"OK Computer": Classic Or Dud?

No Surprises is quite beautiful, though.

There's not a track on it I'd skip, there's not a moment where I think 'eh, get on with it'; it feels utterly natural in a way that few records do, the way parts move around one another, little hints of melody sneak out from behind the vocals and the bulk of backing. I don't think that's just because it's familiar: it's not comforting&well-remembered, I can't predict it, but it fits together. There is no way it could be any better, and in that sense it's polished; yet it isn't bland or immaculate, the anger to it isn't po-faced but caustic, the resignation isn't ironic but almost glorifies in itself. There's that guitar noise in it, soaring, which has always made me think of hope and the spiralling flight of birds or flames into the sky.

And 'exit music' still makes me cry.

(plus it's a fucking huge leap from the Bends, which is just an indie rock record.)

(hahahaha purple prose attack! for my next trick I will explain how Richey James Feels My Pain--
& thus here is the true glory of OKC: it makes me fourteen again.)

see, some of us hate feeling that way

One key reason why they're so dull.

oops, xpost.

The statement "you are insane" can only hint at my frustratingly intense disagreement.

Why the FUCK wasn't "Let Down" ever released as a single??
-- Unknown User (unknownuse...), June 5th, 2004.

it was pushed on radio a bit but the band was supposedly horrified with the video that was created for it.
-- Anthony Miccio (anthonymicci...), June 5th, 2004.

Makes sense. I remember hearing Pinfield on 120 Minutes saying that they originally intended to make a video for every song. Also I remember around the time "Karma Police" was released as a video, most of the rock stations were playing "Let Down" instead. I don't think it was until much later in the year that there was any demand to add "Karma Police" to radio playlists.

I remember returning to the States from a year abroad (i.e., Germany by way of Glastonbury, etc.; circa 1997) and weathering a small, but insistent, chorus of naysayers characterizing Radiohead in general, and OK Computer in particular, as nothing more than Pink Floyd II.

I found and find (see above) this critique/characterization puzzling because, as a fan of Floyd in general, and WYWH, Meddle, Animals, The Final Cut, The Wall, and DSOTM, in particular -- I don't hear the sonic parallel(s). Sure, OK Computer is a 'concept' album and some Floyd albums are, too -- but sonically?

As I own the above (and then some) Floyd LPs, might one of the choir step forward and do some one-to-one matching for me? I'd love to make a back-to-back playlist of the allegedly infringing Radiohead tracks and their Floyd origins.

OK Computer is pretty close to classic. Since then, however, Radiohead has become one of those acts that people get religiously weird about which is pretty uncomfortable.

None of their other output is close in quality though.

(whoever said that 'lucky' is secretly the best song was otm, however it still isn't good enough for me to still want to hear it particularly ever)

i might just take some action and throw ok computer in the bin or something.

it will look nice next to all those Girls Aloud albums ;) ;)

xp

How do the OKC haters feel about the artwork and the visual themes generally? Before I heard anything I liked off the album, I had to admit the album cover was really appealling and interesting. Especially because I hated the cover art for The Bends with a passion. Pablo Honey's cover was bad, too. No one can argue that OK Computer isn't the first decent Radiohead cover art, right??

all radiohead cover art &c is kind of hilariously awful in its relentless confusing of cryptic nothingness with Big Meaningful Messages - ok computer no exception. i can't really remember what their other albums looked like.

mental note: lex owns a radiohead album

not as of...TONIGHT, bubba.

(btw the reason 'lucky' is tolerable and the rest isn't for me is because on 'lucky' there is this one great moment where thom yorke sings really low, and it turns out that when he does that his voice is kind of rich and great! but when he sings high, ie 99% of the time, it is a quite, quite disgusting noise.)

I cannot accept this.

Time to get off the computer for a while methinks ;)

I finally added this to my iPod and joy is mine.

Absolute classic. This is one of those records that has always and consistently been an undercurrent in whatever musical identity I've had at a given time. Not embarrassed to say.