OK Computer is okay.
It’s really tough to seriously listen to this one after seriously listening to Kid A. From my 2010 ears, it just doesn’t seem
….relevant.
Typing that statement feels blasphemous. After all, Radiohead is the one band that defies the hip preference for the undiscovered. Radiohead can do no wrong, even in the ears of the most critical of listeners. But even after noting all of this, subjectively I state that OK Computer is simply okay.
But maybe from a more objective, contextual view, OK Computer is better than it actually is. When it was released Spice by the Spice Girls was the no. 1 album. Earlier that year Tragic Kingdom held the top spot. Off the radar, 1997 also showed us Third Eye Blind, Be Here Now, Perfect from Now On, Mag Earwig, The Lonesome Crowded West, ….etc. etc. (some pretty good stuff there really...). But while much of the alternative distills its sound into something more cohesive (the neo-classic rock of post-grunge champions MTV whining about being lonely at 3am) Radiohead diversifies it’s sound and influences.
At the surface the grunge is still there and that’s what bothers me. The solid-state crunch of the guitars lacks the purposefulness which is now a Radiohead essential. OK Computer is essentially a post-grunge album in the direct definition; Radiohead has mastered being a grungy rock band.
But through boredom comes innovation. “Subterranean Homesick Alien” famously and deliberately takes cues from Miles Davis’ Fusion sounds, but remains uncomfortably organic. Opposite this, the Steven Hawking vocals on “Fitter Happier” sidestep novelty and seem oddly emotional. Yorke’s lyrics edge away from standard rock (“don’t leave me high / dry”) and move toward cryptic metaphor (or perhaps I should say York seems to “talk in math”).[1]
OK Computer, when considered in this context, is a really good album. It’s essentially Radiohead’s senior-year bowl game performance. It’s an impressive showing of what they’ve learned and looking back shows an optimistic nostalgia for how good they may be in the future. They’re still a band that plays grungy songs, but they’re a band that plays really good grungy songs. In the context of Radiohead history, the anxiety to get to the next thing seems evident. (when can we stop calling them “songs”…?)
Maybe the album is more than okay.
I’m curious to hear from those of you who were “paying attention” when this album came out. What did you think? Was it groundbreaking? What else were you listening to?
I was about to go into the 6th grade…needless to say, my sense of music appreciation was a ways off.
[1] What makes OK Computer a bit tough to listen to is the aural reminder that Yorke’s lyrical crypticism has been absolutely killed 15 years later by Muse, who has made an album that’s not quite as good as OK Computer several times over the last 5 years and has been touted as a groundbreaking for this feat. Even if they were not at least 15 years out of relevance, they would still be a mediocre band.
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