Earlier, I ran a poll asking which musical artist to profile in a song by song, album ranking manner - the winner was Radiohead. I’m starting with OK Computer and The Bends as I find them easier to review, for reasons that will become clear in subsequent posts.

OK Computer was Radiohead’s third album - and the distance from Pablo Honey - their first - is vast. Many bands never evolve to the heights climbed here, either self-destructing or remaining mired in mediocrity over many more albums.

This sonic masterwork was recorded in a non-professional atmosphere (an apple shed and a historic mansion) with the then unknown Nigel Godrich, an engineer on The Bends. Their label was unimpressed with the results, but OK Computer soon went on to critical and commercial success.

The lyrics are alienated and abstract, conjuring a modernity where humanity is lost amid cold but life-supporting technology. The sonic landscape is atmospheric, eerie, and otherworldly, suggesting horrific disasters which occur at the hands of our tools.

Airbag

= 5 stars

We start with a meandering, epic guitar lick, supported by some extremely compressed drums. During the verse there’s a droning guitar, an off-beat bass, and a persistent drum beat. Every part is unique, and progressively more interesting sonic jewels are ladled on. During the second verse, an effected guitar moans in the background, adding some exquisite bends at the end of vocal phrases. Following that is a strange instrumental section where this background guitar gains the focus. Next, the drums get some attention with some out of control effects sprouting off of it like fractal ferns. Finally, the meandering, epic guitar lick returns, cutting through the haze like a spotlight, and crashing onto a major sixth chord. The song establishes a sense of experimentation in a wide open space.

Paranoid Android

= 5 stars

I could devote a whole post to this one song. If Airbag wasn’t enough, this song seals Radiohead’s place in history. The first section highlights my favorite thing about Radiohead: an unusual chord progression that makes you think, how can there be a vocal melody for that? And Thom delivers, finding a hook laden melody that arcs, and finding unusual high notes to highlight. As he sings, “What’s this?” a spooky android voice and spooky, chiming guitars join in.

During the instrumental the song gains some energy, with a simply stunning bass guitar run. Full guitars join in, a cool drum fill, as Thom’s voice soars to a hight note over the same spinning chords. Then the lead guitar jumps all over everything like a happy gopher.

The song then separates out into another section, that introduces a new, complicated chord progression, mostly sinking into a deep hole as it transverses several keys. The magic is that Thom again finds a hook-laden melody in all of this “rain, rain down on me, from a great height”. It’s a hymn to heaven while sinking into hell. But it doesn’t stop there. A counter-melody appears behind the lead vocal, ending with God’s children.

Suddenly, we’re back in an earlier section with climactic guitar jumping all over everything, but with an added effect designed to slash through an ear drum, plus a shaker for good measure. Better and better, it finally crashes into silence.

Subterranean Homesick Alien

= 4 stars

The atmosphere created by this song is quite amazing, with the heavy reverb and echo effects on the guitar. Interesting are the sparkly keyboard notes decending after “uptight.” The lead guitar licks provide a nice countermelody to the lead vocal.

Exit Music (For A Film)

= 5 stars

This music stars out with just acoustic guitar and voice, but then opens up to a fuzzy bass guitar and some scary noises. When the lead vocal hits its heights, the music goes sweetly nuts. I love the contrast and build from the song’s beginning to that point. There’s also a sweet suspended note in the keyboards.

Let Down

= 4 stars

Like a lesser No Surprises, the juicy part are the chords under “crushed like a bug in the ground” and how they stumble back to the tonic chord via some guitar licks. In comparison with the previous four songs, it’s not so great - especially during the meandering center. When the sparkly keyboard arpeggios appear, it finds some firmer footing.

Karma Police

= 5 stars

A perfect song. The initial acoustic guitar chords reminds me of XTC’s Dear God. The chord progression is quite long and intricate. What’s stunning is the melody Thom develops over it, upon first hearing is surprising yet fits perfectly. The middle part (this is what you get) with the piano reminds me of The Beatles’ Sexy Sadie. After two go-rounds with this cool progression, we enter a coda section, inspired by the chords but containing yet another melody that fits perfectly. Variations on “I lost myself” waft over the chords, repeated like a mantra. The active ascending bass line provides an interesting contrast and support. A distorted, delayed echo spins over everything and destroys the song, bit-reducing it into nothing. It’s stunning stuff, and I’d dare say only a step removed from The Beatles’ A Day In The Life.

Fitter Happier

= 3 stars

This “song” if you could call it that, is the meandering equivalent of The Beatles’ Revolution 9, but thankfully much shorter.

Electioneering

= 3 stars

This song is okay, but quite average after everything that’s come before. I don’t care for the cowbell, for until Thom’s voice comes in, I could confuse this with Guns N Roses or Oasis.

Climbing Up The Walls

= 2 stars

I find myself skipping this one, as it sounds like The Cure covered by a heavy metal band.

No Surprises

= 5 stars

This song is about being asleep, and the open guitar tone matches well with xylophone chimes, evoking a child’s lullaby. The major chord progression and pleasant melody are not unlike what one might hear on The Bends but there’s a sickly sarcastic tone, of a pleasant suburban place where nothing goes on - an advancement of that album’s sound. In this hermetically sealed, man made paradise where nothing ever changes - you may as well be dead, or totally zoned out on sedatives.

Lucky

= 5 stars

This song is rather “cowboy,” with a similar dynamic variety as Exit Music. What I enjoy is the synergy between Thom’s voice singing “pull me out of the air crash” and the lead guitar bends whining out a counter melody. After two goes around, there’s a syncopated guitar-based bridge that builds to a final chorus, leaving us literally, “standing on the edge,” unresolved.

The Tourist

= 4 stars

A good, solid ending song, that shares some elements with No Surprises and Exit Music lending the album coherence. The melody to the lyric “slow down” is especially pretty, as are some choice drum fills. During the guitar solo and beyond, the band’s energy unifies until beautifully ending on a sole triangle chime.

Album rating = 50 / 12 = 4.16 stars

Wikipedia: Radiohead: OK Computer

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