I suppose that just says something about Thom Yorke- that he can write a sequence of songs that fit together to the point people will say they’re a concept album even when he insists it isn’t. Good for him that he manages to make good songs out of his anxieties.
I like Karma Police a lot better than Electioneering. It’s one of the few Radiohead songs I love.
I’ve listened & listened to OK Computer…it didn’t click for me. So I let it rest for half a year or so and came back to it (sometimes I click with music after taking a break from it)…it still didn’t connect with me. I like it (and other Radiohead) OK, but it’s definitely not the anywhere near the besot of the '90s for me (the first album that comes to mind for that “award” is Moby’s Play.
What else would you call them?
I didn’t love “OK Computer,” but it has some great tracks. My top album of the 1990s would have to be “Automatic for the People,” by REM. I guess. Just a fantastic, brilliantly writtena nd produced album with one terrific track after another. Honorable mentions:
“Achtung Baby,” U2
“No Code,” Pearl Jam - Some would pick “Vs.” but I preferred this one.
“Day for Night,” The Tragically Hip
“The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” Lauryn Hill
“Fear of a Black Planet,” Public Enemy. Give rap a chance, guys. It can rock hard.
“Check Your Head,” Beastie Boys
Personally I am largely indifferent to Radiohead but a few months ago my current favourite music critic, Brendan Shanahan, explained why he didn’t even bother going to see them live. Here is his column which provided me with a few chuckles.
Answering Brendan’s question: yes, yes he has.
No, he really hasn’t. I wouldn’t go quite so far as to say that Radiohead are music’s answer to modern art because they do bear some resemblance to music and have actually produced things worth recognising as songs, but at least as far as OK Computer is concerned he’s pretty much dead on the money.
The only thing I’d take issue with is the quote, “they have mistaken […] perplexity for intellectual sophistication”. It’s not perplexity, it’s complexity. Paranoid Android is a bad track mostly because in an attempt to seem clever and sophisticated, it’s been overcomplicated to the point where it no longer works. I simply cannot see how anyone with a vaguely musical brain can compare it to the elegance of tracks like Street Spirit or the focus of Creep and find it superior. It’s like saying The White Album is better than Sergeant Pepper’s - and specifically, that Revolution 9 is better than A Day in the Life. One is a confused, muddled mess masquerading as art; the other is sublime.
The Beatles comparison is apt also because like at least a few Beatles songs, Paranoid Android is a couple of different song parts stitched together - and it sounds like it. I like songs that take me on a bit of a journey, and I like Paranoid Android, but I’m surprised that so many people seem to pick it as their favorite song or Radiohead’s best. It’s a little like picking Richard III as Shakespeare’s best play because it’s the longest. 
It can be quite a show-stopper in concert, though.
Jeez, thanks Ilsa. I thought I was going to have to be the one to point that out. Fitter Happier a “reminder that I can be better person by just doing some of the little things in life”?? Snort. It does rather make me wonder what he/she thinks the rest of the songs on the album are about.
And hey, NoClueBoy - what else do people call them if not “albums”?
Also, where did the idea that OK Computer was “pretentious” come from? To my mind it fits as a natural progression from The Bends (which I rate just as highly) - still predominantly guitar-based rock, which is what they do best. Kid A is where they started to disappear up their own backsides.
What part of that don’t [b[you** understand? All I was saying is how I take some of the lines from Fitter Happier. I was not taking the whole concept of the words into consideration.
And all I was saying was I find it ironic that you find inspiration for, say, running and living healthily from a song that is satirising the whole “be a happy, healthy consumer” ethos.
That’s just like, your opinion, man.
Paranoid Android is a great track. Revolution 9 is a great track. I like The Beatles more than Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Different strokes, etc.
That’s a really good point. OK Computer is more layered and it does have some themes (hence the ‘concept album’ debate), but it’s not THAT different from The Bends in a lot of ways. There’s a progression from Computer to Kid A as well, for that matter, even though it’s a lot less musical. And heck, they’ve been getting comparatively more normal since then.
I absolutely disagree. “Paranoid Android” is one of my favorite tracks on the album and, to me, is cohesive. It’s a song with various parts, but works together as a whole. I don’t find it at all overcomplicated, or terribly sophisticated. And I do consider myself as having a musical brain as well as decent pop sensibility. The song has great hooks, feeling, and movement. I like “Creep” as well. I think that’s a wonderful pop song, too, but you can’t compare the two to each other. They’re different types of songs. Personally, I prefer “Paranoid Android.” It’s not because it’s more complex, or more difficult, or more arty or any crap like that. Simply put, I find it much more moving. I find OK Computer more moving than The Bends. (Although it’s a close race.) It’s a more interesting album, devling into experimentation while still rocking. There’s no pretension here. It’s absolutely heartfelt.
Just cause you can’t see how doesn’t mean it’s not possible, y’know?
If you prefer minimalism/simplicity in music, then yeah, you wouldn’t like a track like this. But that doesn’t mean it’s bad–for complexity overdone, see any of the various Dream Theater clones out there, or anything by Spiral Architect.
Ditto. You want pretense and needless technical wizardry and complexity? Dream Theater, not Radiohead.