OK Computer (1997)

I’m hardly out of step with majority views when I declare straight out that this is my favorite Radiohead album. But the nagging problems I have with this band and their product persist, even in the face of the deafening adulation out there. I see even my notes can contradict themselves. On one listen I praised “the spidery shivery mood of album opener ‘Airbag,’” going on to laud the next song too, “Paranoid Android”—“oh it can be beautiful.” But on another listen I note that “Paranoid Android,” the first of five singles from the album (though not one cracked the top 40), is “shivery beautiful. Where the album starts for me, if it’s going to start.” I’m telling on myself caught using the same words even, but note that now “Airbag” has somehow lost its luster (don’t worry, it had it again when I listened to the album yesterday). Really, the key term here is “if it’s going to start,” because the inconsistency of my response remains my main takeaway to this and all their albums. There’s an interesting sense of potent drama to their music and it can be thrilling, albeit on and off. Even at their best, it often seems to be only parts of songs that directly work. One obvious problem is that Thom Yorke’s vocals tend to put me off. As far as I can tell it’s his main contribution and in many ways I see he is the face of the band, hence a natural ambivalence on my part. But most of the songs on OK Computer have parts that I like and some that I like a lot. The one track here that I think is plainly a mistake is the shorty “Fitter Happier,” which is a computer voice running through suggestions for health and mental balance lifestyle choices in an implied Brave New World world. It speaks to a point of view shared by me and likely most of the Radiohead audience but it’s also suffocating heavy-handed irony and little more. It sits in the middle of the set, track 7 of 12. I briefly had a theory that the first half of the album, before “Fitter Happier,” was better but continuing listens only confused me further. “Climbing Up the Walls” has some glorious guitar chaos. “No Surprises” is excellent too, if it catches you in the right mood. But generally I think the best stuff is up-front (or maybe I get tired of listening to Radiohead after 25 or 30 minutes?). There’s a spooky good vibe on “Subterranean Homesick Alien” as well as the cheeky salute to Bob Dylan. “Karma Police” can be nagging and eerie. “Exit Music (For a Film)” is downright glum. It may be because it’s where I started with Radiohead, but I think OK Computer is the place to go for any Radiohead virgins who may be out there interested in venturing in.

#63 on the Pop Thruster Best 1,000 Albums Ever list