I go to every day we have a mandatory ‘nap time’ (which my classmates usually as more of a goofing off time).And sometimes the teachers don’t really care so they let us do whatever as long as the lights are turned off.For like a year, everyday during nap time I listened to Paranoid Android, and the song is a great memoir to that period of time.The song is incredible in all its parts, and in my opinion is less repetitive than Bohemian Rhapsody (which I love, its just that if I were to listen to it the same amount as I did Paranoid Android, I would probably be far more bored of it.), but since I did listen to this song everyday for a year, of course I found it kinda repetitive at times.The song was inspired by Thom Yorke’s unpleasant night at a bar in which he saw a woman react violently after someone had spilt a drink on her. The song’s title and lyrics is a reference to Marvin The Paranoid Android.
(Picture of Marvin the Paranoid Android) - Subterranean Homesick Alien 8.5/10
One of the songs that introduced me to OK Computer was actually Subterranean Homesick Alien. This song in my opinion is incredible, and honestly almost every time I listen to this song I get chills when Thom Yorke says “Uptime, uptime!”.The lyrics of the song was actually inspired by Th0m’s time in Abingdon School to write a piece of martian poetry. And the lyrics itself depicts a man who was abducted by aliens. And by the time they had arrived back on Earth, none of their friends believed them, rendering them as still a misfit.
The overall song is also an example of the band trying to emulate the sound of the Bitches Brew. - Exit Music (For A Movie) 9.5/10
It is an utter beauty of a song. If I were to make a tier list of the best songs of all time this would probably make it into the top 10. When I was first introduced to Radiohead I was told to listen to this song as fast as possible.But I didn’t even really like it at first, but it slowly grew into one of the best songs I had ever heard.The lyrics for the song was actually inspired by Romeo And Juliet. At first Yorke actually wanted to put lines of the play into the song, but the end product ended up looking more like a broad summary of the play.In Yorke’s words he said that “I saw the Zeffirelli version when I was 13 and I cried my eyes out, because I couldn’t understand why, the morning after they shagged, they didn’t just run away. It’s a song for two people who should run away before all the bad stuff starts.” - Let Down 7.5/10
Let Down is a good song. It’s just that I don’t really have any fond memories with the song. Usually at this song I would find myself either finished with work or switching to a different album/song, because the second half of the album isn’t really my cup of tea.
But the ending of this song is honestly beautiful.
Something pretty fun is the fact that throughout the song lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood plays in a different time signature to the other members. The lyrics mean the feeling of being trapped. - Karma Police 8.5/10
I was first introduced to this song at the age of 7 by my father, and by then even the music video looked scary in my opinion. It was just different to the Justin Bieber and Timberlake’s of that time. And I love Karma Police, it’s such a good song.The title of the song was actually inspired by an inside joke within the band members which was the fact that if someone did something bad, it wouldn’t be long before the karma police would catch up to them. Yorke said that the song was about stress and about people who looked at you in a certain way.
(Pretty self explanatory ngl) - Fitter Happier 3/10
Maybe this song is a musical masterpiece or something and I’m just slow. But this is overall just such a boring song.
The song was simply made using a Macintosh text to speech app named Fred. And the lyrics were made in just 10 minutes by Yorke in a fit of writer’s block whilst the band was playing. - Electioneering 7/10
There’s a batch of songs from the album that I hadn’t heard before the making of this post, and this song is one of them. Previously I wasn’t all too interested in the song because of the cowbells used at the start but it’s honestly a pretty solid song. It’s very heavy compared to other songs in the OK Computer lineup, and it resembles more of the Pablo Honey era.
This song is actually the most political song out of the bunch, with lyrics inspired by the Poll Tax Riots. - Climbing Up The Walls 7.5/10
This is yet another one of those songs that I’d never listened to, in fact I thought this was a song from some of their new albums at first. But upon hearing it, it’s a very nice song. I love the climax and when all hell breaks loose and when Yorke screams it sends chills through my body.
What kind of separates this song from the other is the use of strings which were played by Jonny Greenwood. And it was definitely a very good inclusion. - No Surprises 9/10
This is a song I will never get tired of. When I started to re-learn guitar, this was the first picked song that I ever studied, and that’s why to this day it still has a position in my heart. Before hearing this song all the Radiohead I knew was Creep and Karma Police.
The song was quite impressively recorded in just one take, and required the use of electric guitar, acoustic guitar, glockenspiel and also a bunch of vocal harmonies. The song talks about suicide and hating political governments. - Lucky 7/10
Lucky is a good sort of filler song for the album. I really like the audio changes from loud to soft, and my favorite part is the chorus of the song. The song was inspired by the Bosnian War, and originally it would’ve been much more detailed about political situations. The sound of it also reminds me a little bit of Pink Floyd. This song was also actually the first from the Ok Computer album to be released. - The Tourist 8/10
Final song of the album, and you know Radiohead never misses on their opening and closing songs. I’m addicted to the sort of slow/jazzy opening, it makes me vividly imagine a slow dance in a huge ballroom in an old Disney movie. When Tom Yorke sings “slow down” I actually start to get chills running through my back, I hadn’t listened to this song because I thought it was an abnormally slow boring song, but boy was I wrong. In the words of Thom Yorke the reason why the tourist was chosen as the ending song (in his words) were; “A lot of the album was about background noise and everything moving too fast and not being able to keep up. It was really obvious to have ‘Tourist’ as the last song. That song was written to me from me, saying, ‘Idiot, slow down.’ Because at that point, I needed to. So that was the only resolution there could be: to slow down.”
Final Thoughts
If anyone were to ask me about my favorite album of all time, it would be OK Computer. The dystopian feel and essence of anarchy that rings throughout the album really speaks volumes, and that feeling of everything is over and that there’s nothing we can do also touches. My overall rating of this album, even though there’s fitter happier (which I hate), is a 9.5/10. Anyone who dislikes this album, I will bring my dagger and stab you endlessly (just kidding).
Thank you everybody for reading, sorry for the wait, I’ve been really busy these past few weeks. If you have any reccomendations be sure to put them in the comments section below, this is Zeus signing off, bye.
